LA DA ahead; victory could signal stall in progressive prosecutor momentum

District Attorney Jackie Lacey had a big lead in her Los Angeles County re-election race as of Wednesday evening, potentially signaling the wave of progressive prosecutors winning office throughout the country might not have the momentum self-identified reformers hoped.

As the first round of votes came in Tuesday night, Lacey had already secured a healthy lead, winning the vast majority of mail-in ballots. The county has until April 2 to finalize the results.

“While it will be a long time until we know the final vote tally, I am deeply grateful to the hundreds of thousands of voters who cast their ballots to advance policies that protect victims, prioritize mental health treatment, and keep L.A. County safe,” Lacey said in a statement Tuesday night. “I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of people who put their trust in me tonight and who propelled these tremendous results.”

However, if Lacey’s numbers were to drop under 50%, she would be forced into a runoff in November with the second place vote-getter. Considering both challengers George Gascon and Rachel Rossi have run on progressive messages, support for the third-place candidate may likely go to the second-place finisher in a runoff. Thus, the race remained extremely close.

According to the late Wednesday count, Lacey had just above the majority threshold at 50.69% while Gascon received 26.83% and Rossi 22.47%.

A surprising outcome was the strong showing of the lesser-talked-about Rossi. Most news accounts focused on Lacey and Gascon, who resigned as San Francisco County district attorney last year and moved to Los Angeles.

“I’m overwhelmed by the amount of support that I’ve received from Los Angeles County residents ready to take a different path toward real criminal justice reform,” Rossi said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s still too early to call the election, but I want to say thanks to everyone who supported my grassroots campaign to bring bold and transformative change to the largest prosecutor’s office in the country. I am extremely proud to be the first former public defender to run for district attorney in L.A. County.”

A win for Lacey in the only DA election in the state this year would be reminiscent of the 2018 district attorney elections, when progressive challengers supported by progressive financier George Soros and various social justice PACs were unable to unseat incumbents.

Following the election of former deputy public defender Chesa Boudin as San Francisco’s district attorney, Gascon and Rossi touted the wave of progressive prosecutors favoring lesser sentences for non-violent criminals, elimination of cash bail and an emphasis on drug treatment as an alternative to what they call the antiquated “tough on crime” approach.

Progressive prosecutors have won district attorney seats in major cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Houston, Baltimore and St. Louis, all seemingly implementing policies which reduce the severity of punishments.

However, police and deputy district attorney unions in Los Angeles County have been vocal in their opposition to the movement, calling it a dangerous “experiment.”

One of those opponents is Los Angeles County Association of Deputy District Attorneys President Michele Hanisee.

“The problem with going off on an experiment with public safety — which is what you are doing when you change things without knowing how they work — is that real people, real victims will pay the price,” Hanisee said in a recent interview. “This is not an area where you want to wing it and see what happens. The consequences are too severe.”

Suffolk County District Attorney Racheal Rollins — whose jurisdiction includes Boston — recently implemented a policy of presumptively dismissing and or diverting certain low-level misdemeanor charges. In a recent interview, she expressed support for Gascon and her thoughts on the importance of DA races.

“With DAs, we have so much autonomy, there’s so much power and discretion in this role that we need to educate people about these elections,” Rollins said. “In certain communities, who your DA is is more important, honestly, than who is president of the United States, who’s your governor, your mayor, because the DA controls your liberty.”

Responding to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the Gascon campaign said the challenger was waiting for the next round of vote results to issue a statement.