Radical Soros-Funded DA in Danger of Losing Position After Opponents Force Runoff, Cut Deep on Primary Night
Somehow the will of the people never seems to be enough to oust even the most unpopular public officials. But in Los Angeles, at least, voters have taken an important step in that direction.
According to CBS News, the expected results of Tuesday’s primary election will lead to a runoff between incumbent Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hochman, one of Gascón’s 11 challengers.
Though backed by left-wing billionaire George Soros, the incumbent earned only 21.4 percent of the vote. Hochman finished second with 17.7 percent.
Through various organizations, Soros has funneled more than $6 million to Gascón, according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
Meanwhile, the DA’s poor job performance has left his re-election bid in serious doubt, Soros money notwithstanding.
A January poll, for instance, showed Gascón with a disapproval rating of 51 percent among Los Angeles voters. For comparison’s sake, the latest Real Clear Polling average has President Joe Biden’s disapproval rating at 57.3 percent.
In other words, voters see Gascón approaching Biden-like depths of incompetence, and for good reason.
According to the New York Post, homicides in Los Angeles dropped by 17 percent last year, but only after reaching a 15-year high in 2022. Likewise, for five consecutive years the National Retail Foundation has identified Los Angeles as the nation’s hotbed of organized retail theft.
Small wonder, therefore, that a majority of Los Angeles voters regard Gascón as a failure.
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Nor has the DA improved with time. In fact, he has twice survived serious recall efforts.
In 2021, the New York Post identified Gascón as part of Soros’ quiet “revolution in criminal justice reform.”
Along with other “controversial” DAs such as Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner, Chicago’s Kim Foxx and Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg, Gascón entered office in 2020 as part of an organized, Soros-funded campaign to install soft-on-crime progressive law enforcement officials in big cities.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death in May 2020 and the ensuing summer of Black Lives Matter riots and assorted madness, suffice it to say that Gascón received the memo regarding the left’s “systemic racism” narrative.
For instance, in his December 2020 inaugural address, Gascón decried the alleged rush to “incarcerate generations of kids of color.”
Mercifully, it appears that even most Los Angeles voters have rejected that narrative, or at least Gascón’s application of it.
Eric Siddall, a former prosecutor under Gascón and one of his 11 challengers, said last week on social media that the incumbent DA “continues making politically motivated prosecutions where he puts ideology ahead of evidence, and his personal preferences ahead of the law, leading to a staggering number of defeats in the courtroom.”
Gascón’s “ideology-driven incompetence,” Siddall added, has cost taxpayers money and left prosecutors frustrated.
This ideology-driven incompetence doesn’t just cost taxpayers money – it also diverts valuable personnel away from taking on important cases to put violent criminals behind bars and keep our community safe – instead sending them on wild goose chases that can’t be won.
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— Eric Siddall (@EricSiddall) March 2, 2024
In light of Gascón’s unpopularity, CBS described his re-election bid as an “uphill battle.”
Let’s hope that not even Soros money can overcome the will of the people.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
