“Woke Prosecutor” Movement Stumbling in LA

There a nationwide drive to install prosecutors who are actually “defense lawyer[s] with power,” as Philly’s Larry Krasner described himself. It is fueled by massive campaign contributions from entities controlled by George Soros and more recently with Netflix dollars. But the drive appears to have stumbled in massive Los Angeles County.

The LA Times reported last month:

Donors can contribute an unlimited amount of money to outside committees, which cannot coordinate with a candidate’s campaign.

That has played well for Gascón. The outside committee Run, George, Run received $1 million last month from Patty Quillin, the wife of Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings.

Quillin has donated to progressive candidates in Alameda County in the past, records show. Her husband had previously dumped more than $2 million into efforts such as Proposition 47 — the measure co-written by Gascón that turned low-level drug use and other offenses from felonies to misdemeanors — as well as efforts to repeal the death penalty in California, according to filings with the secretary of state.

In addition to Gascón, incumbent DA Jackie Lacey is also opposed by Public Defender Rachel Rossi.

As of this morning, the L.A. County Registrar reports 50.29% for Lacey, 27.19% for Gascón, and 22.51% for Rossi. That is a margin of 3230 votes out of about 1,100,000 for Ms. Lacey to be re-elected outright and avoid a runoff. That is thin, so the result isn’t certain yet.

A few years ago the California Legislature legalized ballot harvesting, i.e., people going around and collecting absentee ballots from voters who hadn’t mailed them in yet. That is a crime in most states due to its potential for fraud. In North Carolina, a Republican congressman lost his seat in a ballot harvesting scandal. In California in the 2018 election, many races that were narrow Republican wins on election night became narrow Democrat wins after the harvesters turned in their ballots, some of which may have been completed by the voters and some by the harvesters.

How this works out in a nonpartisan election where all three candidates are registered Democrats of varying ideological position remains to be seen.

Even if there is a runoff, though, Gascón would have to pick up virtually all of Rossi’s supporters to win or add enough new voters in November to make up the difference. That seems highly unlikely.

I won’t spend a penny on Netflix, by the way.

Update: A runoff is looking more likely as of late afternoon, Friday, March 6. But I still think it is unlikely Gascón can close the gap.