Gavin Newsom Endorses Left-wing Challenge to L.A.’s First Black D.A.

Jackey Lacey is the first black district attorney in Los Angeles — and Gov. Gavin Newsom is endorsing her left-wing challenger, George Gascón.

Lacey has been the target of Black Lives Matter protests for months. They accuse her of being too tough on crime. In March, Black Lives Matter activists marched to Lacey’s door in the wee hours of the morning — and Lacey’s husband confronted them with a gun and told them to leave. He now faces criminal charges in that incident.

Gascón is a left-wing prosecutor with a controversial history. He previously served as district attorney in San Francisco, as Politico notes, working with then-Mayor Newsom to roll back policing — but leaving a city synonymous with vagrancy today, and backing Proposition 47, which put more convicted criminals back on the streets:

Newsom’s choice reflects his long history with Gascón: When he was mayor of San Francisco, Newsom tabbed Gascón to be chief of police and then elevated him to San Francisco district attorney to fill the post that Kamala Harris vacated after she became state attorney general. During his tenure as San Francisco’s top cop, Gascón became a leading figure in California’s swing away from tough-on-crime policies, embracing measures like a ballot initiative to reduce drug and theft crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.

Gascón was encouraged to run by the Real Justice PAC, an organization co-founded by radical left-wing Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, who is publicly refusing to denounce riots in Kenosha. (Those riots turned deadly on Tuesday night.)

The battle for the L.A. post is expected to be a bitter one, fought over Black Lives Matter themes, as Politico notes:

Gascón and allies point out that LA’s rate of incarceration is substantially higher than San Francisco’s, and that while Gascon has refused to pursue capital punishment Lacey has sent dozens of people — almost all minorities — to death row.

The Lacey campaign rejects the notion that she is not progressive, immediately releasing a campaign ad touting her launch of an internal mental health division, and said in a statement that she only seeks the death penalty in “the most heinous and egregious of cases,” whose victims are often people of color.

George Soros is expected to back Gascón, after backing several “progressive” prosecutors against incumbents — including Democrats — in the 2018 cycle. His candidates include controversial Kim Foxx in Chicago (who tried to protect Jussie Smollett from prosecution for faking a hate crime) and Kim Garnder in St. Louis (who is prosecuting the McCloskeys).

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.