Independent challenger Nathan Hochman is destroying incumbent, George Soros-backed George Gascón in the race for Los Angeles County District Attorney, leading by 30 points with less than four weeks to before Election Day.
A Los Angeles Times/University of California Berkeley poll of likely voters this week showed that 51% would vote for Hochman, while only 21% would choose Gascon. The percentage of undecided voters, 28%, cannot make up the gap.
Gascón ousted incumbent Jackie Lacey, the first black woman to hold the job, in 2020 — thanks to the endorsements of Democrats like Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Black Lives Matter movement, and millions in spending by Soros.
He immediately began a program of “criminal justice reform,” aimed not at improving public safety but at reducing penalties for crime. He ended cash bail, barred prosecutors from asking for the death penalty, and tried to impose a moratorium on sentence enhancements for especially violent crimes. He was sued — successfully — by prosecutors who said he was forcing them to break California’s sentencing rules. One deputy even accused him of antisemitism.
Los Angeles County suffered a crime wave under Gascón, including high-profile violent crimes against celebrities. Still, like other Soros-backed prosecutors nationwide, he continued to push his “criminal justice reform” agenda.
Two recall attempts against Gascón failed — the second one after county officials, behind closed doors, disqualified enough signatures to reject a recall petition that had been headed for a win. But he may finally be running out of time.
Hochman, who was the Republican nominee for California Attorney General in 2022, has publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president and has backed the Manhattan prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
That puts him on the wrong side of the small portion of L.A. County voters who vote Republican. They may not mind, given that Gascón is considered so bad.
If he loses, it could send a national message about Soros’ policies.
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). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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