By Ravi Gadasally

The Los Angeles County District Attorney election is widely considered to be a referendum on recent criminal justice reforms made by progressive prosecutor incumbent District Attorney of Los Angeles George Gascon, who is predicted to lose to moderate Nathan Hochman by 30 points according to polling conducted by UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. While 28% of voters are still undecided according to the poll, Gascón being reelected appears unlikely.

Gascón served as District Attorney of San Francisco for eight years and District Attorney of Los Angeles for four years, making a name for himself as a prosecutor keen on criminal justice reform. As District Attorney of San Francisco, Gascón cleared misdemeanor convictions and reduced felony convictions for marijuana cases dating back to 1975, helped reduce drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor through co-authoring Proposition 47 and shifted resources away from minor drug offenses toward more serious legal violations such as violent crime.

"It was the morally right thing to do," said Gascón in 2019 to the Los Angeles Times after expunging more than 9,000 marijuana convictions. "If you have a felony conviction, you are automatically excluded in so many ways from participating in your community.

Gascón would continue his progressive policies in Los Angeles after coming to power in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, and take some further steps in certain cases, including implementing a zero-bail policy, stopping charging children as adults, prohibiting the use of sentence enhancements and ended the use of the death penalty in Los Angeles County. Some of Gascón's critics claim though that his reforms allow defendants to commit repeat offenses and escape punishment.

"George Gascón's policies have not worked," said Gascón’s deputy district attorney, Jon Hatami, to ABC 7 Eyewitness News. "Releasing criminals, not charging crime does not work in Los Angeles. And it's not making anybody safer."

Property and violent crime rose in Los Angeles under Gascón, raising concern. California Department of Justice statistics show violent crimes in Los Angeles County increased by 12% from 2020 to 2023, robberies by 16%, auto theft by 23% and shoplifting by 133%. Efforts to recall Gascón failed due to the required number of validated signatures not being met, though approval ratings of Gascón have remained low. Hochman has played to Angeleno's safety concerns after consistent rises in crime, pledging to "restore our safety." While compared to Gascón, Hochman appears to be tough on crime, he has leaned into his centrism.

"I reject extreme policies as any prosecutor actually does," said Hochman to NBC News. “You have to look at each case individually. Look at the defendant and the defendant's background. Look at the crime committed and the impact on the victim to determine who the true threats are to our public safety and need to be behind bars and quite candidly the ones that aren't.”

Hochman plans to reverse much of Gascón's reform measures and be a more traditional district attorney. His campaign platform titled "Blueprint for Justice" focuses significantly on reversing Gascón's reforms, but also details how he will combat the fentanyl crisis by prosecuting fentanyl dealers to the fullest extent and helping educate the population, protecting the environment, and dealing with issues such as homelessness and abortion. Critics claim that Hochman stretches the impact of Gascón's reforms on crime.

"We found no significant changes in crime trends during the 12 months after reform, which indicates that bail reform does not have a discernible impact on crime rates," said progressive public policy institute Brennan Center for Justice regarding a study they conducted into the matter.

Though much of disapproval of Gascón is tied to the rise in crime, the election serves as a referendum to the extent to which liberal Los Angeles believes criminal justice reform is appropriate.

“What we may be seeing now is just a slight adjustment rightward,” said Dan Schnur, a Berkeley professor at the Institute of Global Studies to LAist. “While they wanted to see criminal justice reform, they might not have wanted it as aggressively as Gascón has pursued it.”