LA district attorney recall fails to qualify for ballot

Los Angeles will not vote on recalling progressive District Attorney George Gascón, averting a second bruising fight over criminal justice reform in a major California city this year.

Opponents of Gascón fell about 50,000 valid signatures short of what they needed to trigger a vote, the Los Angeles County elections office said on Monday. The outcome spares Gascón of needing to defend his job two years after assuming office, setting him up for a 2024 reelection bid.


Despite falling short, the recall effort reflected a fraught moment for the criminal justice reform movement that catapulted Gascón into office after 2020’s summer of racial reckoning. Democratic officials rallied behind Gascón as he vowed to implement a new vision. But rising anxiety about public safety has since shifted the political landscape, fueling the June recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Gascón’s successor and ally.

A Gascón ouster could have been far more consequential than Boudin’s fall. The Los Angeles district attorney’s office is the largest in the United States and was central to the crime crackdown that characterized the 1980s and 1990s before shifting dramatically in the other direction. A prosecutor recall there would function as a bellwether for the progressive movement Gascón has helped lead.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/la-district-attorney-recall-fails-to-qualify-for-ballot/ar-AA10GUr8