Short Take: On the Decline and Fall of the "Godfather" of Progressive DAs

Bye Bye George ...

With so much going on in the world, an important story went mostly unnoticed. It’s about George Gascón — the progressive District Attorney in Los Angeles. He left office earlier this month — after being defeated for re-election by 20 points.

What does it mean? That — at least in some places — voters have had enough of prosecutors who are soft on crime.

A few reasons why Gascon lost:

He said juveniles could not be charged as adults, no matter how egregious their crimes. That didn’t sit well with a lot of the public, including more than a few on the left.

Voters believed that so-called quality of life crimes should be taken seriously — while Gascon thought it was bad policy to prosecute crimes like trespassing, public intoxication and drug possession — all of which created a sense of disorder on the streets.

As for violent crime: It went up in Los Angeles County by 15 percent from 2020 to 2023 — the years Gascon was the DA.

Most residents of LA county wanted longer prison sentences for dangerous criminals than Gascon and other progressive district attorneys believed was necessary. There were too many people behind bars already, they figured.

George Gascon is just one of several progressive prosecutors to lose their jobs on the West Coast over the past two years — from San Francisco and Oakland’s Alameda County … to Portland and Seattle. All of them are deep blue places to live.

But Gascon’s rejection by the voters of Los Angeles is the biggest blow yet to the progressive movement when it comes to law and order, to crime and punishment. Because George Gascon has long been considered the “godfather” of progressive prosecution.

But that, apparently, isn’t what voters want anymore, even in liberal cities. They want prosecutors to be tough on criminals. They want prosecutors who have more empathy for victims of crime than for the criminals who commit them.

The message is clear, if progressives are willing to listen. If not, they won’t only lose District Attorney elections … they’ll lose a lot more than that.

If George Gascón can lose by 20 points in LA … progressives can lose almost anywhere.