The movement to recall Los Angeles (LA) County District Attorney (DA) George Gascon announced that it has surpassed the 566,857 signatures it requires to initiate the recall against Gascon. This sum, equivalent to 10% of registered voters in LA County (the recall threshold), is still short of the recall movement’s goals: to bulwark against invalid signatures or any other kind of signature disqualifications, the Recall Gascon campaign is still hoping to secure up to 700,000 total petitions in the coming weeks before the June 24 mailing and June 30 drop off deadline.
Backed by over 90% of Gascon’s own prosecutors, the movement has been emboldened by endorsement from prominent Angelenos ranging from conserative-leaning politicians such as mayoral candidate Rick Caruso and LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger to liberal Los Angeles powerhouses, including Biden ambassadorial nominee Marc Nathanson and Hillary Clinton bundler Jordan Kaplan.
While Gascon has maintained the endorsement of the Los Angeles Democratic Party, the successful recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin (Gascon’s successor) suggests that voters even in California’s most reliability progressive cities are dissatisfied with social-justice-driven criminal justice reforms.
The Gascon recall would be a devastating blow for progressive criminal justice reformers, especially those who advocate for the policies supported by billionaire George Soros. Today, Soros-funded district attorneys run half of America’s largest jurisdictions, the prototype for whom was Gascon, who served as San Francisco’s DA from 2011 to 2019. During his tenure as San Francisco DA, Gascon’s policies precipitated the city’s astonishing surge in crime that started immediately after he assumed office and continued after his resignation and Boudin’s subsequent election.