The progressive district attorney faces a tough challenger in the fight against crime in Los Angeles

George Gascón won election as Los Angeles County district attorney in 2020 on a promise to implement criminal justice reform following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Four years later, he faces a stubborn challenger who claims those policies have gone too far.

Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, calls himself a “hard center” candidate who would oppose both mass incarceration and “decarceration” policies. Despite being a former Republican running as an independent in a heavily Democratic city, he has raised more than $4 million, compared to less than $1 million in Gascony, with donations going to outside groups supporting the candidates support, are not included.

When Gascón first ran for office, he promised that he would not seek the death penalty in law enforcement, charge juveniles as adults, or seek sentence enhancements that could dramatically lengthen prison sentences. With support from Gov. Gavin Newsom, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti and other prominent officials, he fired incumbent District Attorney Jackie Lacey.

However, Gascón ran into difficulties while trying to implement these reforms, including resistance from some of his own employees – and even some lawsuits accusing him of workplace retaliation for challenging his orders. There were two attempts to recall him, but neither received enough signatures to get on the ballot. He has since changed course on several of these policies.

Hochman's candidacy reflects the state's growing disillusionment with progressive prosecutors who have pushed criminal justice reform. In 2022, voters in San Francisco ousted one of the first reform-minded prosecutors elected to office, and this year voters will decide whether to recall another in Oakland.

The California Department of Corrections crime statistics for LA County paint a mixed picture.

Homicides have fallen 23.1% since a small increase in 2021. Overall, violent crime rose 8.5% between 2019 and 2023, but that was lower than the 15.4% increase statewide as part of a national trend since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, property crime increased 14.5% in LA County, but only 2.9% nationally.

Amid media coverage of high-profile murders and alarming viral videos of mass retail robberies, victim advocates and business interests are supporting Hochman.

“Mr. “Gascón was one of the greatest gifts to gangs,” Hochman said at a recent debate, criticizing him for not seeking to improve gang sentencing in the killing of “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor.

Gascón has spent much of the campaign defending his policies and law enforcement outcomes. As for gang reinforcement, for example, he said it has traditionally been linked to racial bias, and he has formed a committee to decide on that on a case-by-case basis. His office says it has prosecuted more than 100,000 “serious crimes” in the past four years, a rate comparable to the previous decade.

Hochman also criticized Gascón's policy of not prosecuting juveniles as adults, pointing to cases of recidivism.

They include a man who was involved in a gas station robbery in 2018 when he was 16 and was later released from a juvenile detention center, only to be arrested and charged with murder in April this year. Another, a 17-year-old gang member from 2019 who admitted to a double murder and should have faced life, was released last February and arrested months later in connection with a new murder.

Considerable attention was also given to the case of Hannah Tubbs, a transgender woman who was allowed to plead guilty in juvenile court at age 26 to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl because the crime was committed when Tubbs was a minor . Tubbs later pleaded no contest to the murder of a homeless man in central California.

Gascón says he handles juvenile cases in accordance with state law, which prohibits prosecutors from trying juveniles as adults without a judge's approval. Another committee appointed by Gascón decides whether individual juvenile cases should be referred to adult court.

Gascón touts his commitment to “balanced reform” in a system that has historically incarcerated disproportionate numbers of people of color. And he countered by accusing Hochman of campaigning on “Trumpian scaremongering” and wanting to return to the days of the failed war on drugs and mass incarceration.

“My opponent has no connection to the truth,” Gascón said during a debate.

Hochman defended himself as a lifelong centrist who never supported former President Donald Trump and plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris this year.

“I’ve been pro-choice my whole life, I’ve been pro-LGBTQ rights my whole life,” he said.

Hochman prevailed over a field of 11 challengers in one of the most crowded primary fields in L.A. history. He was supported by local police unions, victim advocacy groups, developer and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, and more than 70 current and former elected officials across the county.

Gascón is a former Los Angeles police officer who served as San Francisco district attorney from 2011 to 2019 and was also police chief in Mesa, Arizona and San Francisco. He was supported by a majority of LA County supervisors, local Democratic groups and labor groups, including the County Federation of Labor.