The district attorney faces a tough-on-murder challenger in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — George Gascón won the 2020 Los Angeles County District Attorney election on promises to implement criminal justice reform in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Four years later, it faces a tough-on-crime challenger who says such policies have gone too far.

Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, bills himself as a “hard-line” candidate who would reject both mass incarceration and “release” policies. Despite being a former Republican running as an independent in a heavily Democratic city, he raised more than $4 million compared to Gascon’s less than $1 million, not including contributions to outside groups supporting candidates.

When Gascón first ran for office, he promised not to seek the death penalty in criminal prosecutions, charge juveniles as adults or seek sentencing enhancements that can drastically increase prison time. Backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, then-Mayor Eric Garcetti and other top officials, he ousted incumbent Attorney General Jackie Lacey.

However, Gascón has run into trouble trying to implement those reforms, including opposition from some of his staff — and even some lawsuits accusing him of workplace retaliation for challenging his directives. Two attempts were made to recall him, but neither got enough signatures to make the ballot. He has since reversed course on several of those directives.

Hochman’s candidacy reflects growing disenchantment in the state with progressive prosecutors who have pushed for criminal justice reform. In 2022, San Francisco voters removed one of the first reformed prosecutors elected to office, and this year voters will decide whether to recall another in Oakland.

California Department of Justice crime statistics for LA County tell a mixed story.

Homicides fell 23.1 percent from a small increase in 2021. Violent crime overall rose 8.5 percent between 2019 and 2023, but that was less than a 15.4 percent increase nationally, as part of a national trend since the COVID-19 pandemic. Property crime, however, rose 14.5 percent in LA County, but only 2.9 percent statewide.

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

“Mr. Gascón was one of the greatest gifts to gangs,” Hochman said at a recent debate, lambasting him for not pursuing a sentencing enhancement for gangs in the slaying of “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor.

Gascón spent much of the campaign defending his policies and the results of the prosecution. On gang enhancements, for example, he said they have traditionally been tinged with racial bias, and he formed a committee to decide them 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 against prosecuting minors as adults and highlighted cases of recidivism.

They include a man who, aged 16, took part in a 2018 gas station robbery and was later released from a youth detention center only to be arrested and charged in April in connection with a homicide. Another, a 17-year-old gang member in 2019 who admitted a double homicide and could have faced life, was released last February and arrested months later in connection with a new murder.

Much attention has also been given to the case of Hannah Tubbs, a transgender woman who, at age 26, was allowed to plead guilty in juvenile court to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl because the offense occurred when Tubbs he was a minor. Tubbs later pleaded no contest to the killing of a homeless man in central California.

Gascón says he handles juvenile cases under state law, which prohibits prosecutors from trying juveniles as adults without a judge’s approval. Another committee created by Gascón makes decisions about whether individual juvenile cases should be transferred to adult court.

Gascón expresses his commitment to “balanced reform” in a system that has historically disproportionately incarcerated black people. And he hit back by accusing Hochman of campaigning on “Trump’s fear ant” and wanting to return to the days of the failed war on drugs and mass incarceration.

“My opponent has a disconnect with 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 my whole life,” he said.

Hochman advanced from a field of 11 contenders to one of the most crowded primary fields in LA history. He was backed by local police unions, victim advocacy groups, developer and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso and more than 70 current and former county elected officials.

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