D.A. Lacey takes early lead
Incumbent faces ex-L.A. cop Gascón and public defender Rossi
As polls closed Tuesday night, voters in Los Angeles County came one step closer to determining if a nationwide push to elect progressive prosecutors would claim a big win or stall out in a contest for control of the nation’s largest district attorney’s office.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey jumped out to an early lead, earning 54% of the ballots cast by those who voted by mail, according to the Los Angeles County registrar. Lacey had about 220,000 votes. Her challengers, former San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascón and public defender Rachel Rossi, each drew about 22% of early ballots.
The top two vote-getters will continue on to November unless one candidate gains more than 50% of the returns and wins outright. The race has been defined by a stark ideological divide between Lacey and her two challengers. While all three are registered Democrats, Lacey’s broad support among law enforcement and track record of not prosecuting officers in controversial use-of-force cases has drawn her scorn from progressive groups and criminal justice reform activists.
Those tensions boiled over Monday morning, when Lacey’s husband pointed a gun at Black Lives Matter protesters who had gathered outside the couple’s Granada Hills home.
Gascón and Rossi are both emblematic of a nationwide reform movement that has vaulted re
storative-justice-minded candidates into office in such cities as Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
A former assistant chief in the Los Angeles Police Department, Gascón became a progressive policymaker after being appointed as San Francisco’s district attorney in 2011. He coauthored Proposition 47 and enacted a number of policies aimed at reducing California’s prison population, including cutting back dramatically on prosecution of low-level and nonviolent offenders. But surges in property crime there have led critics to label him as soft on crime.
Speaking to supporters at Union Station, Gascón acknowledged the early results but said he expected his standing to improve as reports from polling stations came in. In a brief speech, he faulted Lacey and other past L.A. county prosecutors for “ignoring data and science” and embracing policies that have warehoused defendants in prisons.
Rossi has painted herself as the only true alternative in the race, trying to turn her lack of law enforcement experience into a net positive that allows her to understand the courtroom from both sides of the aisle. As legal counsel to Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) in Washington, she helped frame the First Step Act, which reduced some mandatory minimum sentences at the federal level.
Opponents have challenged her relative inexperience compared with Gascón and Lacey, however. Whereas the two law enforcement lions have served a combined six decades as a policeman or prosecutor, Rossi, 36, has never run an agency and served as a public defender for only about eight years.
The race has attracted millions of dollars in funding from outside committees and been marked by pointed attacks. Many of Gascón’s former fellow LAPD officers have turned their back on him, with the union representing rank-and-file officers spending $1 million to oppose his candidacy and release advertisements describing him as a con man.
Lacey, meanwhile, has been dogged by protesters at several events. At a news conference Monday, she claimed her office had received numerous threats during the race, including a death threat that was referred to an outside police agency. After demonstrators disrupted portions of a January debate, she refused to appear at any other candidate forums before the end of the primary.
Following the gun incident, she canceled a public event for supporters to watch results Tuesday night, Mac Zilber, a consultant on her campaign, said.
Rossi spent election day meeting with constituents around downtown L.A. and Boyle Heights, while Gascón held a campaign event at the Grand Central Market. Lacey stayed out of the public eye, but Zilber said she spent much of the day on the phone with supporters.
The image of Lacey’s husband pointing a gun at unarmed protesters seemed to weigh heavy on the minds of voters Tuesday. While walking to a polling station in Mid-City, 30-year-old Julia Markas said footage of the confrontation led her to research the other candidates.
“It really did make me investigate where did she stand on things, who are the other people running against her, because it was a really shocking video,” Markas said. Ultimately Markas voted for Rossi, saying she “liked the idea of a public defender in there.”