Bonta deserves four-year term as state's AG

The candidates seeking to unseat state Attorney General Rob Bonta share a central campaign theme: California needs a tough law-and-order prosecutor at the helm because crime is soaring.

But the data doesn't back that up. California's population-adjusted property crime rate in 2020 was the lowest in 60 years, and the violent crime rate was near the lowest in 50 years, according to analysis by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

True, homicide numbers are troubling. But the state's jump in homicides at the start of the pandemic generally follows the national increase. The state's homicide rate still lags the country, and California saw a decrease in the first two decades of the 2000s while the nation saw an increase.

Voters should not be manipulated. They should support Bonta in the June 7 primary. He is the only candidate fully committed to balancing public safety and fairness — to carrying out, rather than trying to undermine, the criminal justice reforms voters approved.

Bonta recognizes the full duties of the office as he pushes ahead with litigation to enforce and protect environmental, housing, gun, antitrust and anti-discrimination laws.

Gov. Gavin Newsom selected him to replace Xavier Becerra, who was picked by President Joe Biden to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Bonta took office in April 2021.

During his short tenure, his record on transparency has been disappointing. While promising more openness, Bonta has continued the court fight to block release of records sought by the nonprofit First Amendment Coalition pertaining to police misconduct.

Bonta refuses to explain the status of his office's probe, which began seven years ago, of Michael Peevey's atrocious behavior as president of the California Public Utilities Commission. That smacks of ongoing political coverup.

But, as he should as the attorney for the state, Bonta defends the criminal justice reforms voters approved: Proposition 47 in 2014, which reclassified some felony drug and theft offenses as misdemeanors and raised from $400 to $950 the amount for which theft can be prosecuted as a felony; and Proposition 57 in 2016, a parole overhaul measure that increased good-behavior credits, allowing some prisoners to be released earlier.

They were part of an effort to roll back the state's tough-on-crime sentencing guidelines instituted in the 1990s that were overly punitive in many cases and had packed prisons beyond capacity at great expense.

The solution is to fix the problems, not eliminate reforms and regress. Yet elimination seems to be the goal embedded in opponents' hyperbolic campaign messages.

Republican Eric Early calls California a “criminal's paradise.” This from someone unwilling to concede that Biden legitimately won the 2020 election — who claims that the state's universal mail-in balloting is “quite possibly” not constitutional but won't disclose his legal reasoning.

Nathan Hochman, a Republican attorney and former federal prosecutor, says “Californians are fed up with rampant crime” and tries to position himself as the more-pragmatic Republican in the race. He says the outcome of the 2020 presidential election was legitimate but he won't say whom he backed. He seems unprepared to discuss the duties of being attorney general, specifically which of Bonta's legal efforts to protect California laws he would handle differently.

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, a former Republican who switched to no party preference and says she never voted for Donald Trump, is also focused on making crime the issue of the campaign. “I think we need a system that isn't pro-criminal,” she says.

There are legitimate discussions to be had about how best to implement the criminal justice reforms. But exaggerated claims about violent crime designed to score political points are not helpful.

California needs an attorney general who can handle nuanced. That's Rob Bonta. Voters should elect him to a full fouryear term.