HOCHMAN FOR STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL

In the attorney general’s race, California voters have two candidates likely to be of broad appeal to independents and their own partisans alike.

Democratic incumbent Rob Bonta — appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom after Xavier Becerra was tapped by President Joe Biden in early 2021 for a Cabinet post — has been strong on issues of urgent importance in the state, starting with abortion rights, the climate emergency and gun violence. His move to add resources to efforts to take firearms away from dangerous individuals was badly needed.

The former Bay Area Assembly member, a Yale law graduate, has also been a positive force on quality of life issues, and figures to only improve on this front as he gains more experience and builds on his ties with Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders. As the most prominent Filipino American elected leader in California history, he is a powerful symbol of progress and inclusivity. He deserves credit for publicly shaming cities that refuse to follow state housing laws and for traveling across California to discuss stopping hate crimes that are on the rise around the state. He has encouraged all 58 county district attorneys to create Hate Crimes Divisions to work with local leaders.

But Republican challenger Nathan Hochman — a former U.S. Justice Department official with a richly varied background in public and private practice — is a better candidate than many to emerge from the GOP’S ranks. He disavows false claims that Donald Trump won the 2020 election and told Politico he didn’t vote for Trump or his opponents in 2016 and 2020, though he was mum on the latter question to other outlets. The Stanford law graduate says he is pro-choice and ready to enforce gun laws, and he rejects the idea that immigrants are bad for America. Still, his political party may make many Californians skeptical. Some will see a pro forma quality to his answers on such questions. If Hochman beats the odds and is elected, one of his first tasks should be to reach out to communities with reasons to suspect any Republican’s commitment to fairness.

But attempts to depict Hochman as a stereotypical law-and-order conservative aren’t sustained by his record or his comments in Q&AS and interviews. He speaks with a passion and clarity about hate crimes that reflects his award-winning activism in the Los Angeles Jewish community. As president of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission — after being appointed and confirmed by Democrats — he performed in nonpartisan fashion and won praise for his unusual ideas about improving voter turnout.

Given this history, The San Diego Union-tribune Editorial Board sees Hochman as the sort of sensible Republican who is worthy of state office in the Trump era, and having passed that threshold, Hochman also seems to be a slightly superior candidate because of his appreciation that California’s crime problem is real and that crucial policy decisions are at least partly responsible. He is endorsed by 21 district attorneys, including Sacramento County’s Anne Marie Schubert, the attorney general candidate whom we endorsed in the primary election. Bonta lists no DA endorsements. One of Hochman’s top priorities is addressing the exploding fentanyl crisis in California, which Bonta hasn’t focused on enough. Hochman also vows to clear the entire list of people on California’s Armed and Prohibited Persons System who shouldn’t be allowed to continue possessing firearms in his first 18 months.

In addition, he shares our view that some of California’s criminal-justice reforms have gone too far.

For years, our board has consistently argued that the U.S. criminal-justice system is overly punitive and throws away the lives of salvageable people. But it is possible to hold that view and still be profoundly disappointed in the fundamental problems with recent far-reaching, Democratic Party-backed reforms endorsed by California voters.

In 2014, Proposition 47 was sold with claims that it would actually improve public safety by changing felony sentencing laws to focus more on the worst crimes. Its best-known provision mandates that felony charges can generally only be brought for thefts of $950 or more. The Washington Post depicted chaos in San Diego just one year later. The law also made criminals far less willing to participate in drug courts, meaning far fewer took steps to fight the addictions that led to their thefts.

In 2016, Proposition 57 was sold with claims that it would finally end the state’s practice of warehousing nonviolent criminals in prison. But drafters made the spectacular error of basing their list of which criminals would be given parole on a state document that held the rape of an unconscious person, some types of domestic violence, lewd acts against children and human trafficking to be “nonviolent.” Among those who were freed early because of this mistake: a suspect in an April mass shooting in Sacramento that left six dead and 12 injured.

Hochman says the propositions need to be fixed to strike a new balance that keeps the public safer without going back to extreme crime policies popular in the 1990s. He talks of “proportionate consequences.” By contrast, it was only in recent weeks that Bonta backed away from 18 months of vague claims that the impacts of 47 and 57 were exaggerated, and offered support for revisions to reclassify some “nonviolent” crimes. It’s worth noting that in a state as large and complex as California, crime statistics can be parsed and twisted. It’s also true that crime in general is much less prevalent than in the 1990s. But polls consistently show that strong majorities of residents — based on their daily lives — believe crime has gotten worse. Headlines citing increases in some types of violent crime in large California cities surprise few. Nor did the July report that homicides in Los Angeles were at a 15-year high.

But those inclined to downplay crime fears also seem likely to have doubts about Hochman. The idea that Bonta is more relevant and informed on urgent issues like equity and inclusion is also in play. Yet a February poll by the Public Policy Institute of California showed nearly half of Black residents and more than one-third of Latino residents think that violence and street crime are a “big problem” in their communities. This matters.

The San Diego Union-tribune Editorial Board believes both candidates would be a clear improvement on Becerra, who threatened journalists with “legal action” in 2019 if they disclosed legally obtained police misconduct reports. Both would serve California well. But as Hochman says, Californians want more balance on criminal justice. It may be unlikely that he wins, but he has made a better case than Bonta that he could bring about such change.

The San Diego Union-tribune Editorial Board endorses Nathan Hochman for attorney general.