Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has been a favorite target of conservatives ever since he was elected the top prosecutor for America’s most populous county in 2020. Now faces a trio of his deputies in next year’s race to keep his job, all of whom are running to his right.
The first to announce back in January was Maria Ramirez, who is one of about a dozen people who've filed lawsuits alleging that Gascón retaliated against them for opposing his criminal justice reforms; a judge this month awarded $1.5 million to a plaintiff in another suit, though Ramirez’s has not yet been resolved. A colleague of hers, John McKinney, went on to enter the race earlier this month by declaring, “It's just chaos on our streets and chaos in the district attorney's office.” Finally, Jonathan Hatami, who just successfully concluded a high-profile murder trial, also accused the incumbent of being anti-cop just ahead of his own Wednesday launch.
Gascón, who spent years serving as the chief prosecutor in San Francisco, returned to his hometown of L.A. just ahead of the 2020 election, in which he campaigned as a reformer and unseated two-term District Attorney Jackie Lacey by a 54-46 margin. The new incumbent, though, took over at a time when crime was on the rise nationally. Opponents of his reforms didn't hesitate to blame him for the spike and even tried to recall him from office early.
All three of Gascón’s declared foes have spent the last few years as some of his most vocal critics, and Hatami even raised money to support one of those recall efforts last year. That $8 million campaign, however, ultimately fell about 47,000 signatures short of the 567,000 it needed to make the ballot. (Last week, local officials asked the state attorney general to investigate why more than 300 petitions ostensibly came from dead people.)
California’s filing deadline isn’t until December of this year, so there’s still time for even more critics to enter the race, though a large field won't necessarily help Gascón, since winning with a plurality isn't possible. Rather, Los Angeles County will hold an officially nonpartisan primary that coincides with the state’s March presidential primary, and unless one contender wins a majority of the vote, the top-two vote-getters will advance to the November general election.