He was supposed to be the future face of the Democratic Party. Vice President Kamala Harris had used the very same office as his to launch her career, first statewide and then nationally. Now, however, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s political career is in ruins, as are the progressive criminal justice ideas he implemented in one of the most liberal cities in the United States.
Turns out there is an upper limit to the crime, disorder, homelessness, defecation, and death even the most hardcore Democrats are willing to put up with in the name of social justice.
Elected in 2019, Boudin promised voters he would not prosecute any “quality of life” crimes, including “public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc.” Boudin faithfully followed through on his promise, and homeless encampments, prostitution, and public defecation have all increased as a result.
Boudin also ended cash bail, stopped prosecuting children as adults, and released convicted criminals into “diversion programs” instead of keeping them safely locked up where they could not re-offend.
The message to criminals in San Francisco was clear: There will be no consequences for your actions. As a result, open-air drug markets have flourished, causing a steep rise in fentanyl deaths. San Francisco was the only city in the nation where overdose deaths outnumbered COVID deaths during the pandemic. And while San Francisco’s homicide rate has not risen on Boudin’s watch (it hasn’t fallen either), burglaries are up more than 40%.
The breaking point for many San Franciscans came when a habitual offender, who would have been in jail if Boudin had prosecuted him for his third-strike felony, killed two people with a stolen car on New Year’s Eve. Less than a year later, San Francisco residents had collected enough signatures to put a recall of Boudin on the ballot. He lost in a landslide Tuesday, 60%-40%.
San Francisco residents aren’t the only ones fed up with failed progressive policies. In Los Angeles, billionaire luxury mall developer Rick Caruso came in first place in the Democratic primary for mayor and will face far-left U.S. Rep. Karen Bass in November.
Caruso was a Republican as recently as 2019 before switching parties so he would have a chance of winning an election in urban California. Caruso did not shed his conservative policies, however, pledging to add 1,500 officers to the police department and “clean up” LA’s many homeless encampments.
California is a deep-blue state that the Democratic Party has completely controlled for more than a decade now. When Donald Trump was in office, it was easy for state leaders to blame Republicans for their problems, even though California was experiencing rising crime and homelessness long before Trump was elected president.
With Trump gone, however, Democrats have no one left to blame but themselves. The supposedly “Golden State” leads the nation in poverty, inequality, and homelessness. More than half of all Californians believe their state is heading in the wrong direction.
Tuesday’s rejection of Boudin and embrace of Caruso shows that even California voters are no longer buying the liberal policies that Democrats are selling. Unless something changes drastically, the Democrats are in for a rude awakening nationwide this November.
