A national reckoning over the consequences of liberal criminal justice reforms has forced current and prospective Democratic governors to walk a fine line when it comes to championing the progressive prosecutors in their states.
Liberal district attorneys have seen dramatic increases in violence on their watch in many of the country’s most populous cities, where Democratic voters gambled on candidates who promised to put racial equity at the center of their decision-making.
Now, some Democratic governors are caught between courting the activist Left and the realities facing city-dwellers in their states.
That tension was on display earlier this month, when California Gov. Gavin Newsom was asked about the controversial district attorney in Los Angeles, George Gascon.
“I don’t know enough about the job he’s done,” Newsom said in response to a question about Gascon’s performance. “I’m deeply concerned about the criticism” Gascon has received, Newsom added.
But he said he would leave “objective analysis” of Gascon’s performance “to locals” rather than weigh in himself.
Newsom’s comments came roughly two years after he endorsed Gascon in the 2020 district attorney race.
That endorsement came years after Newsom had, as the mayor of San Francisco, appointed Gascon to multiple high-level jobs, including a position as that city’s district attorney.
Critics questioned how Newsom could deny familiarity with Gascon’s work given their yearslong relationship, as well as the high-profile effort underway in California’s largest city to recall Gascon from office.
Homicides in Los Angeles jumped by 53% last year over 2019, the year before Gascon took office.
Newsom’s careful answer about Gascon reflects the tightrope Democratic governors must walk when it comes to district attorneys who still retain support in progressive circles.
For New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is hoping to get elected to her post for the first time in November after ascending to the governorship via an appointment, that balancing act was made more difficult this month by a specific case that became symbolic of the criticisms facing Manhattan’s district attorney.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg came under enormous fire in early July when he charged a 61-year-old bodega worker, Jose Alba, with murder after Alba defended himself against an assailant who had physically attacked him behind his store counter.
The case attracted nationwide attention, with critics claiming it revealed Bragg’s indifference to the victims of crimes that his own policies seemingly allowed.
Hochul’s Republican opponent, Rep. Lee Zeldin, called on her to remove Bragg over the case and vowed to remove Bragg himself if elected this fall.
But Hochul avoided wading into the controversy.
“It’s not the role of the governor to make those local decisions,” she said when asked about Alba’s murder charge.
“My opinion is this: We need to continue to do more to protect New Yorkers in this state,” Hochul said. “That is the extent of it. That is my involvement.”
Seemingly aware of the difficulties the newly elected Manhattan DA could cause her politically, Hochul said in January that she would be “monitoring the situation very closely” given criticism of Bragg’s criminal justice proposals.
“I know full well the powers that the governor has,” she said during an editorial meeting with the New York Post. “I’ll be having a conversation very shortly to convey, to let him tell me what his plans are and make sure that we’re all in alignment.”
The types of liberal reforms that Bragg and other New York Democrats have supported became a central theme of the race last week, when Zeldin was physically attacked at a campaign stop by a man who was swiftly released from jail thanks to the state’s bail system.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has faced scrutiny for his past support for the policies of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who has presided over a rise in crime in Chicago.
Pritzker dodged questions about her in March, when he said Foxx “has the right” to make prosecutorial decisions on her own but that he would have handled some issues differently.
His Republican opponent, Darren Bailey, has made crime a centerpiece of his campaign and has blamed the problems on both Pritzker and Chicago’s Democratic officials.
Bailey prevailed over five other GOP candidates in the gubernatorial primary last month, who also took aim at the state’s liberal criminal justice reforms, including one primary opponent who had pledged to lead a recall effort against Foxx.
Foxx has come under fire not just for failing to stop crime but for her handling in 2019 of the high-profile Jussie Smollett case. Her office brought, and then dropped, charges related to Smollett’s faking of a hate crime. A special prosecutor later brought new charges against Smollett.
Pritzker has also been forced to walk a fine line on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who has become an icon of progressive leadership failures to many Republicans — including to his Republican opponent.
Asked in January whether he planned to endorse her expected reelection bid before she announced it, Pritzker avoided the question and instead acknowledged that he has a “good relationship” with the mayor.
Texts obtained by the Chicago Tribune in December showed how strained Pritzker’s relationship with Lightfoot has been at times, however.
Lightfoot texted Pritzker, accusing him of being “petty” and “not smart” over media coverage about a Chicago casino. They also sparred over COVID-19 restrictions.
In Pennsylvania, Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for governor, has tangled with Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, whose left-leaning criminal justice policies have coincided with a sharp rise in crime.
Krasner sued Shapiro last year over a national opioid settlement, and Shapiro’s office accused the Philadelphia DA of “misrepresenting the facts” of the situation.
Shapiro’s role, along with other state attorneys general, in negotiating a national settlement with major drug companies over their contributions to the opioid crisis. Shapiro and Krasner also tussled in 2019 over a bill that gave the state attorney general’s office more authority to go after gun crimes in Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania Republicans began proceedings this summer that could force Shapiro to contend more directly with Krasner’s Philadelphia reforms, which have been aimed at keeping more people out of jail.
State legislators — mostly Republicans, with four Democrats in agreement — advanced a resolution in June to begin investigating Krasner for potential impeachment due to Philadelphia’s rising violence.
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Krasner’s progressivism has played into Pennsylvania’s Senate contest as well.
Mehmet Oz, the Republican Senate candidate, has hit his opponent over endorsing the Philadelphia prosecutor.
Oz claimed earlier this month that John Fetterman, the current lieutenant governor and Democratic Senate candidate, “shares [Krasner’s] soft-on-crime policies that are plaguing our communities.”
