San Franciscans who recently recalled District Attorney Chesa Boudin will decide on a replacement on Nov. 8 who could take a turn from the city’s far-left criminal justice system and revert to a more mainstream “law and order” policy.
Three attorneys are battling for the top spot, all with differing views on how San Francisco can regain its status as a shining worldwide tourist destination instead of a city riddled with drug dealers, overdoses, and rampant theft.
Boudin, who was recalled in June, was elected on a criminal justice reform platform that focused on rehabilitation over criminal charges and jail time. This led to a string of violent crimes, for which suspects received minimal sentences, if any, according to the campaign of Brooke Jenkins, one of Boudin’s prosecutors.
NEW DISTRICT ATTORNEY SWORN IN TO REPLACE RECALLED CHESA BOUDIN
She has been appointed his successor and is running for a full term on a platform of holding criminals and drug dealers accountable.
The two other leading candidates are civil rights attorneys John Hamasaki and Joe Alioto Veronese, the grandson of former Mayor Joseph Alioto. A September poll commissioned by Jenkins showed her leading the pack with 49%, followed by Hamasaki and Alioto Veronese with 26% and 15%, respectively.
On the campaign finance side, Alioto Veronese is the winner, with $239,697 from two committees, followed by Jenkins with $126,564 and $86,943 for Hamasaki, according to disclosures.
Jenkins has already made her mark on the office, firing numerous Boudin appointees and announcing a policy of charging drug dealers and those found publicly using drugs on the streets.
“Since 2020, nearly 1,500 people have died of drug overdose in part because dealers have been allowed to operate with impunity,” she said in a statement. “The lethality of fentanyl presents a different challenge, and we must immediately change course, so we can save lives and hold people accountable for the havoc they are wreaking in our communities.”
Another change from Boudin is allowing cash bail in certain cases, along with charging minors as adults for heinous crimes.
“We have to leave available the option that there may be a 16 or 17 year old who commits a heinous type of crime that shocks the conscience of the community to the point that it may not be appropriate to keep them in our juvenile system,” she told KQED Public Radio.
Alioto Veronese also supports jail for offenders, but he says the cash bail system is discriminatory.
“I’ll send a message to people coming to San Francisco seeking to prey on our elders, break into our cars or commit other crimes that they will be punished. If incarceration is needed, I’m not afraid to lock them up,” he told SF Gate.
Alioto Veronese accused Jenkins of catering to politicians like Mayor London Breed and police officers because she received support from them for her campaign.
Hamasaki, who was the former San Francisco Police Commissioner, is the most progressive of the trio and largely funded by public defenders and reform advocates. He, too, criticized Jenkins for having a close relationship with the mayor’s office and not being independent.
Let’s goooooo! https://t.co/sLOlev5axI
— John Hamasaki for DA 濱崎 (@HamasakiLaw) October 18, 2022
“I’m running for district attorney because I’m committed to upholding justice and accountability equally to all San Franciscans, whether someone is selling fentanyl in the Tenderloin or selling influence in City Hall,” Hamasaki told the Washington Examiner.
“This is what earned me the No. 1 endorsement from the San Francisco Democratic Party and many other Democratic organizations and community groups across the city,” he added.
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A PAC associated with the California District Attorneys Association is backing Jenkins, saying Hamasaki’s policies would be the same as Boudin’s. CDAA CEO Greg Totten did not offer an opinion on Alioto Veronese.
“No one should assume that San Franciscans don’t still want a progressive DA that is going to administer the office in a way that is thoughtful, recognizes the place for mercy in some of these cases, and with appropriate sentences,” Totten said. “It’s still going to be a liberal progressive community, and they want a DA that reflects those values.”
