The campaign to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon will regroup and begin to sort through 46,807 invalid voter signatures that doomed an effort to oust the beleaguered prosecutor in a future election.
The registrar-recorder’s office announced Monday that the campaign failed to deliver 566,857 valid signatures to qualify for an election. This is the second time in two years that a grassroots coalition has sought to remove Gascon from office over claims that he caters to criminals instead of victims.
But the volunteers are not ready to give up yet and are suspicious of the county’s tally given Gascon’s support among local elected officials. The bipartisan recall was backed by the prosecutors union, which included 98% of the attorneys in the office, law enforcement, victims, and 37 cities, including Beverly Hills.
RECALL OF DA GASCON THREATENED BY FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE LAW, GROUP CLAIMS
“It was a kick in the stomach for a lot of them,” former District Attorney Steve Cooley said of prosecutors working under Gascon. “They were so hopeful that this time it would work, and now they are going to have to work again and see what the process reveals. The opportunity to place this on the November ballot passed a week ago.”
Prosecutors and law enforcement have said they are desperate to recall Gascon over contributing to a crime wave by downgrading charges for violent felons that include minimizing the use of a gun or belonging in a gang.
As an example, defendants in two different cases have been accused of shooting to death a total of three police officers after receiving plea bargains in earlier cases for which they served a few months in jail. This placed them on the streets at the time the officers were killed.
“I have talked to numerous people. Obviously, they are very disappointed because this is likely going to mean another two years of this man’s dangerous policies, which are putting all of LA County at risk,” said Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, a 28-year veteran of the office.
Gascon called the recall effort a power grab and admitted that more work needs to be done in the county.
“And we remain strongly committed to that work,” Gascon campaign spokeswoman Elise Moore told the Washington Examiner. “The DA’s primary focus is and has always been keeping us safe and creating a more equitable justice system for all. Yesterday’s announcement does not change that.”
Moore added that Gascon has broad Democratic support, including from politicians, the LA County Democratic Party, and labor unions.
Meanwhile, campaign officials are puzzled over the voter tally given that volunteers checked the signatures for errors before handing them over to the registrar-recorder.
The county found 88,464 signatures were of unregistered voters, 43,595 were duplicates, 32,187 were from a wrong address, 9,490 had mismatched signatures, 7,344 were canceled, 5,374 were from out of county, and 9,331 were invalid for other reasons.
The recall campaign has 21 days to go through the signatures and flag any errors.
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“Over half a million residents placed valid signatures on a petition to initiate the recall of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon,” the campaign said in a statement. “To deprive them of the opportunity to restore public safety in their own communities is heartbreaking. And to interpret this in any other way other than a wholesale rejection of Gascon’s dangerous policies would be disingenuous, or naive at best.”
