Former SF DA George Gascón to be LA's next top prosecutor

Former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón won election as the next top prosecutor in Los Angeles County, the nation’s largest office, after incumbent Jackie Lacey conceded Friday morning.

Facing an almost eight point deficit with just over 46% of the vote, Lacey – who ran a traditional tough-on-crime campaign -- bowed out of the race on Friday after failing to makeup significant ground on the fourth day of vote counting.

Gascón, 66, ran as the progressive challenger to Lacey and received overwhelming support from top state politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Kamala Harris and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

He gained a large bump in support over the summer amid national calls for criminal justice reform following the police killing of George Floyd in May.

Gascón’s victory marks the largest gain in the progressive prosecutor movement the former San Francisco District Attorney helped kick off nearly a decade ago. Progressive prosecutors have since been elected in cities across the nation, including in Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis and Houston.

Gascón quit his post in San Francisco in October 2019 to run in Los Angeles.

Chesa Boudin, another progressive prosecutor who has pledged to reshape the city’s criminal justice system and end mass incarceration, was elected as Gascón’s replacement.

Former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón was elected as Los Angeles County's new top prosecutor.

But even as a reformer candidate, Gascón left a complicated legacy in San Francisco. He sponsored key legislation that is viewed by many as the pillars of the modern criminal justice reform movement. The laws include, AB 109, or realignment, which let many felons serve there state prison sentences locally, and Prop. 47, which made some non-violent crimes like drug possession and theft misdemeanors rather than felonies.

He was also the first district attorney to expunge all prior marijuana convictions after voters in 2016 passed Prop. 64, legalizing cannabis.  

The laws helped reduce California’s overcrowded prisons, but were condemned by many law enforcement groups. Prop. 20 on this year’s ballot sought to unwind some of the reforms but was rejected by voters.

But even as a progressive, Gascón made enemies on both sides. Many local officials in San Francisco supported Lacey, the first Black district attorney in the history of the office.

Mayor London Breed wrote a scathing op-ed in the LA Sentinel two weeks before the election, saying Gascón “has a long history of going whichever way the winds blow.”

Gascón was targeted by protestors throughout his tenure in San Francisco after not prosecuting officers in fatal police shootings.

Gascón was a former officer in the Los Angeles Police Department and rose to the rank of Assistant Chief. He later became Chief of the police department in Mesa, Ariz. before then-mayor Newsom tapped him as San Francisco’s Chief.

When Harris vacated her seat as district attorney in San Fancisco after being elected Attorney General in 2004, Gascón was appointed to her job.

Evan Sernoffsky is an investigative reporter for KTVU. Email Evan at evan.sernoffsky@foxtv.com and follow him on Twitter @EvanSernoffsky