Opponents who hoped to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón failed, not meeting the minimum number of signatures . It was not the first recall attempt on Gascón as he has pushed to reorder crime and punishment in California’s largest county, Politico reports. To trigger a vote, opponents needed 50,000 more signatures, saving Gascón‘s job and allowing him to run for reelection in 2024. After the first failed recall, the most recent attempt gained more than 700,000 signatures, many from wealthy donors and well known Republicans. Law enforcement leaders opposed Gascón and conservative media portrayed him as “liberal lawlessness”. A recall would have been detrimental to the progressive movement Gascón has helped lead. The Los Angeles prosecutor's is the largest in the U.S. and was central to the crime crackdown that characterized the 1980s and 1990s.
Gascón is an active reformer, working to reduce incarceration and lessen criminal penalties, arguing that harsher punishments no longer work. He has prohibited prosecutors from charging juveniles as adults and finding ways to increase criminal penalties. These changes are what helped Gascón win election after 2020’s summer of racial conflict. Though Monday’s outcome did not end in a Gascón‘s recall vote, leaders of the campaign believed that obtaining so many valid signatures represented “a wholesale rejection of Gascón’s dangerous polices.” Gascón allies called the failed recall “an attempted political power grab.”
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