Los Angeles County District Attorney's race: Gascón vs. Hochman voter guide

On Nov. 5, voters have a chance to help decide the future of criminal justice in Los Angeles County.

The race for district attorney is a clash between the competing visions of the incumbent, polarizing progressive George Gascón, and his challenger, Nathan Hochman, an independent who previously ran for state office as a Republican.

Gascón took office four years ago on promises to reduce jail populations and retreat from years of overly punitive law enforcement, part of a nationwide movement sparked by the police killings of George Floyd and others in early 2020.

Hochman is a conservative, law-and-order candidate. He’s selling a vision of L.A. County as a broken, crime-ridden metropolis in need of a “hard middle” D.A. who cares about reducing prison populations but still has the resolve to put the bad guys away. A former federal prosecutor, Hochman has attempted to cast the race as a referendum on crime in L.A. County, which is down by some metrics during Gascón’s time in office but has risen in other categories.

Gascón has used his position as district attorney as a springboard for a range of reform-minded policies and approaches, often facing resistance within his own office.

Beginning on his first day in office, he ended cash bail for most offenses, began declining to seek the death penalty and refused to prosecute many misdemeanors such as trespassing and drug possession.

As a result, hundreds of people have avoided jail or served shorter sentences than they would have under previous district attorneys. Gascón has since rolled back some of his most controversial policies, including his hard line against most criminal enhancements, saying at a candidates forum in September that his approach has “evolved” over his term in office.

Those who support a more rehabilitative approach have hailed Gascón’s efforts as proof that pursuing a different tack can unburden the criminal justice system and help build lives and communities.

But some, including Hochman, have criticized him as being too lenient. Other detractors have said he’s fallen short on expectations to reduce crime and bring accountability to law enforcement. High-profile crimes — including a break-in at the home of Mayor Karen Bass this year — have fed the perception that nobody is safe.

The choice on election day is clear: four more years of Gascón’s less punitive policies, or a return to the more traditional approach championed by Hochman.

“This election will be a referendum on whether L.A. really wants to embrace criminal justice reform and the spirit of the progressive prosecutor movement,” Jody Armour, a law professor at USC, said earlier this year.

Who are the candidates?

Few district attorneys are household names, but if anyone is, it’s George Gascón. Transformative and controversial in his first term, Gascón is a local and national icon among progressive advocates and a lightning rod for criticism from Republicans and pro-law-enforcement crowds.

A Cuban-born 70-year-old former LAPD assistant chief, Gascón is best known for his record as district attorney, first of San Francisco and now of Los Angeles County. A former Republican, Gascón has said his views about criminal justice are shaped by his four decades of experience in law enforcement.

The moves Gascón has made as D.A. have drawn fierce resistance. As of June, he’d been sued by 20 prosecutors in his office who alleged he retaliated against them for opposing or questioning his progressive policies and directives. He’s received votes of no confidence from more than three dozen cities, and members of the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys overwhelmingly supported one of the recall efforts that have plagued him in recent years.

Hochman, meanwhile, is pitching his record as a former president of the L.A. Ethics Commission and a past federal prosecutor. As assistant U.S. attorney in California’s Central District for seven years in the 1990s, he ran a unit tasked with finding and prosecuting people who defrauded the government after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The Beverly Hills-raised self-described “nerd” went on to serve as head of the Justice Department’s tax division under President George W. Bush.

Hochman, 60, is running as a centrist in deeply blue L.A. County. He ran on a GOP ticket as recently as 2022, when he lost the race for state attorney general to Democrat Rob Bonta by nearly 2 million votes.

While Gascón has tried to portray Hochman as Donald Trump-lite, Hochman says he did not vote for Trump for president in 2016 or 2020. In August, he announced that he was endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

Public safety

Gascón says he believes over-incarceration and insufficient emphasis on rehabilitation have contributed to an excessively punitive criminal justice system.

He argued during his campaign in 2020 that by taking a more progressive approach, he could improve public safety while also helping to bring down jail populations. He has spent the last four years putting that approach into practice.

Hochman has assailed that vision, deriding his opponent’s “extreme pro-criminal, anti-victim policies.” Gascón has countered that such rhetoric amounts to “fearmongering.”

While there have been major shifts in the D.A. office’s approach under Gascón, the results in practice haven’t all been dramatic. In February, The Times reported that data showed that 51% of cases filed by prosecutors during his first term were felonies, down just 3% from the final two years of the term of his predecessor, Jackie Lacey.

As of October 2023, violent crime in the city of Los Angeles had fallen nearly 7% since the previous year, LAPD data showed. Homicides, robberies and rapes were also down over the same period.

Yet other crimes have seen an uptick during the Gascón years, particularly countywide. For instance, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department data show that in 2023 it investigated 212 homicides, up from 145 in 2019.

Overall, violent crime in L.A. County rose about 8% from 2019 to 2022. But that’s a far cry from the 13 counties that saw 20% or higher rises in violent crime in 2022 alone. Experts tend to caution against reading too much into short-term crime trends, and Gascón’s defenders note that crime also rose elsewhere under the watch of more conservative prosecutors.

Public perception

An August poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by The Times, found that 60% of 1,136 likely voters said they felt public safety in L.A. County had declined over the last three years, while only 5% said it had improved.

That’s been a contributing factor to low approval ratings for Gascón. Only 21% of voters in the August survey reported a favorable opinion versus 45% with an unfavorable opinion. Fifty-seven percent had no opinion of Hochman — suggesting he’s something of a blank slate for undecideds — but he also seems to appeal to swaths of voters. Of those polled, 35% held a favorable opinion of Hochman and just 7% viewed him unfavorably.

Hochman has repeatedly hammered home the idea that the incumbent’s policies have left the public less safe.

Gascón’s efforts have “resulted in a surge of violent crimes, property crimes, hate crimes and fentanyl poisonings,” Hochman said in an interview with The Times.

“On Day One, I would work ... to bring back sensible, commonsense policies that will restore our public safety and institute real and effective criminal justice reform,” he said.

Both candidates have drawn endorsements from a wide array of industries and circles.

Gascón counts Planned Parenthood L.A., the L.A. County Democratic Party, the Los Angeles Times editorial board — which formally endorsed him two months before the March primary — and Jane Fonda among his supporters.

Hochman has attracted the endorsements of the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys, the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and billionaire real estate magnate and former mayoral candidate Rick Caruso. He also has the backing of several Hollywood power brokers, including Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and his wife, Nicole Avant, a U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas under former President Obama.

Hochman has argued that the Gascón team is trying to make the election about politics rather than crime and other key issues. Gascón’s campaign strategist, Jamarah Hayner, has reminded voters of his opponent’s political shift.

“Mr. Hochman is gambling on voters forgetting that he remained a Republican until 2022 — that’s six years of Donald Trump’s hate and bigotry,” Hayner wrote. “In Los Angeles, that’s a risky bet.”

Hochman has tried to keep the race focused on his plans to combat crime rather than his party affiliation.

“I think what will drive people to the polls is the recognition of the importance of the D.A. position as far as public safety goes,” he said in an interview a day after he endorsed Harris for president.