Democrats have rallied around controversial San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who is facing a recall election in June as crime continues to soar in the city and he continues to pursue radical reforms to policing and prosecution.
Boudin, the son of a convicted member of the Weather Underground terrorist group, was elected in 2019 on promises to pursue criminal justice reform, including a pledge to stop prosecuting “quality of life” crimes such as public urination.
He immediately caused controversy by firing experienced anti-gang prosecutors and dropping charges against a man who attacked police. His policies became more controversial as crimes, including mass looting, continued to spread in the city.
When left-wing Mayor London Breed, who initially backed the “Defund the Police” movement, changed her mind and called for a state of emergency in the drug-infested Tenderloin district, Boudin spoke out in opposition to her plan. “Arresting people who are addicted to drugs, jailing people who have mental health struggles, putting folks who are vending hot dogs or other food on the streets in cages will not solve these problems, and they are certainly not the only tools available,” he said.
Late last year, Boudin’s opponents gathered enough signatures to force a recall election against him. Now, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, Democrats are uniting around him and alleging that the recall proponents are violating campaign rules:
San Francisco’s Democratic Party has filed a state complaint against the campaign working to oust District Attorney Chesa Boudin, alleging that the recall committee violated campaign laws by misrepresenting its paid spokesperson as an independent critic of the prosecutor.
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“I have fought for criminal justice reform and victims’ rights in San Francisco for over 20 years,” the mailer says in a quote attributed to [recall spokesperson Andrea] Shorter, with a full-page photo of her in the backdrop. “Chesa Boudin’s refusal to do his job is devastating our city.”
The mailer’s final page states that “Leading San Francisco Democrats Want Criminal Justice Reform,” giving a “clear implication is that Shorter is the ‘leading Democrat’ referenced,” the complaint states.
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San Francisco Democratic Central Committee passed a resolution opposing the recall.
Gov. Gavin Newsom defeated a recall election effort last year. Democrats have opposed other recalls throughout the state, and want to reform the state’s century-old recall laws, which are the last remaining check on one-party rule in California.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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