Fed-up Los Angelenos got the green light to launch a second recall effort against their district attorney over his controversial, soft-on-crime policies.
The Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters’ Office said it approved the petition drive on Thursday, giving organizers 160 days to collect signatures from 566,857 registered voters, equivalent to 10 percent of the current total.
The submission deadline is July 6 to put the measure up for a vote on Election Day, Nov. 8.
Gascon is among several Democratic DAs in major cities who have come under fire for their progressive policies, including new Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was blasted by the widow of slain NYPD cop Jason Rivera during his funeral Friday.
New York state does not offer a system for voters to recall elected officials, but Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove DAs, and on Wednesday told The Post’s editorial board that she “will be monitoring the situation very closely.”
Hochul and Bragg are set to meet in her Manhattan office Friday afternoon, with the governor saying she wanted the embattled DA to “tell me what his plans are and make sure that we’re all in alignment.”
An earlier attempt to recall Gascon failed in September when organizers abandoned the effort after collecting only about 200,000 signatures, which they blamed on “pandemic mandates and a premature start.”
A statement posted on the “Recall George Gascon” website said, “Unlike the initial recall effort, the new recall committee gathered substantial resources before the 160-day period for signature collection began, including over $2.7 [million] in contributions.”
“Instead of constantly playing catch up with resources, this effort is starting out ahead of the curve,” the statement added.
Officials in more than 30 of LA County’s 88 cities have issued votes of “no confidence” in Gascon and the city of Beverly Hills has endorsed the recall effort, according to the website.
“We are sick and tired of living in the pro-criminal paradise Gascon has created,” campaign committee co-chairs Desiree Andrade and Tania Owen said.
“Gascon turned his back on us, and now his policies are destroying Los Angeles County right before our eyes and needlessly creating more innocent victims.”
Andrade’s son was beaten to death in 2018 and Owen’s husband, a sergeant with the LA County Sheriff’s Department, was killed in an execution-style shooting after responding to a residential burglary in 2016.
Gascon, a progressive Democrat, unseated DA Jackie Lacey in 2020 amid anti-cop sentiment that surged following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier that year.
He immediately announced sweeping reforms that included not seeking tougher sentences through “enhancements” for crimes that involve the use of a gun, are tied to gang activity or fall under the state’s “three strikes” law.
The moves led him to clash with a homicide victim’s family at a news conference in December 2020.
Gascon’s office said the recall was a political matter and referred questions to his campaign spokesperson, who didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
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January 29, 2022 at 02:33AM
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Second effort to recall LA's soft-on-crime district attorney underway - New York Post
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