Progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón survived the push to get him ousted even though more than 520,000 confirmed voters supported a recall petition.
The California county’s registrar-recorder, Dean Logan, announced Monday that 195,783 of the 715,833 signatures on the recall petition “were found to be invalid,” with nearly 90,000 of them not registered to vote and nearly 45,000 signatures being duplicates.
That still left 520,050 eligible signatures — just shy of the 566,857 that were needed to move forward with the recall.
“Therefore, the petition has failed to meet the sufficiency requirements and no further action shall be taken on the petition,” the registrar announced.
The much-maligned DA — whose woke policies allowing violent criminals to remain free have been blamed for rising crime in the City of Angels and neighboring areas — acknowledged the decision Monday, saying he was “grateful to move forward from this attempted political power grab-rest.”
The group behind the recall effort called the decision “surprising and disappointing,” while vowing to “exercise its full statutory and legal authority to review the rejected signatures and verification process.”
Still, it noted that “over half a million residents placed valid signatures on a petition to initiate the recall.”
“To deprive them of the opportunity to restore public safety in their own communities is heartbreaking. And to interpret this in any other way other than a wholesale rejection of Gascón’s dangerous polices would be disingenuous, or naive at best,” the recall group said.
“The over half a million signatures are in addition to 37 cities voting no confidence in the District Attorney, and over 98% of Gascón’s own prosecutors supporting the recall.”
The group vowed to fight on, saying that the “removal of George Gascón from office has never been a matter of if, but when.
“The citizens of Los Angeles cannot afford another two years of Gascon unleashing havoc on their streets — people’s lives are at stake.”
Jonathan Hatami, a Los Angeles deputy DA and a fierce critic of Gascón’s, said he was “incredibly saddened and disappointed” by the news.
“The residents of LA County cannot afford another two years of George Gascon’s dangerous policies,” he said in a statement. “The lives of so many innocent residents are at risk. So, we all must come together to help and stand up for one another until George is gone.”
Since taking office in December 2020, Gascón has faced mounting criticism over his progressive directives to reform prosecutions in the county, including a rule against seeking the death penalty, a ban on transferring juvenile defendants to adult court and prohibitions on filing sentencing enhancements in most cases.
Candidates running for local office vowed to continue the fight to overturn many of the policies that led to the initial recall bid.
“Somehow George Gascon will continue in his role of releasing VIOLENT CRIMINALS onto our streets and making Californians UNSAFE,” Senate candidate James Bradley tweeted.
“This is a sad day here in LA because it means that ONCE AGAIN the system has failed the people it was meant to serve.”
Businessman Rick Caruso, who says he is “running for Mayor to clean up LA,” also highlighted the failed recall in a push for votes to help him make the city safer.
“All Angelenos deserve to feel safe, and they deserve a say on the extreme policies of DA Gascón, fully backed by Rep. Bass, that are causing us real problems and harm,” he wrote.
