Allahpundit’s prediction from last night should be kicking into gear this morning. Crime will suddenly “rocket” to be among the top three priorities for Democrats heading into the midterms. And they have Chesa Boudin to thank for that. As much as the soft-on-crime Democratic District Attorney’s supporters tried to paint this as some sort of Republican trick and a secret plot to undo their “justice reform” movement, the vote really wasn’t even close. The disparity in the first batch of votes that were returned led the AP to call the race barely half an hour after the polls closed and Boudin is on his way back home. This was probably one of the closest watched races (by Democrats in particular) in the entire country and it will likely resonate in the national general election battles to come. (National Review)
Voters in progressive San Francisco on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported the recall of Chesa Boudin, the city’s radical left-wing district attorney, two years after he was elected on a platform that emphasized reducing the jail population and prioritizing “restorative justice.”
The first batch of votes, posted just before 9 p.m. in California, showed 61.3 percent support for the recall, known locally as Proposition H, highlighting just how frustrated San Francisco residents have become with Boudin’s soft-on-crime approach that many believe has helped make the city a more dangerous place to live, visit, and do business.
The Associated Press called the recall results about a half hour after the first batch of votes were posted.
To be clear, while I’m sure all eight of the Republicans in San Francisco voted in favor of the recall, this decision was driven by Democrats who have slowly begun to realize that their efforts to promote “decarceration,” their efforts to “empty the jails,” and to decriminalize everything short of murder have blown up in their faces. The streets of San Francisco are a disaster in many neighborhoods and it’s not safe for the law-abiding to walk the streets, particularly at night. None of this has happened by accident.
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You can rest assured that other liberal Democrats around the country will have taken note of this result. They’ve already seen more than enough examples in other parts of the country to tell them which way the political winds are blowing. Even in places where Republicans still can’t get elected, “law and order” Democrats are winning victories by running on this specific issue. We saw Eric Adams (a former Republican and police officer) win big in New York City. Another former Republican is now heading into the runoff to be the Mayor of Los Angeles against a very liberal opponent and he’s looking like the favorite to win. Los Angeles DA George Gascon, who is cut from essentially the same cloth as Boudin, appears to almost certainly be heading for a recall of his own.
At the local level, formerly Democratic enclaves have even been flipped to the red column. In New York State, out on Long Island, two entrenched Democratic District Attorneys were ousted by Republicans last November. The challengers had run almost exclusively on a promise to reverse the “bail reform” laws that have been flooding the streets with criminals awaiting trial. The very liberal Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, had to threaten Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with being removed from his office to get him to start prosecuting crimes.
The real challenge for many Democrats heading into the midterms will be finding a strategy that will convince voters to develop a sudden case of amnesia. How will the officials who lectured their constituents on the need to defund or abolish the police and empty the jails suddenly turn around and declare that they will make sure criminals are put behind bars and ensure that the streets are safe again? Is everyone just supposed to shrug their shoulders and pretend that all of this unpleasantness never happened?
Chesa Boudin should be an object lesson for the rest of the country. Once he realized that he was in trouble, he made a big show of actually prosecuting a couple of criminals. It wasn’t enough, however. He had already shown his true colors and Democrats in what is arguably the bluest city in the nation showed him the door. If the rest of his party doesn’t learn something from this lesson, many more will likely be following him.
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