Voters, investors and crime experts have eyes on bid to recall San Francisco DA

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Ahead of the June 6 primary election in California, San Francisco residents and special-interest groups are witnessing a record-setting influx of money in a bid to recall progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Voting has already begun in the primary and the recall effort has garnered national attention, having reportedly raised about $5 million. However, coalitions opposing the recall and Bay Area criminal law experts paint the effort as a conservative-backed attempt to change the city’s approach to criminal justice and politics that is not likely to succeed.

Boudin took office in January 2020, beating out interim District Attorney Suzy Loftus with a call to action to combat mass incarceration. The website recallchesa.com was launched anonymously before his inauguration and the San Francisco Police Officers Association invested at least $600,000 into ads calling Boudin “the #1 choice of criminals and gang members."

In 2021, political commentator Richie Greenberg registered the recallchesaboudin.org domain as a recall committee. Mary Jung, former San Francisco Democratic Party chair, launched another pro-recall committee San Franciscans for Public Safety.

The latter's website reports $3,879,250 has come from San Rafael group Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy. Other contributions include $633,000 from Shorenstein Realty Services and Affiliated Entities, $602,722 from William Oberndorf and $250,000 from California Real Estate Independent Expenditure Committee-California Association of Realtors.

Recall backers claim Boudin is not prosecuting criminals as much as his predecessors, and cite policies such as alternate convictions for fentanyl drug dealing to prevent deportations, according to court data and news sources like San Francisco Standard.

Endorsers include the San Francisco Republican Party and Supervisor Catherine Stefani. In a public post on Facebook, Stefani wrote: “To have any prayer of making real progress, we need a district attorney who will put aside ideology, who will seek to listen rather than to be heard, and who will take the problems we face seriously.”

Mayor London Breed, who chooses Boudin’s successor if he is removed, did not respond to requests for comment. She has refused to take a public stance on the recall but has repeatedly clashed with Boudin on public safety strategies according to the Chronicle and SFGate.

The police union has repeatedly denounced Boudin’s policies. Police Chief Bill Scott attempted to end a memorandum of understanding holding the DA’s office as lead investigating agency on use-of-force incidents, in-custody deaths and police shootings. Boudin has also been at odds with the department, including revealing that officers used DNA from a woman’s rape kit to implicate her in a property crime, according to San Francisco Chronicle.

Neither the police union nor San Francisco Police Department spokespeople responded to requests for comment.

Greenberg, the political commentator behind the recall, said, “The country is watching. This is a national issue and national topic.”

He said he wants to see “an actual prosecutor appointed by London Breed, not someone who’s making excuses for criminals” and believes Breed will appoint “someone who is a bit more law and order,” pointing to her pick for District 6 supervisor, Matt Dorsey, former spokesperson for SFPD.

San Francisco voter Leanna Louie said she and other residents are concerned about looting and crime in the city and want Boudin out because “the DA holds the key to what happens in a criminal case.”

She added: “Nobody wants to be out on the streets being mugged like we have been. People are just tired of being victims of crime. We’re going to send a really strong message to criminals and the DA who enables the criminals that we will not accept this any longer."

Louie said she wants to see a new DA with experience as a prosecutor — Boudin was previously a public defender.

Those opposing the recall include the Democratic County Central Committee, which voted 20-2 to oppose, and the San Francisco Democratic Party. Local news organizations including Sing Tao Daily, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner wrote editorials opposing the recall.

Team Chesa Boudin and San Franciscans Against the Recall of Chesa Boudin report contributions from the Real Justice PAC, Grassroots Law PAC, Dignity CA SEIU Local, Service Employees International Union and Patty Quillin.

No on H/Friends of Chesa Boudin Opposing the Recall reported $125,000 from Dignity CA SEIU Local and $115,000 each from Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Christian Larsen. The San Francisco Labor Council has also endorsed Boudin, campaign manager Zaki Shaheen said. He said the campaign still has $450,000 to spend with about $2.5 million raised.

Julie Edwards of Friends of Chesa Boudin said, “We feel tremendous momentum heading into the final weeks of the campaign. “Voters in San Francisco made their decision. It (the recall) is not how people want their elected officials chosen.”

The American Civil Liberties Union created a committee opposing the recall, raising $250,000, according to documents filed with the San Francisco Ethics Commission. The organization said it supports Boudin’s policies including “refusing to charge children as adults, creating a process to overturn wrongful convictions, prosecuting police officers when they break the law and offering alternatives to incarceration when appropriate.”

ACLU executive director Abdi Soltani acknowledged some residents' frustration but said "criminalizing poverty and addiction and filling the jails won’t make San Francisco any safer. Recall supporters, including the police union and a handful of wealthy donors, are distorting Chesa Boudin’s record and stoking residents’ fears to derail criminal justice reform.”

Franklin Zimring, professor at UC Berkeley Law, said the recall will reveal whether the notion of getting rid of duly elected officials is here to stay.

“This is much more a political ploy that, should it prove successful, would become a hearty perennial in our local politics,” Zimring said. “The fact that it got this far simply indicates the willingness of people that want to invest significant resources. … in a destabilizing effort.”

Jonathan Simon, also of Berkeley Law, said he thinks the money “wouldn’t make a big difference if there wasn’t a sort of narrative about crime that has taken hold pretty effectively.”

Simon said swings between law and order and reform happen frequently because people are emotionally affected by “signal crimes” or incidents that draw media attention, such as when two women were struck by a driver on New Year’s Eve 2020 or when retail smash-and-grabs occurred this past Christmas.

Blaming Boudin for these crimes is not logical for multiple reasons, Simon said, noting the DA only sees “a very small number of cases” from the entire caseload police carry.

“It’s not a fair judgment about a DA, and if you’re talking about reform it’s downright perverse,” Simon said. And the pandemic took a major toll on people’s mental and physical health and economic status, which created “a perfect storm” for heightened fear and instability.

Simon said if Boudin does get recalled, he does not think Breed’s pick will be a ‘’major swing backward’’ even if that person focuses on traditional punishment tactics.

“They certainly will seek a less antagonistic and less adversarial relationship with the police,” he said. “But I wouldn't expect to see super significant changes. There's a lot of people in San Francisco who, after a decade of largely unaccounted police killings, had generally had enough. The public opinion that led to a more adversarial position is not going away.”

Ultimately, it will come down to the will of the people. For voter Erma Bobb, who lives in the Tenderloin District, Boudin hasn't been given enough of a chance.

“He hasn’t been in office long. People say, oh let’s get him out, but they haven’t really said why," she said.

And Jose Mendoza, a voter and investigator with the Public Defender's Office who acknowledged he knows Boudin personally, said that while he isn’t always a fan of all of Boudin’s policies, he does not want to see the DA recalled.

“It’s so unfair that a lot of things he’s being blamed for are police work,” Mendoza said. “I have called the cops three times during the pandemic and I’ve noticed that after his administration arrived they don’t come out, or they take forever."

He added: “I see what he’s doing, and I have faith in him."

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Voters, investors and crime experts have eyes on bid to recall San Francisco DA

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