LA District Attorney George Gascón and challenger Nathan Hochman squared off in in an hour-long debate on Tuesday, Oct 1, which may be the last opportunity that voters have to see them take each other on before November 5.
The debate, which was both digital and in person, was sponsored by KNX (97.1 FM and 1070 AM) and the Los Angeles Times, with reporters from each news outlets asking questions.
In September of this year, the two also answered questions on a Zoom forum hosted by Jewish Federation of Los Angeles. But on that occasion Zoom suddenly developed technical difficulties, making the event less than ideal.
In contrast, LA Times/KNX debate allowed viewers an essential opportunity to compare the candidates side-by-side.
It was not a friendly exchange between DA Gascon and the guy who wants his job.
For those unfamiliar, Nathan Hochman is a political conservative with an impressive resume. In 2007, Nathan Hochman was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division, a prestigious position. In the years that followed, he served as a federal prosecutor, a federal defense attorney, and was head of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission. In 2022, Hochman ran and lost as the Republican candidate for California Attorney General. (He now positions himself as independent.)
In general Hochman is a talented lawyer. As a defense attorney, Hochman represented former LA County Sheriff Lee Baca, in Baca’s 2017 federal trials. Yes, in the end Baca was convicted. But it took two trials to do it, mostly due to Hochman’s impressive set of skills as a legal knife fighter.
The truth factor
On the topic of campaign knife fighting, from the time he threw his metaphorical hat into the ring, Hochman’s main weapon has been his contention that crime has gone up alarmingly in LA County due to Gascon’s justice reform policies. Weapon number two is Hochman’s assertion that the sitting DA has a lousy relationship with law enforcement.
The problem with both of these two campaign claims, is that they don’t hold up well when subjected to fact checking. This is particularly true when it comes to Hochman’s use of the LA County’s crime rates.
For example, earlier this year, when Gascon was still facing a line-up of 11 challengers, Hochman pushed a similar narrative on social media and in interviews with the press. For example, he told the LA Times editorial board that the present DA “refuses to prosecute misdemeanors at all, and generally avoids prosecuting felonies.” When “asked to show evidence,” wrote the LA Times board, “he couldn’t.”
The LA Times is not the only news outlet that has questioned Hochman’s claim that Gascón and his policies have caused crime to rise and thus endangered LA County and its communities.
In July, the traditionally conservative-leaning editorial board of the Orange County Register called Hochman out on his counterfactual approach to crime figures.
“Gascón was elected at the end of 2020,” the OC Board wrote. “Since 2020, it’s true that both violent and property crime reports are up in Los Angeles County. But both are also up in Riverside County, which has both a tough-on-crime DA and a tough-on-crime sheriff. While property crimes are down in Orange County, violent crimes have spiked too despite having a tough-on-crime DA.”
Riverside County, however, it is not the only county in the state that has crime figures that are not only up, they are quite a bit higher than those in Los Angeles County.
According to the October 2023 report by the Public Policy Institute of California, in addition to Riverside County, San Francisco County, Sacramento County, Alameda County, and Santa Clara County, all have higher jumps in crime than LA County.
The PPIC graph below illustrates the differences.
Note: the PPIC based its calculations on the California Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Statistics Center, California Crimes and Clearances Files, 2021–2022.
The above chart shows the change in crime rates from 2021 to 2022 in California’s 15 largest counties, sorted by population size. Property crime includes burglary, motor vehicle theft, and larceny theft (including non-felonious larceny theft); violent crime includes homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
Cops & DAs
As for Gascon’s relationship with police, when it comes to crime fighting, beginning in 2003, he served as 1st Assistant Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department during the tenure of then Chief Bill Bratton. In the LAPD, the position of 1st Assistant Chief, means one essentially runs the day-to-day operations of the department. During his tenure under Bratton, Gascón was credited with helping to bring crime down across the city dramatically. In 2006, Gascón left the LAPD to take the position of Chief of Police in Mesa AZ, bringing the crime down in that city to the lowest in a decade.)
More soon, so, stay tuned.
PS: LA Times has endorsed Gascon and the points the LAT board makes are worth reading.
PPS: To watch a recording of the debate go here.
where can this debate be viewed?
Editor’s note:
Hi, Jan,
Check the second Post Script at the bottom of the story and there’s a link. I don’t know how long it’ll work. But it works now.
Good luck. It was VERY interesting.
C.
Bye Bye GG.
Wow. Gascon performed terribly. We’ll see if it was bad enough to unseat and replace him with a realist like Hochman.
What the polls are showing
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-10-08/hochmans-lead-over-gascon-grows-to-30-in-new-la-da-race-poll
Let’s hope Gascon is packing to leave soon…
Scene: Gascon is seated at a table in an upscale French restaurant located in Beverly Hills, white table cloth, fine China, beautiful stemware, fine silverware. He is seated amongst the notable elites of Los Angeles County, very snobbery in all that they do and say, phony laughs and speech patterns that mimic Thurston Howell on Gilligan’s Island.
The waiter is taking dinner orders and as he approaches Gascon, he notices the waiter’s name tag, “Monsieur le Public.” Gascon asks, “Do you have any recommendations this evening? The waiter’s replies, “Why yes, Mr. Gascon. The Chef recommends this evening, goose. It is the finest fowl our exclusive purveyor of fine protein can provide.”
Gascon replies, “Very well, I shall have the goose,” as the table of guests all smile and nod in agreement, “Excellent choice, George. Let’s toast our District Attorney, To George, four more years of Progressive enrichment.” “Thank you all,” he replies.
The waiter asks, “Mr. Gascon, how would you like your goose prepared?” Gascon pauses for a moment and says, “I guess cooked.” As the table snobbishly chuckles, Monsieur le Public replies, “Why of course, Mister Gascon, consider your goose cooked. Cooked to perfection.” Gascon quickly states, “Monsieur, I noticed your name, it is very interesting. Is it French?” The waiter replies, “Why you have a very good eye, yes it is. My ancestors as best as I could research were just common people, actually French peasants originating in the 1780’s, and somehow my family line started, right along the time of the French Revolution. I’m sure they were just regular folks, farmers I’m sure.”
Gascon replied, “Interesting.”
The waiter walked to the kitchen, smiling.