Voting is underway in the primary for Los Angeles County District Attorney, and the large field with 12 candidates could help incumbent George Gascón, even though a poll released earlier this month by Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State University Long Beach, and the University of Southern California found 51% of voters disapprove of the job he’s doing.
Who’s going up against Gascón?
- Deputy District Attorney John McKinney
- Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami
- Deputy District Attorney Eric Siddall
- Deputy District Attorney Maria Ramirez
- Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Chemerinsky
- Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Debra Archuleta
- Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Craig Mitchell
- Former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman
- Retired Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Milton
- Defense Attorney Dan Kapelovitz
- San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Lloyd “Bobcat” Mason
“The large field is the best thing that’s ever happened to [Gascón] for sure,” said Jim Newton, a UCLA lecturer and the editor of Blueprint Magazine. “In a sense that it offers him a, not an unimpeded, but a fairly clear route to the runoff. With that many candidates, 15, 20% gets you the runoff. I think Gascón, barring something catastrophic between now and Election Day, he can probably count on that. He can get re-elected with a very low approval rating based more on the structure of the campaign than on his popularity.”