District Attorney George Gascón will face 11 challengers in the March 5 primary election in Los Angeles County.
The challengers looking to unseat the county’s top prosecutor include five members of his office and two Los Angeles County Superior Court judges.
The field includes the following candidates on the final list of qualified candidates released Saturday by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
- Eric Siddall, a violent crimes prosecutor who has been endorsed by the Association for Deputy District Attorneys, the union representing deputy district attorneys.
- Maria Ramirez, the head deputy district attorney
- Supervising district attorney John McKinney
- Prosecutor Jonathan Hatami
- Prosecutor Lloyd “Bobcat” Masson
- Nathan Hochman, a former U.S. assistant attorney general who was the Republican candidate for state attorney general in the 2022 general election
- Jeff Chemerinsky, an assistant U.S. attorney
- Criminal defense attorney Dan Kapelovitz
- Los Angeles County Superior Court Judges Debra Archuleta
- Los Angeles County Superior Court Craig J. Mitchell
- David S. Milton, who retired as a Superior Court judge March 25, 2014
Under the California Constitution, judges are eligible to run for office as long as they take a leave of absence without pay, Rob Oftring, the communications director of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County told City News Service.
If as expected, no candidate receives a majority, the top two finishers will meet in a runoff Nov. 5, like all nonpartisan races on the primary ballot.
Gascón has been under fire since taking office in December 2020, when he issued a series of directives critics have blasted as being soft on crime. The directives include 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.
Source: NBC Los Angeles