LOS ANGELES — Reform candidate George Gascon will take control of the nation's largest local prosecutor's office after incumbent Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey conceded the contest Friday, handing a major win to the movement to elect progressive district attorneys.
Gascon, 66, the former San Francisco district attorney and Los Angeles Police Department assistant chief, jumped out to an early election-night lead that has remained steady as the ballot count continued. Lacey would have needed to win more than two-thirds of the remaining tally to be reelected. Instead, she delivered a concession speech at the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles.
The location has been the site of ongoing protests by Black Lives Matter organizers over her role as D.A.
Lacey entered the room holding the hand of her husband David to loud applause from a few dozen prosecutors and staff members before conceding.
During a 10-minute speech in which she listed a wide array of accomplishments during her tenure, she said her consultants had advised her that Gascon's lead in the race was too much to overcome.
Her voice frequently cracking with emotion, she offered a message of unity and called for calm after a contentious race against Gascon.
"We must work together to make the system better for everyone without demonizing people," she said.
Lacey, 63, nearly ended the race in March, claiming 48% of the primary vote, far ahead of Gascon and former public defender Rachel Rossi, but falling short of the majority that would have given her an outright victory. But Gascon, who has long championed alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent and mentally ill defendants, gained momentum throughout the summer during nationwide protests calling for changes to the criminal justice system.
Ultimately, that wave was enough to topple Lacey, who has been criticized locally for declining to charge police officers in a number of shootings of unarmed men during her eight years in office. Lacey was L.A. County's first female and first Black district attorney and had served as a deputy district attorney for more than 30 years.
She ran as a more traditional, tough-on-crime D.A. but also embraced reforms such as diversion programs for mentally ill defendants.
Gascon's victory could dramatically alter the operations in the Los Angeles County office, which includes nearly 1,000 deputy district attorneys and on average files charges in more than 100,000 cases each year. In San Francisco, Gascon made frequent use of diversion programs and alternative sentencing methods for defendants accused of nonviolent crimes, juveniles and those suffering from mental illness or drug addiction.
The moves helped lower San Francisco's jail population during his eight years in office, but some police officials also blamed his policies for driving a historic surge in car break-ins and other property crimes.
During the campaign, Gascon said he would consider reopening investigations into a number of fatal police shootings in which Lacey declined to prosecute officers, including the 2016 killing of Brendon Glenn in Venice Beach. A staunch opponent of the death penalty, he also said he will work to have death row inmates who were convicted in L.A. County resentenced to life without parole.
Once in office, Gascon will have to find a way to mend fences with line prosecutors and law enforcement in the county. Unions representing rank-and-filed LAPD officers and sheriff's deputies spent millions in support of Lacey, and the union representing deputy district attorneys spent much of the campaign criticizing Gascon's tenure in San Francisco.
