As California voters turned out to vote in their state's primary elections on Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom and Senator Alex Padilla handily won over their party's base. And while those two Democrats coasted to partisan victory ahead of November's general election, one of their own in the deep-blue Golden State did not fare as well: progressive Democrat San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled by some of America's most liberal voters.
At his election night party...or whatever losers call their gatherings...Boudin told supporters that there's still more work to be done and he'll keep up the fight — but he won't be doing any of that working or fighting as San Francisco's DA.
BREAKING: San Francisco removes Chesa Boudin in historic recall.
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) June 8, 2022
See live election results, including vote breakdown by district: https://t.co/K8so2kwzTn pic.twitter.com/cfomntkHbX
By the time the race was called against the incumbent, more than 60 percent of the votes counted showed SF residents saying "yes" to the ballot question of whether Boudin should be removed from office for his disastrous prosecutorial standards and soft-on-crime attitude, compared to slightly less than 40 percent who said "no," he should remain in office.
As Guy pointed out just after the race was called, even San Francisco's often (rightly) mocked woke have their breaking point when it comes to what they'll tolerate in their own backyard.
Turns out the appeal of pro-criminal prosecutors has its limits, even in cartoonish hotbeds of leftism.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 8, 2022
Notably, the effort to recall Boudin — while obviously supported by the few brave conservative souls who remain loyal to the City by the Bay despite its downward trajectory — was backed by several current and former Dem Party officials in California.
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Despite Boudin's attempts to defend himself against the recall by painting the campaign as a GOP effort spearheaded by Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Tucker Carlson and other conservatives, it was his own party that did him in. "The fact is San Francisco Democrats put the recall on the ballot with 83,000 signatures, and a recent poll shows the recall is supported by 64% of San Francisco Democrats," noted Nima Rahimi, an executive board member of the CA Democrat Party in an op-ed urging Boudin's removal.
As Leah covered earlier this spring as it became apparent that Boudin was in deep trouble ahead of Tuesday's recall vote, San Francisco had become "a living nightmare" for most residents and business owners:
Many are taking matters into their own hands, with stores boarding up their windows and installing steel gates, for example, to protect themselves and their property. While vandalism and theft are rampant, homicides and assault are up too, according to the San Francisco Police Department's crime dashboard.
Despite the fact that Boudin's progressive policies — that is, letting essentially any criminal off the hook for their crimes in some dystopian social justice free-for-all — took San Francisco's streets from bad to worse, he did maintain support against the recall effort by some who were apparently unwilling to admit that being soft on crime was a mistake. They included The San Francisco Chronicle, California Nurses Association, ACLU of Northern California, San Francisco Democratic Party, and Sierra Club, among others — all of which now have slightly more egg on their face than before.
Boudin's recall defeat comes just months after San Francisco residents also voted to recall three of the city's ultra-progressive school board members for their woke focus on ending merit-based admissions and renaming schools deemed un-woke rather than working to reopen schools for students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The successful recall of Boudin — one of the nation's most progressive prosecutors in one of America's most liberal cities — also puts a brighter target on the back of other soft-on-crime district attorneys such as Los Angeles County DA George Gascon, against whom a similar recall attempt is gathering steam. In other big cities, such as Philadelphia and New York, similarly failed soft-on-crime policies have also pushed residents closer to their breaking points, and Boudin could prove to be a dam-breaking moment that proves to other cities — especially those less liberal than San Francisco — that a recall effort is worth their time to restore law and order.
Holy crap, Chesa Boudin has been voted out. Kudos, San Francisco.
— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) June 8, 2022
I wonder how LA's George Gascon and Philly's Larry Krasner feel right about now https://t.co/XNawzi9WO7
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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