The Los Angeles County district attorney’s race is shaping up as the highest-profile 2020 local election in the nation with a criminal justice reform crusader resigning as San Francisco’s DA so he can run against the Los Angeles DA who has been a much more conventional prosecutor in her seven years on the job.

George Gascon, a former L.A. beat cop and assistant police chief, has relocated to Los Angeles in anticipation of the March primary. Gascon has supported reforms that have reduced penalties for many crimes and made it easier for prisoners to win parole and convicts to expunge their records. He is expected to get millions from George Soros, the billionaire progressive who has backed reformers in DA races in San Diego, Queens and Pittsburgh in recent years, winning in only the latter city.

Jackie Lacey, a former L.A. beat cop, has supported some reforms, such as the recent decision to throw out tickets given to poor homeless people that essentially make them go to jail when they seek government help. She has the backing of police unions and virtually the entire California Democratic establishment – including San Francisco Mayor London Breed.

But Lacey has repeatedly upset some minority leaders and civil rights activists by declining to ever seek criminal charges when law enforcement officers are credibly accused of abusive behavior.

A 2015 case in which an officer fatally shot an unarmed African-American homeless man in the back in Venice continues to anger activists and baffle even some in law enforcement. Surveillance video showed Officer Leonard Proctor, who is also black, had lied about victim Brendon Glenn reaching for his partner’s gun.

Lacey rejected police chief’s call to charge own officer

The details of the case were so egregious that then-Police Chief Charlie Beck urged that Proctor face manslaughter charges – the first time he had ever called for the DA to prosecute anyone at LAPD. But no charges of any kind were brought by Lacey, who in 2018 said she didn’t believe she had a provable case against Proctor.

But as Breed’s endorsement of Lacey suggests, Gascon remains a controversial figure in San Francisco. A front-page story in the Oct. 31 Chronicle looked at how a progressive prosecutor could make so many enemies in such a progressive city. The newspaper noted that he had faced criticism from both sides of the police conduct debate – bashed by police unions when he investigated police shootings, but also bashed by activists for failing to prosecute officers for some high-profile fatal shootings.

And Breed was only one of many San Franciscans who believed that Gascon’s tolerant policies toward street crime had both fueled homelessness and led to San Francisco becoming the large city with highest property-crime rate in the U.S. The Chronicle has reported that there are arrests in only 2 percent or less of car break-ins.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has also endorsed Lacey. In a statement, Herrera described Lacey as “the only candidate for L.A. County District Attorney who has the background, proven track record, and vision needed to continue creating positive change.”

Gascon is not the only DA candidate challenging Lacey from the left. Prosecutors Richard Ceballos and Joseph Iniguez are also running. Ceballos has hired the same political consultant who helped the poorly funded campaign of Sheriff’s Lt. Alex Villanueva stun incumbent Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell in November 2018.

A CalWatchdog

The survey, which was cited by Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters, established that the wrongdoing went far beyond the nationally publicized scandals in the small town of Bell, in which a small cadre of administrators and elected officials covertly siphoned millions of dollars away from public use for their own enrichment.

Among the many improprieties: the resignation of the mayor of South El Monte after he admitted taking bribes; officials at the Central Basin Municipal Water District being caught using a $2.75 million slush fund of ratepayer dollars for political machinations; the resignation of two City of Commerce council members for misleading official investigations into their conduct; as well as scandals that led elected officials to quit or go to jail in Cudahy, Lynwood, Maywood, Montebello, South Gate and Vernon.

But something strange has happened since South El Monte Mayor Luis Aguinaga resigned eight months ago after being caught taking bribes from a city contractor for seven years: After a decade-plus of one scandal after another, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office reports a lull in corruption scandals countywide.

According to public records obtained by the Los Angeles Times, just 11 felony public corruption cases were filed last year, down from 39 in 2010.

Explanations vary for lull in prosecutions

In a statement to the Times, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey suggested that all the prosecutions and forced resignations in recent years might have discouraged corruption. Former state lawmakers Ron Calderon and Tom Calderon — brothers who built a political fiefdom over decades — pleaded guilty to public corruption charges last year after what an investigation showed was years of influence peddling that began at their power base in Montebello and the Central Basin water agency. Also cited as possibly affecting criminal filings: the departure of some senior deputy district attorneys with the most experience in public corruption cases.

Academics have also argued for decades that corruption comes in cycles: scandals lead to crackdowns and tough regulation, which leads to assumptions about problems being addressed and scrutiny slackening, thus leading to new scandals.

But officials at the scandal-scarred Central Basin water agency have a specific reason to stay on the straight and narrow: a new state law adds layers of accountability and transparency specifically designed for the water supplier, which delivers supplies to nearly 2 million Los Angeles County residents.

Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, won the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown last September for AB 1794. The measure increases the number of people on the water agency’s board of directors, specifies the ways that the positions can be filled, adopts stricter language on contribution disclosures and says individuals already serving in a elected capacity are ineligible to be Central Basin board members.

Garcia’s measure easily passed the Legislature. Among those joining in the Assembly’s 80-0 vote for AB 1794: Assemblyman Ian Calderon, D-Whittier, son of Charles Calderon and nephew of Ron Calderon.

Ian Calderon, now 31, was first elected to the Assembly in 2012, before prosecutors closed in on his older relatives. He’s not suffering for the sins of his family. After a 2014 primary and general election scares in which he was nearly unseated by Republican Rita Topalian, he was re-elected easily over Topalian in 2016 and serves as Assembly majority floor leader.