Giving Compass' Take:

• District attorneys typically build their reputation by being tough on crime, but prosecutor elections in California are making headlines by promoting more nuanced reform in the criminal justice system.

• How will these local elections shift the balance of power in the US? And will prison reform be within reach, if they are elected?

· Read how prosecutor reform is affecting a small DA race in North Carolina.


In most district attorney elections, the campaign playbook is clear: Win over the local cops and talk tough on crime.

But in California this year, the strategy is being turned on its head.

Wealthy donors are spending millions of dollars to back would-be prosecutors who want to reduce incarceration, crack down on police misconduct and revamp a bail system they contend unfairly imprisons poor people before trial.

The effort is part of a years-long campaign by liberal groups to reshape the nation’s criminal justice system. New York billionaire George Soros headlines a consortium of private funders, the ACLU and other social justice groups and Democratic activists targeting four of the 56 district attorney positions up for election on June 5. Five other California candidates are receiving lesser support.

The cash infusion turns underdog challengers into contenders for one of the most powerful positions in local justice systems, roiling conventional law-and-order politics.

For years, district attorney “races tended to focus on character issues rather than policies.... So it's really quite a change," said Stanford Law Professor David Sklansky, a former federal prosecutor.

In San Diego County, the groups back a deputy public defender who spent her legal career trying to keep the accused out of jail, not lock them up. In Sacramento and Alameda counties, they finance candidates taking on entrenched incumbents. And in Contra Costa County, they support a former judge appointed as district attorney last year who faces an election challenge from a career prosecutor.

The challengers have matched or surpassed the millions of dollars — largely from police, prosecutors and local business — flowing to incumbents unaccustomed to such organized liberal opposition.

But the coordination between big money and advocacy groups that don’t have to reveal their funding sources is largely out of public view.

The campaign has alarmed some law-and-order prosecutors, who warn that discretion over which laws to enforce and how has its limits.

Read the full article about prosecutor elections by Paige St. John and Abbie Vansickle at The Marshall Project.