The last decade has brought a remarkable shift in how California punishes crime and oversees law enforcement. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo
OAKLAND — Four wealthy activists intent on reshaping California's criminal justice system are gearing up for their biggest test yet against police and prosecutor groups.
The Northern California donors, some with fortunes from major Silicon Valley firms, have already spent millions on progressive prosecutors and ballot fights that have helped untether the state from its tough-on-crime past. Now, California's 2022 attorney general race could be a landmark moment.
The social justice movement has never lacked for energy, and last year’s police killing of George Floyd sparked waves of support for Black Lives Matter and other efforts that have challenged police policies and sentencing requirements as racist. Progressive donors in recent years have strategically targeted prosecutor races in major cities because district attorneys wield power over sentencing and investigations.
In California, social justice advocates are preparing to defend the state’s top prosecutor, Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is closely aligned with the reform movement and one of the nation’s most liberal AGs. The former state legislator was nominated to the post this year by Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Bonta’s election contest next year is expected to be a criminal justice bellwether.
“The last 10 years has been the biggest shift I’ve seen in terms of philanthropic interest in this issue,” said Lenore Anderson, who heads Californians for Safety and Justice. “When you have that shift the door is open … because you’re with the wind of change.”
In California, few causes get very far without a pile of money, given how difficult it is to reach 22 million registered voters across several major media markets.
The four donors — Patty Quillin, Quinn Delaney, Elizabeth Simons and Kaitlyn Krieger — channeled $22 million toward criminal justice ballot measures and allied candidates the previous two years, and their campaign contributions have steadily increased each election cycle. They spent $3.7 million alone to elect George Gascón, who rode the social justice wave that swept over America last summer to unseat incumbent Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey in November.
Delaney has been involved in criminal justice fights for decades, launching a foundation with her husband Wayne Jordan — a prominent Bay Area real estate developer — after voters passed a 2000 ballot proposition toughening sentencing for youth offenders.
Quillin is a philanthropist and the wife of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Simons is a former teacher and the daughter of hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist James Simons. Krieger and her husband, Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, run a criminal justice nonprofit.
The last decade has brought a remarkable shift in how California punishes crime and oversees law enforcement. Voters and lawmakers have hit reverse on decades of stringent laws that swelled the state’s prisons, backing a raft of bills and ballot initiatives to diminish penalties and increase police accountability. Reformist district attorneys Gascón in Los Angeles and Chesa Boudin in San Francisco have moved away from traditional approaches.
Bonta is facing attorney general opponents who contend he and other reformist prosecutors are undermining public safety, just as homicide and gun violence rates spike in California cities, a trend that mirrors other U.S. population centers.
Quillin, Delaney, Simons and Krieger have already given maximum contributions to Bonta, and they could pour significantly more into an independent committee that can raise unlimited sums. That account is overseen by Anne Irwin, who manages a central hub for their efforts through Smart Justice California. All four donors sit on the group’s board.
“I think the rhetoric of the 2022 attorney general race is going to resemble the dynamic of status quo, lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the key, tough-on-crime versus a new approach to public safety,” Irwin said in an interview.
The major funders have stayed under the radar, and all declined to speak for this story after several interview requests.
They came together in earnest in 2017 with the launch of Smart Justice. Despite victories at the ballot box in 2014 and 2016 that reduced drug and property crime penalties and made it easier for inmates to win parole, Irwin said reformers “were hitting a wall in places we shouldn’t have been hitting a wall” — particularly in the Legislature, where law enforcement unions and groups representing police chiefs and district attorneys wielded significant influence.
“Why were we having these ballot initiative victories, but we can’t get legislators, prosecutors or other elected officials to do the right thing? You don’t have to dig too deep to see the political power dynamics at play,” said Irwin, a former public defender who witnessed the potential of redemption after her father was incarcerated. “Our opponents … had deep pockets and we did not. That showed up and we were losing. It turns out it’s doable with some committed donors.”
They enlisted a top operative, former California Democratic Party Executive Director Shawnda Westly, and sought the counsel of Dana Williamson, a key adviser to then-Gov. Jerry Brown who is now running Bonta’s re-election campaign.
“It’s always more effective when you’re able to pool resources to help elect candidates” and "to champion issues in a coordinated way," said Williamson, who stressed that she previously advised Smart Justice for free in an unofficial capacity.
In the following years, Smart Justice worked to bend the ears of lawmakers in Sacramento. Simons’ Heising-Simons foundation and Krieger’s Future Justice Fund channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Smart Justice, and the women began meeting with individual lawmakers.
“It’s really hard to move beyond the fear-based headlines and to really talk about what happens to everyday people in the courthouse, in the jailhouse, and the police stations, and they are able to help translate that for folks who don’t know,” said state Sen. Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles). “The [district attorneys] and law enforcement come in and say what they want, but they’re also speaking from their own lens.”
Legislators spoke to a growing willingness in Sacramento to defy law enforcement. Part of that is a desire to be on the right side of evolving public opinion. But part of it is a blunt calculation about political risk.
When police unions opposed Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), the progressive chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, Smart Justice spent $100,000 to successfully defend him. Irwin chaired a committee backing then-state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), one of Sacramento’s leading reformers, when Mitchell successfully ran for Los Angeles County supervisor, defeating a fellow Democrat who had drawn the support of police unions.
“It helped me to be able to say to [lawmakers] ‘this is your opportunity to be able to step up and do the right thing and you don’t necessarily have the excuse that you won’t be able to defend yourself after tough votes,’” Mitchell said in an interview. “From my perspective we had moved into the big leagues.”
Law enforcement advocates agreed that power dynamics in Sacramento have markedly shifted, but they argue that progressive reformers and lawmakers have overreached with proposals to ease sentencing and reduce incarceration.
California District Attorneys Association lobbyist Larry Morse pointed to the American Civil Liberties Union sitting atop the list of lobbying expenditures in 2019 as evidence of “the dirty little secret” of pro-reform money “inundating the Legislature.”
“This is far and away the most hostile environment for law enforcement in a generation,” Morse said, adding that in previous decades “things went too far and there were excesses in terms of policies and everything, but that pendulum has swung back the other direction and then some.”
“We frankly get very tired of being characterized as troglodytes because we don’t embrace the scale and scope of what is being pushed as criminal justice reform in this Legislature,” Morse added. “It’s a very lonely task these days to be an advocate for public safety.”
The wealthy donors may have made their most consequential impact in local prosecutor races thus far. Campaigns to elect district attorneys have historically been low-profile affairs in which the support — and money — of law enforcement groups effectively guaranteed victory. But reform advocates have increasingly focused on those contests.
The 2018 cycle was an early test case. While an organization funded by George Soros supplied the most money, pouring millions into four California district attorney races, Quillin, Simons, Krieger and Delaney jointly spent around $360,000 on progressive candidates. Only one prevailed: Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton. Despite that mixed record, Irwin said 2018 laid the groundwork for future campaigns.
“We took the long view: we’re going to inspire folks who are currently in law school and currently in prosecutors’ offices as deputies to think about whether this is a direction you want to go in,” Irwin said. “It was a building block and a moment to test the waters.”
In the next cycle, they plunged in fully, spending millions to help propel Gascón and Boudin to watershed victories. Irwin said Gascón’s decision to challenge Lacey rested in part on knowing the growing network of funders was behind him.
“He knew he wasn’t going to win unless that ecosystem was all-in with him. We knew that too, so it was a little bit of a courting process,” she said. “It wouldn’t have happened without these committed, passionate, resourced folks.”
A backlash followed. Both Gascón and Boudin are facing recall campaigns as Los Angeles experiences a surge in homicides, some property crimes rise in San Francisco and gun violence spikes. Gascón’s own line prosecutors revolted when he told them to stop adding sentencing enhancements that increase prison time, while the California District Attorneys Association backed them in an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting D.A.
Those dynamics will frame Bonta’s attorney general re-election push. Bonta was a criminal justice reform stalwart in Sacramento and progressives’ favored attorney general pick. He started his tenure by vowing to repair what he calls a broken relationship between law enforcement and the communities they police, and he has already clashed with the California District Attorneys Association.
Bonta’s opponents include Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who has sought to link Bonta to what she calls the chaos and lawlessness encouraged by Gascón. Schubert left the Republican Party in 2018 and registered as a decline-to-state voter. She helped solve and then prosecuted the Golden State Killer case, a major breakthrough after decades of going cold.
Law enforcement interests have already lined up behind Schubert, who in 2018 prevailed over reformer-backed challenger Noah Phillips. “That influx of money into Sacramento was not successful,” Schubert said in an interview.
“I am proud to be the chief law enforcement officer of Sacramento, I would be proud to be the chief law enforcement officer of the state, and I would be proud to be supported by law enforcement. I’m not going to shy away from that,” Schubert said. “There’s been, since 2016, a lot of influx of money from what I would call supporters of the types of reckless policies” she is running against.
The 2022 election will set those competing visions against each other. Voters will be warned that reforms have gone too far and imperiled public safety. They will also hear that entrenched law enforcement interests are trying to unravel the state’s badly needed progress. The women who have worked to achieve those changes stand ready to defend them.
“I am forever grateful,” Mitchell said, “that they are choosing to use their superpowers for good.”
"fuel" - Google News
July 18, 2021 at 02:47AM
https://ift.tt/3z9ebrn
4 wealthy donors fuel overhaul of California's criminal justice system - POLITICO
"fuel" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WjmVcZ
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "4 wealthy donors fuel overhaul of California's criminal justice system - POLITICO"
Post a Comment