George Brauchler
No individual has more influence over public safety and criminal justice than district attorneys, and all of them are on the ballot this year. Several of Colorado‘s most important district attorney races will offer the opportunity to adopt the pro-criminal approach that has fueled our crime tsunami, or turn to a system that insists on accountability and puts victims first.
Because Colorado is the only state in the United States that limits the terms of its district attorneys, four years ago Colorado saw more than half of its prosecutors replaced. Nationally, following the murder of George Floyd, numerous inexperienced prosecutorial candidates were elected on platforms of experimental and broad criminal justice reform. Communities across the United States and Colorado are reconsidering those decisions.
One lesson learned is undeniable: Elected district attorneys with little experience in state prosecutions are the most susceptible to adopting the politically attractive and demonstrably ineffective day politics of their extremist base. Examples are everywhere.
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San Francisco: Democrat Chesa Boudin, who had no prosecutorial experience and only five years as a deputy public defender, ran for district attorney on a platform of “decarceration” (emptying jails and prisons). She earned the endorsement of Bernie Sanders and narrowly defeated three candidates with experience in processing through ranked-choice voting. After the election of the progressive Boudin, crime in San Francisco skyrocketed. Less than 30 months after taking office, voters removed Boudin in an unprecedented recall election.
Chicago: In 2016, Kim Foxx, backed by a PAC with $300,000 of George Soros money, became Cook County state’s attorney on a platform that included reducing prosecutions and ending cash bail. In his first year in office, Cook County’s incarceration rate fell nearly 20%. The crime got worse. A Soros PAC invested $2 million in his 2020 re-election. Beset by growing criticism of his policies, impeachment decisions, growing lawlessness in the city, and mishandling of high-profile cases involving Jussie Smollett and R. Kelly, Foxx decided not to seek re-election this year.
Portland: In 2020, after just five years of prosecutorial experience that had ended seven years earlier, Mike Schmidt was elected district attorney for Multnomah County, Portland, on a platform opposing mandatory prison sentences and treatment of violent juvenile offenders as adults. Schmidt, a proud “progressive prosecutor,” refused to prosecute criminals who participated in the George Floyd protests and implemented measures to decriminalize drug possession. Google “Portland crime” to see how that approach worked. Despite a $213,000 infusion of Soros-linked support, Schmidt was defeated by nearly 10 points by a career prosecutor candidate from his own office.
Colorado has its own examples. In July 2022, 12th Judicial District Attorney Alonzo Payne was ousted from his office in southern Colorado 18 months after running unopposed in the post-George Floyd 2020 general election. The Bernie Sanders-backed Democrat defeated the incumbent district attorney, a former police officer, by promising to eliminate cash bail throughout his jurisdiction. He had no experience in processing. Payne prioritized soft-crime policies over compliance with Colorado victims’ rights laws. The community rebelled. Payne resigned after voters gathered enough signatures to place his recall on the ballot. He has since been disqualified from practicing law.
What’s up with this year in Colorado?
The 2020 Democratic candidate for the 18th Judicial District (Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties), Amy Padden, was endorsed by Bernie Sanders and ran on a broad reform platform, stating that “systemic racism and inequalities They continue in our criminal justice system. “He pledged to never prosecute juvenile offenders as adults. With little experience as a part-time rural prosecutor for low-level state criminal offenses, Padden narrowly lost to seasoned Republican John Kellner in Colorado’s most populous jurisdiction. Four Years later, it may be different.
Beginning in January 2025, there will be a new, predominantly Democratic 18th Judicial District (Arapahoe County only). It will be the third largest district in Colorado. Kellner enters the private sector. Padden, a self-proclaimed “true progressive” who was supported by contributions from the Soros family in her previous campaigns for district attorney and attorney general, is the presumptive Democratic nominee. Recently, the Colorado Court of Appeals overturned a gun-related conviction that Padden obtained due to prosecutorial misconduct. She will face Republican and former District Attorney Carol Chambers (2005-2013), a career prosecutor.
In Denver, the second-largest district, District Attorney Beth McCann’s decision not to seek re-election has resulted in a de facto two-way race between Democrats Leora Joseph and John Walsh. Walsh was a successful white-collar federal prosecutor in California 30 years ago and then served as President Obama’s federal prosecutor in Colorado from 2010 to 2016 (the longest stint in the state’s history), where he oversaw criminal and civil litigation. federal office. Walsh ran unsuccessfully for district attorney in 2004 and for the United States Senate in 2020. He appears to have never been a state prosecutor or personally prosecuted violent crimes. Joseph’s career in the state attorney’s office spans several decades and includes leadership roles in several metropolitan area prosecutor’s offices. She has personally prosecuted countless violent criminals and victimizers of women and children. She had never run for public office before.
This year, Arapahoe and Denver have clear decisions to make. Will they follow the dramatic shift toward experienced state prosecutors in progressive counties across America, or will they roll the public safety dice and hope for a different result than we’ve seen everywhere?
George Brauchler is the former district attorney of the 18th Judicial District and is running for district attorney in the newly created 23rd Judicial District. He has served as an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute. Follow him on Twitter (X): @GeorgeBrauchler.
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