Los Angeles (AFP) - California voters offered an apparent rebuke to progressive politicians this week, dumping a liberal prosecutor in San Francisco and rewarding a tough-on-crime former Republican with a shot at becoming mayor of Los Angeles.
Two of the most left-leaning enclaves in the United States seemed to be telling their leaders they are weary of well-meaning policies that have failed to get a handle on rising criminality and spiralling homelessness.
And, goes the argument, if that kind of stuff doesn't wash on the liberal West Coast, it won't float anywhere.
"The recall of Chesa Boudin overnight is a watershed moment," tweeted Washington Post columnist James Hohman, referring to San Francisco's chief prosecutor, who was booted from office by a healthy majority in Tuesday's citywide vote.
"It's not just a rejection of a single [district attorney].It's a repudiation of the failed soft-on-crime approach that has made so many of our cities less safe."
The strong showing of wealthy property developer Rick Caruso in Los Angeles' mayoral election was also heralded as a rejection of touchy-feely politics.
Caruso threw more than $40 million of his own money into a primary campaign focused narrowly on combating crime with more police officers, and sweeping away the sprawling homeless encampments that riddle the city.
By Wednesday, he had a 42 percent to 37 percent lead over nearest rival and Democratic Party stalwart Karen Bass (who spent just one twelfth of the amount on her campaign).
The two will face off in November to become leader of the second biggest city in the United States, when a higher voter turnout could shake things up.
The results come on the heels of the election last year of Eric Adams as mayor of Democratic-leaning New York, whose emphasis on crime and homelessness resonated with voters.
The Democratic Party appeared to be taking note Wednesday, with President Joe Biden acknowledging crime was a huge issue for the electorate ahead of the November midterms.
"The voters sent a clear message last night.Both parties have to step up and do something about crime as well as gun violence," he told reporters.
He called on states and cities to spend billions of dollars allocated "to hire police officers and reform the police departments."
It's all a far cry from calls to "defund the police" that rang through the country in the wake of the death two years ago of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer.
Counterpoint
But away from the headlines of Boudin's spectacular drubbing and Caruso's deep-pocketed insurgency, wider results suggest California won't be turning its back on progressive politics any time soon.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, a one-time reformer who has more recently made a sport of baiting liberals and railing against the "woke left," was nursing an electoral black eye on Wednesday.
He looked to be headed for a November runoff, despite having had the megaphone of incumbency and facing a fragmented field of opponents in a contest that never seemed to spark.
California's statewide attorney general race also offered a counterpoint.
Incumbent Rob Bonta cruised to an easy first place after touting his record on, and ambitions for, criminal justice reform -- the very issue that critics say sank Boudin.
And therein lies the problem with the idea that Boudin's defeat is a defeat for progressivism.
It's more of a reorientation, veteran Democratic consultant John Whitehurst told the San Francisco Chronicle.
"The pendulum has changed from what it was a couple of years ago with George Floyd and Black Lives Matter and total reform," he said.
But that's not to say that voters want to go back to lock-em-up-and-ask-no-questions policing.
"There's nuances.They're saying, 'We don't want to defund the police, we want to just have cops that don't beat people up and violate people's civil rights.' They don't want to have people behind bars that are in there for drug offenses."
Even those pushing to oust Boudin agree that the backlash he faced was perhaps more about style than substance.
"This election does not mean that San Francisco has drifted to the far right on our approach to criminal justice," said Mary Jung, chair of the recall campaign, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"San Francisco has been a national beacon for progressive criminal justice reform for decades and will continue to do so with new leadership."
