Kab. Los Angeles County Atty. George Gascón and former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman faced off in a contentious debate Tuesday afternoon that revealed the candidates’ dueling perspectives in the final weeks of a hard-fought campaign.
Forum takes place after the release of new poll that shows Hochman leads the incumbent among likely voters by 30 percentage points.
Hochman, riding high from recent poll results, blasted Gascón for “gaslighting” the public about his record and the state of public safety in LA County. Gascón passionately defended his accomplishments as DA, stating several times that Hochman was misinformed or “lied” about his background and important issues.
Presented by KNX News and the Los Angeles Times, Tuesday’s debate was the third between the candidates, with one more before Election Day.
Hochman and Gascón mostly stuck to the same old talking points during the forum. Making similar claims in previous campaigns and debates, Hochman said Gascón “has never prosecuted or defended a single criminal case in his career, while I have 32 years of experience.”
Later in the debate, Gascón said he was “running the LAPD’s COMPSTAT statistics while Mr. Hochman” was representing a “wealthy” client as a defense attorney.
Kab. Atty. George Gascón used more direct language than in the past, at one point saying that his opponents were “lying or not knowing the job.”
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Gascón also repeated his past statement, stating that “in 2022 (Hochman) is running as a Republican” for state attorney general while the incumbent works to improve public safety in LA County.
A longtime Republican, Hochman is running for the DA as an independent. He said he was not voting for Donald Trump in 2016 or 2020, and in August he said he endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Several times, Gascón mentioned his own work with Harris before he became vice president.
Both candidates have combined their increasingly inflammatory rhetoric as election day approaches.
Gascón, for his part, used more direct language than before, at one point claiming that his opponent was “lying or not knowing the task.” Hochman repeatedly stated that Gascón had carried out a “Gas-con” in a “desperate attempt to save the public” about the records of both candidates and the reality of public safety in LA County.
The big draw during Tuesday’s debate was the results of a poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, sponsored by The Times, which was released that morning. A survey of 908 LA County likely voters has Hochman leading Gascón 51% to 21%, with 28% of voters still undecided.
The proportion of undecided voters in Tuesday’s poll fell 7% since the last Times-UC Berkeley poll on Aug. 18. The majority of voters who choose a candidate since then “usually go to Hochman,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll, which was published online in English and Spanish between September 25 and October 1 and has a 3-point margin of error.
Tuesday’s event also featured a detailed discussion of policy and crime statistics.
As he did in each of the previous two contests, Gascón defended his record on reforming the DA’s office along progressive lines. He said rehabilitation is important because more than 90% of people incarcerated are eventually released, and also sought to explain the nuances of the DA’s role and what it does and cannot do.
“Fear is up because crime is up,” said challenger Nathan Hochman, adding that the DA’s office prosecutes lower-level crimes such as drug possession.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
“Mungwanku continues to misrepresent the facts because it’s convenient for him,” said Gascón, adding that Hochman is pushing “a dystopian view of things instead of coming to the table, rolling up his sleeves and asking what can be done” to solve the problem of criminal justice in LA County.
As he has since won the March primary, Hochman painted a vision of a county where crime is out of control and residents need a tough-minded DA who will bring criminals to justice.
“Violent crimes, property crimes, hate crimes … and human trafficking have doubled” since Gascón took office, Hochman said. “Fear is up because crime is up,” and it’s the main thing that the DA’s office is prosecuting at lower levels of crimes like drug possession and loitering for prostitution.
Gascón said the approach would bring back the days when county jails were filled with people who committed petty crimes.
“Of course there is this undertone of mass incarceration,” Gascón said of his opponent’s rhetoric. “They talk about how to provide security but they have no flexibility, everyone will face the maximum penalty, whatever. So much code-talk for mass incarceration, so much code-talk for the war on drugs.
