With an agenda, liberal groups spend big on DA races
LOS ANGELES - 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 yearslong 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 in the nonpartisan elections 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
