Boudin was elected San Francisco district attorney in
the 2019 election on a
progressive platform, narrowly defeating interim district attorney
Suzy Loftus in a
ranked voting race. Boudin campaigned for the office on a
decarceration platform of eliminating cash bail, establishing a unit to re-evaluate wrongful convictions and refusing to assist
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with raids and arrests. In the following year, during the
COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, there was significant media coverage of the increased visibility of
homelessness and drug use, increased car burglaries, and videos of brazen thefts of high end stores and
Walgreens drugstores shared on social media. Walgreens shut down a number of stores citing organized theft. Media put a spotlight on crime in San Francisco as crime patterns shifted drastically with increases in auto theft and burglary. Several
Asian seniors were also attacked and there were fears of
anti-Asian crime. Boudin was accused of being soft on prosecuting criminals and not keeping potentially harmful people in jail. Boudin was also criticized in several high-profile cases for releasing suspects with a history of previous convictions who then went on to commit further crimes. By May 2021, Boudin had become the target of two recall campaigns.
Context The recall election was held within months of two other high-profile recall elections in California:
the unsuccessful recall of
Gavin Newsom in September 2021, and
a successful recall of three
San Francisco Board of Education members in February 2022. In addition, a recall effort was underway against
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. Boudin's election in 2019 and Gascón's victory over incumbent
Jackie Lacey in 2020 were considered "landmark moments in the nationwide 'progressive prosecutor' movement".
Recall petition In the summer of 2021, there were two separate campaigns that sought to gather the necessary signatures in order to force a recall election against Boudin. The first campaign was spearheaded by former
mayoral candidate Richie Greenberg, a member of the
Republican Party, but narrowly fell short of the 51,325 signatures needed before the August 11 deadline. The second campaign was led by
Mary Jung and Andrea Shorter, both members of the
Democratic Party, and had a deadline of October 25 to collect the same number of signatures. Jung is a former chair of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee. The second campaign submitted 83,484 signatures to the Board of Elections, which announced on November 9 that via a review of a representative 5% sample of signatures they determined that the number of valid signatures exceeded the required 51,325 and thus that a recall election would take place on June 7, 2022. The
political action committee (PAC)
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco had contributed $4.7 million to the campaign, around 80% of the recall campaign's total contributions.
William Oberndorf, the top donor to the Neighbors PAC in 2021, had contributed more than $900,000 to the PAC. Oberndorf also donated $1.5 million to a Republican Party PAC in 2020. Despite Boudin's claims, the recall campaign was publicly led by Democrats. 83% of donors to the campaign were from Democratic-registered voters or no-party-preference voters, with over 80% of donations coming from local San Franciscans. A February 2022 poll commissioned by the recall campaign indicated that two-thirds of Democrats were in favor of the recall. Meanwhile, on February 24, 2022, the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee voted by a margin of 20–2 to oppose the recall effort. the United Democratic Club,) were in favor of the recall.
Asian and
Asian-American activists and groups were among the leading forces in the pro-recall camp. In a May 2022 poll sponsored by the
San Francisco Standard, 53% of San Franciscans strongly disapproved of Boudin's job performance, 18% somewhat disapproved, 22% somewhat approved and 8% strongly approved. Among all groups, Asian Americans were the most likely to vote in favor of the recall. The San Francisco Standard Voter Poll found that 67% of
Asian American and Pacific Islander voters were in favor of the recall, compared with 52% of
Hispanic voters, 51% of
White voters, and 34% of
Black voters. The
San Francisco Chronicle investigated Boudin's office's prosecution data from 2020 to 2021 and found that his office's charging rates increased for homicide, rape, and narcotics, while it decreased for burglary, petty theft, and weapons cases. Boudin claimed that many cases brought to his office by San Francisco police lacked evidence to meet the standard required to prosecute some cases, leading to his office's lower charge rates. The race was watched nationally as other DAs championing criminal justice reform faced similar challenges.
Funding The pro-recall campaign raised over $7.2 million, while the anti-recall campaign raised over $3.3 million. The pro-recall campaigns relied primarily on local donations, with 78% of donating entities based in San Francisco. One of its biggest donors was billionaire
William Oberndorf. The anti-recall campaign was funded in large part by out of state donations, with 49% of donating entities based in San Francisco. Its largest donors were the
ACLU of Northern California, unions, and billionaire
Chris Larsen. == Endorsements ==