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FIRST ON FOX: Recall organizers in Los Angeles County said Wednesday they were heading down the home stretch of a months-long campaign to force the exit of District Attorney George Gascon amid a crime surge.
The Recall George Gascon campaign said it has collected 500,000 signatures as of Monday, leaving them with 67,000 more needed from registered voters by the July 6 deadline to put the recall question on a ballot.
To collect the remaining number of signatures needed, the group has mailed out 3.6 million petitions to Los Angeles County voters. It said 5% of those who receive and sign the forms would give the campaign more than enough to clear the threshold.
“In other words, the recall is figuratively and literally in the hands of LA County voters,” the group said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
LOS ANGELES GASCON RECALL ORGANIZERS OPTIMISTIC AS MORE SIGNATURES KEEP COMING IN
A Recall George Gascon sign and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon. The group leading the recall effort said Wednesday it was getting more signatures in hopes of getting the recall question on a ballot.
(Getty Images)
The recall effort is the second attempt by opponents of Gascon, who have sought to blame him, in part, for a surge of crime in the region. He took office in December 2020 and immediately implemented a series of progressive reforms that include not seeking cash bail or the death penalty, not prosecuting children as adults, even for serious crimes, and other measures.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva went as far as to bypass Gascon’s office earlier this year and hand over the cases of four suspects allegedly linked to the shooting death of a Los Angeles police officer to the Justice Department.
Gascon’s running of the nation’s largest district attorney’s office in the nation has prompted some of his own prosecutors to back a recall against their boss.
“This isn’t just a recall. It’s a public safety movement. Democrats, Republicans, DTS’s, and independents – ANGELENOS – have all come together, have dedicated their time, and have worked incredibly hard over the last 18 months to fight for victims, survivors, families and children when George Gascón completely abandoned them,” Jonathan Hatami, a prosecutor in Los Angeles County, said in a tweet.
A spokesperson for Gascon’s re-election campaign declined to comment.
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