London Breed replaces Chesa Boudin with one of his chief critics

From: POLITICO California Playbook - Friday Jul 08,2022 01:23 pm

Jul 08, 2022

By Jeremy B. White, Lara Korte and Sakura Cannestra

THE BUZZ: San Francisco Mayor London Breed finally revealed who she selected to replace recalled DA Chesa Boudin, and her pick could hardly have been more politically direct.

Breed yesterday made Brooke Jenkins the city’s top prosecutor, elevating one of the most visible supporters of the Boudin recall campaign. Major money helped to propel the recall to success and amplify public safety concerns, but a wave of former prosecutors who defected from Boudin’s office — Jenkins among them — helped lend it vital credibility for some voters. After departing the office in 2021, Jenkins made her debut in an SF Chronicle column and then became a prominent source in media coverage (including for POLITICO).

Jenkins was one of several names on Breed’s rumored short-list. Other purported contenders included Supervisor Catherine Stefani, a Breed ally who became the first San Francisco elected official to endorse the recall, previous DA candidates Suzy Loftus (whom Breed supported) and Nancy Tung, or judges who did not play a role in the campaign. Choosing Stefani would have let Breed select a second supervisor. Elevating Tung or Loftus could have invited complaints of ignoring voters. Picking a judge may have come across as a less political and therefore safer move.

But instead Breed went with the pick that directly channeled the campaign. Jenkins articulated a specific case against Boudin, arguing he had ushered in a dysfunctional and politicized culture that emphasized defendants at the expense of victims while leading to lesser plea deals and pretrial diversions for serious offenses. She told the Chron she’d like the power to use gang enhancements and prior strikes for charging, seek cash bail, and charge some juveniles as adults. That amounts to a policy vision for how she would run the office. Critics of Jenkins have assailed her objecting to Boudin agreeing to deem a defendant insane and likened her recall-rallying to career advancement. Jenkins argued she supported reform and feared Boudin’s mismanagement “jeopardizes this movement.”

ZOOMING OUT: The mayor has profoundly reshaped San Francisco’s government in her image. In addition to a district attorney, she has now appointed City Attorney David Chiu, Supervisor Matt Dorsey (after endorsing his predecessor and now-Assembly member Matt Haney, helping to open up the seat), and three school board members after a trio of Breed-backed recalls succeeded. As with Jenkins, one of the new school board members publicly supported the recall.

While Breed never publicly took a stand on the Boudin recall, there was little doubt of where she privately stood. The mayor had clashed with Boudin and called for a larger law enforcement role, including in her infamous speech about the “reign of criminals” destroying San Francisco. Boudin functioned as a foil who could absorb public discontent over crime. Breed no longer has him to absorb public anger. Her political fate and Jenkins’ are intertwined. Meanwhile: Boudin still hasn’t ruled out running to get his old seat back.

BUENOS DÍAS, good Friday morning. Playbook is taking a little hiatus and will be dark next week, July 11 through 15. In the meantime, if you’ve got any good stories or scoops, you know where to find us.

Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit us up: jwhite@politico.com and lkorte@politico.com or follow us on Twitter @JeremyBWhite and @Lara_Korte.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “They’re not just somebody she’s appointed — they’re in a lot of ways a running mate for her, because her policies and their policies are going to have to align.” Former Boudin consultant Jim Ross on the implications of Breed’s DA pick.

TWEET OF THE DAY: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the world’s richest man, and apparently a prolific procreator: “I hope you have big families and congrats to those who already do!”

WHERE’S GAVIN? Out of state (apparently in Montana) with his family, leaving Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis in charge.

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TOP TALKERS

FIREARMS FUTURE — Blue states test limits of gun laws after Supreme Court raises the bar, by POLITICO’s Jeremy B. White and Katelyn Cordero: Their attempts to thread the legal needle previewed what will likely be a years-long effort to defend and extend firearm rules under the court’s sweeping new Second Amendment test … (California State Sen. Anthony) Portantino said his office has modified multiple pieces of legislation to try and conform to the court’s ideology. His staff even studied Justice Neil Gorsuch’s philosophy when they crafted exemptions to a 2018 bill — since signed into law — raising the age for buying long guns to 21.

— “ Dianne Feinstein clarifies her filibuster position: She’d lift it for abortion rights,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli: “Feinstein qualified her support for ditching the rule that allows a minority of members to block legislation. She said she would support a filibuster carve-out if it resembled one the Senate used for legislation on voting protections.”

TAKING STOCK OF IT — “See every stock trade House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband has made since 2021,” by Business Insider’s Madison Hall: “Pelosi has access to confidential intelligence and the power to affect — with words or actions — the fortunes of companies in which her husband invests and trades.”

CAMPAIGN MODE

HMM — “Column: Ignore the noise. Here’s why Gavin Newsom is not running for president in 2024,” opines the Los Angeles Times’ Mark Z. Barabak: “There are plenty of reasons why Newsom wouldn’t run for president — at least not in 2024 — and those outweigh the reasons he would, all the speculative hyperventilating aside.”

CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR

— “Quitting Oil Income Is Hard, Even for States That Want Climate Action,” by the New York Times’ Brad Plumer: “With wildfires and drought ravaging California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, wants to end oil drilling in the state by 2045. That has provoked angst and fierce resistance here in Kern County, where oil and gas tax revenues help to pay for everything from elementary schools to firefighters to mosquito control.”

MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS — “ Community groups criticize Newsom for omitting health equity funds,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Marissa Evans: “Supporters of the proposed Health Equity and Racial Justice Fund had called on Newsom to allocate millions of dollars to support community-based groups, clinics and tribal organizations offering services and programs to address health disparities.”

DEEP DIVE — “ The City Where Investigations of Police Take So Long, Officers Kill Again Before Reviews Are Done,” by ProPublica’s Laurence Du Sault with Open Vallejo: “According to our first-of-its-kind review of Vallejo’s investigations of police killings, six of the department’s 17 fatal shootings between 2011 and 2020 involved an officer using deadly force while still under investigation for a prior killing.“

— “When wildfire smoke descends, Californians are told to close windows and run air purifiers. The warnings may not work, study says,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Emma Talley: “Data from Google Trends, which reveals information about specific search queries across various regions, showed that people living in lower income neighborhoods similarly search for information about air quality. But they tend to forgo information on health protection, and spend less time at home.”

STAY SAFE OUT THERE — “ Super-infectious BA.5 is a coronavirus ‘beast.’ Here’s how to protect yourself,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Rong-Gong Lin II and Luke Money: “Taking preventative measures is especially important now, as the two strains in question — BA.4, and especially BA.5 — have shown the ability to reinfect even those who recently contracted an earlier Omicron subvariant.”

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SILICON VALLEYLAND

WANDER NO LONGER — “San Francisco Airbnb rival WanderJaunt abruptly shuts down, vanishes with barely a trace,” by the SFGate’s Joshua Bote: “The last few tidbits of available information come from a hard-to-find help subdomain, a Medium page and a phone number. Its help page says, ‘WanderJaunt is permanently closing it’s doors on June 30th 2022.’”

— “No. 2 Theranos Executive Found Guilty of 12 Counts of Fraud ,” by the New York Times’ Erin Griffith: “Ramesh Balwani, a former top executive at Theranos, was found guilty on Thursday of 12 counts of fraud, in a verdict that was more severe than that of his co-conspirator, Elizabeth Holmes, and that solidified the failed blood-testing start-up as the ultimate Silicon Valley cautionary tale.”

TWO HEADS — “ Twitter starts testing new CoTweets feature that lets two accounts co-author a tweet,” by the Verge’s Tom Warren: “Twitter has confirmed to The Verge that this new feature is now live for some users for a limited amount of time after the company started experimenting with the idea earlier this year.”

SHOT — “ Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter is in peril,” by the Washington Post’s Faiz Siddiqui and Gerrit De Vynck: “Talks with investors have cooled in recent weeks as Musk’s camp has raised doubts about the recent data “fire hose” — a trove of data sold to corporate customers — they received from Twitter.”

CHASER — “ Twitter Lays Off Third of Talent Team,” by the Wall Street Journal’s Salvador Rodriguez: “The layoffs come after the company in May announced that it would be pausing hiring and looking to cut costs.”

MIXTAPE

— “Here is the exact type of person who was most likely to leave San Francisco in the pandemic,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susie Neilson.

— “Soccer star Megan Rapinoe receives Presidential Medal of Freedom,” by NBC News’ Matt Lavietes.

— “ Grocery prices are soaring. Try these 10 tips to save money,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Hugo Martín.

— “ Kristin Smart murder trial jury can hear Paul Flores phone call about true crime podcast, judge rules,” by the SFGate’s Katie Dowd.

— “Amazon Hub in Newark Is Canceled After Unions and Local Groups Object ,” by the New York Times’ Noam Scheiber and Karen Weise.

— “Why Lake Tahoe’s famously clear water is getting cloudy,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Gregory Thomas.

— “‘It isn’t Disneyland’: Mariposa County sheriff angry after tourist gets lost while researching trail where Gerrish family died,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Lauren Hernández.

BIRTHDAYS

Marianne Williamson … CNN’s Bill Hinkle … Amazon’s Molly Spaeth

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