SF City Leaders Allege Police Association Is Trying To Buy District Attorney Race
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Just one day ahead of the Nov. 5 election, San Francisco city leaders on Monday were alleging the city's police officers association is trying to buy the district attorney's race.
Supervisors Hillary Ronen, Sandra Lee Fewer and Matt Haney joined Police Commissioner Cindy Elias for a rally at Civic Center Plaza, accusing the association of paying as much as $650,000 on ads attacking candidate Chesa Boudin.
Boudin, an attorney with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, did not show up to the rally. He's running in the race against prosecutors Nancy Tung and Leif Dautch, as well as Suzy Loftus, who was appointed to interim district attorney by Mayor London Breed last month.
The ads allege that Boudin won't prosecute DUI offenders and won't seek additional penalties for gang members who have committed violent crimes like rape and murder. One ad read, "Chesa Boudin: the #1 choice of criminals and gang members!"
"This is trying to buy democracy, trying to buy an election," Fewer said. "This appalling and I am disappointed in them.
"We should all be asking ourselves why they are spending this type of money on these type of ads and what are they so afraid of and what is the real reason behind this?" she said.
Haney said, "This amount of spending, over $600,000 in two weeks, is more than any of the candidates have spent in the entire last year. This spending is unprecedented. What's also unprecedented is the level of hatred and ugly attacks that are landing in people's mailboxes."
Ronen added, "This unprecedented spending on lie, after lie, after lie sets us backwards as a city. It sets us backwards around public safety and sets us backwards in terms of the democracy and having it function free from influence, obscene amounts of money, and trying to confuse and trick voters."
Elias said, "It's really disheartening to see that this much money is being spent on political campaigns rather than being funneled back into its members, providing them the services and the support they need to do their job, which is very stressful."
In a statement, the POA's President Tony Montoya stood by the ads, calling them the association's efforts to educate voters on Boudin's "dangerous position" in the race.
"It's rare in life when anyone walks away from their own proposals, but Chesa Boudin and his political apologists are now sprinting faster than Usain Bolt from his dangerous proposals; it's a fact that Boudin is inexperienced and never prosecuted a case, it's a fact that Boudin will not utilize gang enhancements to keep violent gang members rapists and murders away from San Francisco neighborhoods for longer periods of time and won't oppose their early release, and it's a fact that Boudin won't prosecute first time DUI offenders who don't crash. These are Boudin's stated and
dangerous positions and it's no wonder his apologists are willing to lie about his record to keep voters in the dark," Montoya said.
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