Prosecutors push for rules to block California DAs from taking police union campaign cash
As police brutality protests grip the nation, a clutch of progressive present and former prosecutors are demanding new conflict-of-interest rules barring California district attorneys and DA candidates from taking campaign cash from police unions.
Former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, Contra Costa County DA Diane Becton, San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin and San Joaquin County DA Tori Verber Salazar are calling on the California State Bar to prevent county prosecutors and those running for the office from accepting police unions’ donations or soliciting their endorsements.
In a letter to State Bar leaders, the four wrote that the rules must “explicitly preclude elected prosecutors or prosecutors seeking election from seeking or accepting political or financial support from law enforcement unions,” adding the rules would “enhance trust in our criminal justice system at a time when it is sorely needed.”
“The financial and political support of these unions should not be allowed to influence the decision making,” Boudin said in a statement Monday announcing the group’s proposal.
The proposed ethics rules come under the backdrop of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody that erupted into angry protests in cities nationwide, including Sacramento, where streets are now patrolled by National Guard troops. The four say the changes are especially needed now to ensure counties’ DAs are independent from outside influence and to restore community trust in law enforcement’s ability to police itself and root out bad officers.
“These feelings, these protests would not be as raw and widespread if we had seen police held accountable by local prosecutors with regularity,” Gascon said in a statement Monday announcing the group’s effort.
Police unions’ contributions to district attorneys and candidates for the office are commonplace and wouldn’t be affected by the attorneys’ proposal. In Sacramento two years ago, law enforcement unions’ campaign donations in the aftermath of the deadly police shooting in March 2018 of an unarmed Stephon Clark were met with controversy during Anne Marie Schubert’s bare-knuckled reelection run against former Sacramento County deputy prosecutor Noah Phillips.
Thousands of dollars in law enforcement union campaign donations went to Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert in the days following the shooting. The donations were seized upon by critics who accused the DA of being too close to law enforcement in a campaign with Clark’s death and law enforcement’s use of lethal force in African-American communities at its focus.
Brian K. Landsberg, professor emeritus at University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, said the proposed State Bar ethics restrictions could be seen as blocking constitutionally protected speech, but that “there might be rationale the State Bar could cite” in support of the proposed ethics rules.
“It’s saying there’s a broad general conflict – that prosecutors are going to be influenced,” Landsberg said. “That’s still viewpoint-based, but the question is whether their rationale is sufficient to overcome it.”
Speaking while walking with protesters in Stockton late Monday afternoon, Salazar says the changes stand up to case law. But, she said elected prosecutors should also vow to reject the unions’ campaign cash altogether.
“They should just take an oath not to do it,” she said. “It’s a conflict – or the perception of conflict. Why wouldn’t we voluntarily take the step to restore trust? It’s something we need to do.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 12:44 PM.
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