But while Boudin’s defeat was interpreted outside of San Francisco as a rebuke of the criminal justice reform movement he embodied, San Francisco Democrats took a more nuanced view: This was about specific grievances with Boudin himself, not a return to harsh sentences and mass incarceration. San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who did not take a position on the race but has publicly clashed with Boudin, told reporters on Wednesday that the outcome “does not mean that criminal justice reform in San Francisco is going anywhere.”

Recall leader and former San Francisco Democratic Party head Mary Jung said in a statement after Boudin’s defeat: “San Francisco voters are engaged and well-informed. They know that we can have important criminal justice reforms and public safety for all, but that neither was being achieved with Chesa in office.”…

[R]eformers have counterexamples from which to take heart. Progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner surmounted a challenge last year despite surging homicides and heavy police opposition. Progressive attorney Kimberly Graham advanced on Tuesday in her bid to become the prosecutor for Iowa’s largest county. And in 2020, Californians voted to preserve an earlier ballot initiative that reduced property crime penalties and allowed earlier parole — the types of changes that have become fiercely contested in San Francisco and beyond.