Four years ago, Los Angeles County voters elected George Gascón to take their district attorney’s office in a bold and constructive new direction. They embraced his conviction that a D.A., uniquely, has the power and responsibility to make the justice system more just. They agreed with him that sentences should be set at just long enough to protect communities and to end cycles of violence, arrest, retribution and recidivism, and not merely to inflict the greatest possible punishment...

Now voters must decide whether to stick with Gascón’s reform orientation or step backward into a failed mindset in which justice is defined by the toughest charges and the longest sentences.

Voters would be wise to step forward, not back. They would be wise to reelect Gascón over challenger Nathan Hochman’s throwback policies.