Back in 2020, George Gascon's campaign raised around $13 million dollars, giving him quite a bit more to spend than the incumbent Jackie Lacey who raised about $7 million. Four years later the situation has changed dramatically. 

As of Oct. 14, Hochman and outside groups supporting him have raised nearly $10.4 million in campaign donations, compared with $1.2 million for Gascón and his outside supporters, according to an analysis conducted by The Times.

Why have Gascon's supporters seemingly abandoned him? Because they aren't idiots and know a lost cause when they see one. Even George Soros has cut him off.

“These are sophisticated donors, and not only are they seeing the polls in this race, they also saw what happened to Chesa Boudin in San Francisco,” said Roy Behr, a longtime consultant to Democratic campaigns in Los Angeles, referring to the recall of Gascón’s progressive successor. “They’re looking at all this information and saying this is a lost cause.”

Of Gascón’s 10 largest 2020 outside donors, only four have given money to committees in support of his reelection campaign this year. Liberal philanthropist George Soros poured $2.45 million into Gascón’s run in 2020, but has offered the incumbent nothing this cycle.

A Soros spokesman said he was not abandoning Gascon so much as focusing on the presidential race.

“Mr. Soros’s focus this cycle is on national elections, particularly the presidential contest. This reflects the unprecedented stakes facing the nation and should not be misconstrued as an abandonment of Gascón or other local leaders who are implementing effective and humane approaches to public safety,” a spokesperson for Soros said. “Los Angeles County District Attorney Gascón has George Soros’s endorsement.”

Regardless of what they say, I think they are abandoning Gascon because even billionaires get tired of throwing money into a pit. There is simply no way Gascon ever wins reelection. The city has turned on him.

But Gascon is still maintaining that whatever he's lost in outside support and big money donors he has made up for in local support.

Despite his dreary poll numbers, Gascón professes to be bullish about the race. He said that when voters hear about the accomplishments of his office — the resentencing initiatives, the exoneration of people who were wrongly convicted in the past — they like what they hear. He has secured the endorsement of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, the powerful county Labor Federation and a long list of local Democratic clubs and elected officials.

“We sort of lost some of that national attention, if you will, but we have gained so much more locally,” said Gascón, adding that Democrats like Harris and Newsom have “bigger fish to fry” this election.

I'm tempted to say he's delusional except I don't think he really believes what he's saying. He knows he's going to lose. Now he just hopes the impending loss won't be seen as representative of the criminal justice reform movement as a whole. But having been the face of that movement for many years in California it's pretty hard to avoid the conclusion that the public's interest in reform has peaked and, with his defeat, is now receding. 

What the public wants now is safer streets, something Gascon never seemed to care as much about as he did his left-wing ideology. This election they will get what they want not only by electing Nathan Hochman to replace Gascon but also by passing Prop. 36. Criminal justice reform has been a failure. Even in deep blue LA County, voters can see that.