It’s Between Suzy Loftus and Chesa Boudin for SF District Attorney

San Francisco’s District Attorney race remained too close to call late Tuesday, with progressive reform candidate Chesa Boudin taking a slight lead over interim District Attorney Suzy Loftus.

The early returns indicate a tight race between Loftus, a former prosecutor and police commissioner who most recently worked as legal counsel to San Francisco County Sheriff Vicki Hennessey, and Boudin, a deputy public defender who attracted national attention for his progressive platform.

The other two candidates — Deputy Attorney General Leif Dautch and Nancy Tung, an Alameda County deputy district attorney —  were trailing Loftus and Boudin. 

Loftus has been acting as the interim district attorney for a month, following the unexpected resignation of George Gascón in October. Even before Gascón’s surprise decision to quit his post early, the race was the most hotly contested in this off-year election.

It would have been the first time in a century that there wasn’t an incumbent running for the top prosecutor spot in San Francisco. But instead of waiting until voters weighed in, Mayor London Breed immediately  appointed Loftus to serve out Gascón’s term — a move that drew sharp criticism from Boudin’s supporters. 

Boudin had already been embraced by national reform-minded activists  throughout the campaign — and, following Loftus’ appointment, won the endorsement of presidential nominee Bernie Sanders. Boudin, the child of incarcerated radical activists, ran on a platform of overhauling the current criminal justice system. 

Loftus, part of the city’s political establishment, spent the past few weeks as interim district attorney expanding programs and making policy announcements at a furious pace. That pace angered other candidates, who saw it as an attempt to get her name in the public’s eye as much as possible. Candidates have also accused her of poaching their campaign promises — ideas the four candidates have chewed over during the more than 30 debates they’ve participated in during the run-up to the election. 

The race was a contentious one. For weeks, the four San Franciscans running for the office attended dozens of debates and tried to differentiate themselves from one another. 

At the center of the debate were competing pushes: liberal San Franciscans’ desire to overhaul the criminal justice system and reduce incarceration, versus their desire for the improvement of quality of life issues in the city: open air drug dealing, car break-ins and property theft.

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