In neighboring conservative & much smaller Arlington (also in Tarrant County) the next mayor will be Jim Ross, a former police officer who thinks the police are doing well policing themselves & doesn’t seem to have concerns about housing. keranews.org/politics/2021-…
TWIST: Democrats have flipped the city council in Fort Worth, as multiple incumbents lost tonight. This will alter the balance of power of one of the nation’s biggest cities, even if the GOP retained the mayorship today.
Fort Worth is among a series of strong results for progressives or Democrats tonight in city council elections in Texas. See my other thread here:
people with reform/progressive politics (of a sort that'd never won DA races in recent history) have won DA races in the past few years in LA, much of suburban VA, Austin, NoLa, Boston suburban St Louis, huge Pima County, & have now won re-election races... & this is the takeaway
On the one hand, there's one of the defining electoral changes of recent years: in some of the most punitive places that have fueled mass incarceration, voters are just continually defying the expectation that tough-on-crime wins. And are winning in new sorts of races, too.
OTOH, a poll shows voters care about crime. And of course they do: What these activists & reform candidates have argued is that the conventional approaches to crim justice are harming safety & communities — and the "changing politics" has been that this point has won much more.
not only did Larry Krasner win, but he swept in new allies with him today!
≈8 judicial candidates endorsed by the local progressive group @reclaimphila have won tonight in judge races, a big deal because judges have been obstacle for some of Krasner's reforms so far.
More broadly, this is a major demonstration of strenght for the Philadelphia left
Even more broadly, this is quite the narrative-challenging result.
That test on how a progressive incumbent could win re-election has morphed into an even bigger progressive hold on local offices.
As Pennsylvania votes today, keep an eye on judicial races. Way down-ballot, but a lot is happening there.
And I'm very happy to be working somewhere where we get to take judges' powers seriously — and cover them accordingly. A brief thread on what that's looked like. ↓ ↓
1️⃣ In Pittsburgh/Allegheny County, local activists have recruited a "Slate of Eight" to run for the Court of Common Pleas on promises to curb evictions and mass incarceration. This has lit up usually quiet elections.
2️⃣ One of those candidates has already been a judge! Mik Pappas (fueled by a local DSA endorsement) won another sort of judgeship in 2017. @Sentinel_Vaughn shows here how his record of decision-making is a window into the huge discretion judges have: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…
Strange to see a wave of coverage treat Krasner’s race in Philly as part of a series of setbacks for progressives in DA races, as tho tide has already turned. Has it? First test since 2020, & its paradigm-changing reformer wins in LA, NoLa, Austin (incumbent lost 70/30), Portland
Also in 2020, prosecutors who’re associated with the national reform efforts — in Chicago & St Louis — both won re-election amid difficult attacks by the police union and ‘law and order’ type-criticism. Again, idea of a changing ‘tougher on crime’ tide hadn’t materialized there.
And on top of all that, let’s see what actually happens in Philly?! (And if law and order arguments win the day there, at least be precise about what else result is meant to be like.) We’re so used to convention that ‘tough on crime’ wins politically, it’s already fully baked in.
Philly votes for its DA tomorrow: it's Krasner's re-election bid. DAs have so much power & discretion, but actual policy stakes (=why it matters) often get lost.
So I'm very excited to have worked on this 3-part series on its stakes, that each dive on a specific issue.
↓↓
1️⃣ Philly has a record probation rate: e.g. Meek Mill was incarcerated over a minor probation violation in 2017.
2️⃣ Krasner has been dismissing criminal charges for an increasingly large share of drug possession cases, rather than prosecuting them & using drug court.