With the recall election just two months away, Chinese voters appear to be more polarized than ever over the progressive they helped elect. In part, the backlash appears to be part of a recall fervor and a need for scapegoats. Via MLNow
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is facing a possible recall on June 7, 2022. Two years ago, Chesa Boudin won the District Attorney’s election by a mere 2,840 votes, boosted in the ranked-choice voting system by 13,162 votes from his Chinese American competitor Nancy Tung.
Alison Wong, 62, a Sunset homeowner who supports the recall, would like nothing better than to buck the criminal justice system of California as a whole. For her, it is not a discussion of Boudin’s performance or his attitudes toward criminals, but longstanding anger at a system that she disagrees with and she feels affects her life.
“Chesa Boudin is just a part of the San Francisco system. He’s collaborating with the mayor and the police,” she said. “The officers above Boudin protect the criminals, and he is bound to obey.” Boudin, in fact, defeated Mayor London Breed’s preferred candidate, Suzy Loftus, whom Breed took the extraordinary step of installing as DA only 24 hours before ballots were set to be mailed to voters. Boudin’s relationship with the mayor remains acrimonious. He was pilloried by the Police Officers Association before, during and after his campaign, and is in the midst of an overt political war with Chief Bill Scott and the police department. But, to Wong, these facts hold no appeal.
“I voted to recall the governor last year,” she said. “And if I could vote to recall the mayor, I’d do that, too.”