I’m running to protect our democracy. I have been standing in the gap for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and gun violence my entire legal career. I took on Yale University in 1977 to stop rape and sexual harassment of women, and protect our legal rights to get an education. We all have a responsibility in the time of Trump to stand up for our beliefs, our neighbors and our community. The fact is the Board of Supervisors appointed someone whose extreme views are out-of-sync with the values of our community. We are vulnerable to Donald Trump’s attacks on our community as long as we have a DA who does not respect the Constitution or the impact of her decisions on our community. Justice should NOT be bought by billionaires or police associations.

No, in my first year in office, my team charged more than 7,000 cases, including murders and felonies, while increasing the workforce and using technology to improve our ability to prosecute cases fairly. The rate of cases processed under my administration was actually slightly higher than my predecessor’s rate in the two years before I took office. Plea bargains are negotiated by the deputy district attorneys for many reasons and always require court approval. Only judges can release someone from jail, so I was not releasing anyone from jail.

NOTE: “Soft on crime” is a political label used by the right-wing to poison the conversation about criminal justice reform.

In October 2023, I stood on principle and voted in favor of a ceasefire resolution as an elected member of the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee representing the 18th Assembly District. The vote on the resolution was preceded by two hours-long special meetings of the Committee for community input which I attended. I remain steadfast in my view that Israel’s attack on the people of Gaza and Palestinian people in other areas under occupation is unwarranted, the aggressions by Israeli settlers are unconscionable and all of it constitutes a genocide against the Palestinian people that must be opposed and stopped.

The public can trust that I will keep my word because I did so when I was elected. We focused on gun violence, domestic violence, and crimes against women and children as fundamental threats to public safety. We created and trained an Organized Retail Theft Unit to respond to the concerns of the business community. We successfully sued major corporations and collected millions of dollars for the residents of Alameda County. We created a civil rights bureau, a gender justice bureau, a re-entry commission and a mental health commission. I kept my word.

The recall was not about trust - it was all about politics. We won, they lost, they started a recall.

If you ask anyone who voted in 2022, even my critics, they will tell you that I kept my word. I did exactly what I said I was going to do: we held corrupt public officials and rogue police and deputies accountable; we charged corporate criminals and abusive landlords; we did not over-criminalize young people and we implemented the Racial Justice Act.

1.  Spend more time in the first 30 days talking to the media. We were subjected to an unprecedented media frenzy about our transition while we were still unpacking boxes. In my second term, I commit to meet with representatives from the media weekly from the beginning to answer questions about our transition process.
2. Create a separate Victims Advisory Committee for the survivors of homicides that are actively being prosecuted. We created a Victims Advisory Committee, but we chose to limit participation to those who did not have active cases. I commit to create a forum for victims of homicides with active cases to be able to address their concerns about the prosecution of their cases.
3. Establish a first-ever anti-nepotism policy for the DA’s office and require all relatives (including spouses and siblings) of past District Attorneys, Alameda County Superior Court judges and current employees to identify themselves and encourage them to seek employment elsewhere.