I have to register my pique at this morning’s national media’s response to the results of two California elections yesterday. Here’s the New York Times’s take:

Voters in California delivered a stark warning to the Democratic Party on Tuesday about the potency of law and order as a political message in 2022, as a Republican-turned-Democrat campaigning as a crime-fighter vaulted into a runoff in the mayoral primary in Los Angeles and a progressive prosecutor in San Francisco was recalled in a landslide.

This, if you’ll pardon me, is bullcrap.

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Yes, progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin was recalled in San Francisco after a divisive election over his handling of crime. But this is hardly a law-and-order trend. Boudin was recalled by 60 percent of the voters, yet in L.A. County 66 percent voted for candidates other than the incumbent law-and-order sheriff Villanueva. And in the East Bay, voters in Contra Costa County chose to keep their progressive DA, Diana Becton, against a law-and-order challenger.

Also, under San Francisco's recall law Boudin had no opponent, making him vulnerable to the anger of voters upset with the status quo. (Running against someone in a recall election helps incumbents — e.g., California Governor Gavin Newsom’s opponent in last year’s recall election, conservative radio host Larry Elder.)

Most importantly, those who sought to recall Boudin -- mainly high-spending individual donors and corporate entities – spent more than twice as much on the recall campaign as Boudin’s supporters did to keep him in office ($7.2 million versus $3.3 million).

Always follow the money.

Which brings us to the race in L.A., where billionaire mall magnate Rick Caruso (who only recently switched his registration from Republican to Independent and then finally to Democrat) made it into the runoffs for mayor against Representative Karen Bass, a longtime Democrat.

Part of a trend? Rubbish.

Here again, follow the money: Caruso spent some $37.5 million of his own money on the race. Bass raised $3.5 million (at the same time the L.A. Police Protective League, a pro-police group, ran a $3.5 million ad campaign against her, essentially negating her spending). And who’s been supporting Caruso? So-called “criminal justice advocate” Kim Kardashian, along with Elon Musk, Snoop Dogg, and Miss GOOP herself. Tells you all you need to know.

I don’t mean to downplay crime and homelessness. Both are way too high in California and elsewhere in America. But a large part of the blame should be on Republicans who won’t do a thing to curb gun violence and won’t spend a dime on affordable housing.

What do you think?

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Robert Reich

Why the national media's response to…