One of the more interesting local races on the ballot was the race for Los Angeles County District Attorney. We featured this race in our preview of LA County primary races here. Jackie Lacey is the incumbent DA and she faced a challenged from both San Francisco County DA George Gascon and former public defender Rachel Rossi.

Los Angeles County shows the following party registration for the three largest political groups (the source is http://www.l2political.com):

Republican- 16.8%
Democrat- 52.1%
NPP- 25.7%

Lacey first one the seat in 2012 in a race to replace Steve Cooley who was not running for re-election. In the 2012 election, she finished in first place for the June election but did not clear 50%. She went on to face second place finisher Alan Jackson in the November election where she defeated him by a margin of 55% to 45%.

2016 was a free run for Lacey who drew no opponent in the primary election.

With a strong challenge from Gascon who is running as the more liberal of the two candidates, this race was an interesting one to watch for the primary. Here are the March 2020 results:

Jackie Lacey- 48.7%
George Gascon- 28.2%
Rachel Rossi- 23.1%

Because Lacey did not clear 50% in the primary, she will face off in the November general election against Gascon.

Lacey did well enough in March that I am confident with her potential for the November election. However, Jim McDonnell got nearly 48% in the primary race for LA County Sheriff back in 2018 and still lost to Alex Villanueva in November by a margin of 53% to 47%. I predict somewhat nervously that Jackie Lacey will win in November.