Chesa Boudin critic to replace him as San Francisco DA

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has picked a vocal critic of District Attorney Chesa Boudin to replace him in office after he was recalled in a special election last month

San Francisco District Attorney (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

A one-time prosecutor who became a leading voice in the recall campaign to oust San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin will replace her former boss in office.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed will name Brooke Jenkins as the next district attorney at a news conference scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday. Jenkins will need to run in November and again in 2023 to keep the seat.

The politically progressive Boudin was ousted in a June 7 recall election fueled by frustration over public safety in the deeply Democratic city. Viral video footage of people shoplifting and attacking seniors, particularly Asian Americans, rattled residents.

Jenkins became a major face of the recall campaign after she quit in 2021 and went public with complaints about Boudin, a former public defender who was elected in 2019 as part of a national wave of progressive prosecutors. He campaigned on a platform of decreasing incarceration and holding police officers to account.

But Jenkins, who also considers herself a progressive prosecutor, said Boudin was too rigid. He eliminated cash bail for defendants and declared that minors would not be tried as adults, no matter how serious the crime.

Jenkins said she would like those tools available for prosecutors to use at their discretion.

In an interview with The Associated Press before election, Jenkins said that being a progressive prosecutor meant being “innovative about finding alternatives to incarceration, but trying to ensure our defendants don’t reoffend.”

Boudin, who has not ruled out running again for district attorney, said his time in office was hobbled by a pandemic that shuttered courts and the intensive treatment and counseling programs relied on to rehabilitate offenders.