The Economist June 11th 2022 UnitedStates 27ously spoken in support of the opposite
view. His past advocacy for questionable
medical remedies and scant history in the
state added to his image as a charlatan.
Having reinvented himself once for the
primary, Dr Oz must now perform a similar
feat in tacking to the centre to woo Penn
sylvania’s many independent voters, with
out alienating conservatives.
He will have the campaign trail to him
self for a while as Mr Fetterman continues
his recovery. The Democratic nominee’s
health concerns have only grown in the
public eye. After initially concealing the
full details of his stroke, his campaign
eventually disclosed that he also had a pre
existing heart condition called cardiomy
opathy, which makes it harder for the heart
to pump blood. Mr Fetterman claimed that,
foolishly, he had been leery of seeing his
doctor, despite not feeling well. But the
episode calls into question his reputation
for candour and strength. He has yet to say
when he expects to return.
Pennsylvania lifted Joe Biden to victory
in 2020 by just over one percentage point,
but the president’s net approval rating in
the state is now a dismal 14%, according to
Morning Consult. Democrats are betting
that Mr Fetterman’s downtoearth demea
nour can lift them. “He challenges tradi
tional notions of what political leaders
look like,” says Shawn Rosenberg, of the
University of California, Irvine. Mr Fetter
man’s first generalelection ad aired on the
conservative Fox News, a sign of the cam
paign’s confidence in his broad appeal. But
his health troubles, and obfuscation over
them, hardly help.
The Senate campaign committees for
Republicans and Democrats have pledged
$8m and $3m, respectively, in early adver
tising. Both sides have reasons to bener
vous. How well can a celebrity heartsurge
on and current heart patient perform?n
Wizard at work
ChesaBoudinThe City by the Bay saysnay
B
efore chesa boudinwas sworn in as
San Francisco’s district attorney in Jan
uary 2020, he once served as a translator
for Hugo Chávez, the autocratic former
president of Venezuela, and cowrote a
book about the Bolivarian revolution. Now
Mr Boudin has experienced his own re
volt—by voters. On June 7th a majority of
San Francisco voters decided to “recall”
him from office. The mayor will appoint an
interim district attorney, with a perma
nent replacement elected in November.
What may sound like a provincial spat
is anything but. This was a litmus of values
in a city that has always been on the bleed
ing edge of social and political change.
In 2019, when Mr Boudin was cam
paigning as a progressive promising to rev
olutionise criminal justice, his offbeat
pedigree was an asset. He is a Rhodes
scholar, a former public defender and the
son of two members of the leftist Weather
Underground, who were sentenced to pri
son for their role as getaway drivers in an
armed robbery that led to two police offi
cers and a security guard being killed. Mr
Boudin promised to end cash bail and put
fewer people in jail. Prosecutions have in
deed fallen since he took office (see chart).
If he did what he said he would, why did
he come under fire? His rhetoric and brash
manner alienated many from the start. At
his electionnight party in 2019, people
lashed out at the Police Officers Associa
tion, chanting “Fuck the poa”, which had
spent heavily to try to defeat Mr Boudin.
Since then, the relationship between Mr
Boudin’s office and the police has been
about as cosy as an old jail cell on Alcatraz.
Morale in the district attorney’s office is
“terrible”, says Michael Swart, one of seven
prosecutors Mr Boudin fired after assum
ing office. By October 2021, 59 attorneys, or
around 40% of the prosecutors in his of
fice, had either quit or been sacked.
Some who have worked with Mr Boudin
felt he was too quick to side with defen
dants, when his job was to prosecute
crimes and represent victims. The recall
campaign gained steam after a few inci
dents in which his office’s choice not to
keep people in jail carried deadly conse
quences. One paroled felon stole a car,
drove while drunk and killed two young
women crossing a street (earlier that year
the man had been arrested five times, and
each time the district attorney’s office had
declined to file charges).The degraded state of San Francisco has
left a lot of inhabitants angry—and blam
ing Mr Boudin. “People are really sick of
living in chaos,” says Michael Shellenberg
er, author of a book, “San Fransicko”, which
argues that progressives are mishandling
cities, who ran unsuccessfully for gover
nor as an independent. Downtown, drug
stores have closed or refused to stock
goods on shelves, due to shoplifting. Ris
ing crime has led some to avoid walking or
driving around whole neighbourhoods.
The question of what to do about dru
gs is especially controversial. The city has
opened a supervised druginjection centre
in United Nations Plaza, just down the
road from City Hall, contravening federal
and state law. This has done nothing to
change the open use and sale of drugs on
the street, which Mr Boudin chose not to
prioritise for prosecution.
When your correspondent walked
around the Tenderloin district for an hour
from 11am, she counted more than 20 drug
dealers, recognisable in a “uniform” of
black clothes and hats, with grey or black
backpacks. Being noticed did not seem to
worry them, and there’s a reason. In 2021
Mr Boudin’s office managed only three
convictions for drugdealing, despite a re
cord 711 overdose deaths the previous year.
His predecessor achieved 90 convictions
for drugdealing in 2018.
Supporters felt Mr Boudin was a scape
goat for the city’s problems of homeless
ness, addiction and crime, which have
been stirred by covid19 but preceded it.
Recalls should be reserved for booting
someone out of office after they commit a
specific crime, they said. Yet Mr Boudin’sS AN FRANCISCO
San Franciscans fire their progressive districtattorneyThe Boudin effect
San Francisco, cases prosecuted by the
district attorney, ’000Source:SanFranciscoDistrictAttorney ’sOffice *At May 3th1086420
22*21191715132011MisdemeanourFelonyMotions to revoke
Jan 8th
Chesa Boudin
sworn in