KQED: San Francisco Races To Watch

This article was originally published in KQED.

Race to Watch
District Attorney

Why does this race matter?

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is facing reelection after leading a successful recall of her predecessor, Chesa Boudin. Running to replace her is Ryan Khojasteh, a prosecutor who was among more than a dozen staff members Jenkins fired after she took office in 2022.

What does a district attorney do?

The district attorney is the county’s top prosecutor. Lawyers in the district attorney’s office assist with crime investigations, make charging decisions and prosecute cases in court.

Key Candidates
Brooke Jenkins
Brooke Jenkins: District Attorney, San Francisco
Ryan Khojasteh
Ryan Khojasteh: Former Assistant District Attorney, San Francisco
Key Supporters

For Jenkins:

Gavin Newsom, governor, California
Scott Wiener, state senator 
Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club
Chinese American Democratic Club
San Francisco Firefighters Local 798

For Khojasteh:

United Educators of San Francisco
American Federation of Teachers Local 2121
National Union of Healthcare Workers
San Francisco Tenants Union
Chinatown Community Tenants Association

Positions on Key Issues

Reported property crime and violent crime has decreased in 2024 compared to 2023, yet many residents continue to feel unsafe. What caused the decrease?

Jenkins says that increased convictions under her administration and “preventing criminals from reoffending directly contributed to the decrease in property crime and violent crime over the past year.” She acknowledges many people may still feel unsafe, which she blames on ongoing street-level disarray and crises.

Khojasteh believes that for most San Franciscans, crime rates do not feel like they have improved and points to increasing storefront vacancies as a symbol of people losing trust in the city’s public safety. “It’s disingenuous for those in power to now say ‘crime is down’ and ‘everything is fine,’” he says. “Not a single person I’ve spoken to believes in the credibility of these crime statistics.”

What should San Francisco do to address those ongoing safety concerns?

Jenkins wants to increase services for victims of crime. She also says that “cutting off the supply of fentanyl” will be her top priority for her next term, which she plans to do by continuing to prosecute drug dealers. “My office is taking an aggressive approach to fentanyl dealers and doing everything it can to address repeat offenders of retail theft and auto burglary,” she says.
Khojasteh says he will focus on improving internal management at the District Attorney’s Office, advocate for victims services, and improve relationships with other city agencies to reduce crime. “The current district attorney blamed everything on her predecessor and now that she is in charge, has spent two years relentlessly attacking judges. This erodes faith in the criminal justice system,” he says. “We must rebuild the trust that has been lost.”

Felony narcotics convictions have increased in 2024, yet overdose deaths remain at epidemic levels. Is the current approach heading in the right direction? What changes should San Francisco make to further address the crisis?

Jenkins says her primary approach to handling the overdose crisis is going after drug dealers, noting that she created a narcotics prosecution team and has gotten more than 300 convictions since entering office. She also supports expanding mental health and addiction treatment services. “My hope is that once people have access to more treatment options, we’ll start to see those overdose numbers trend down even further in conjunction with the work my office is doing.”
Khojasteh plans to push city leaders to increase residential treatment beds and shelter spaces, while also vigorously prosecuting drug dealers and making conviction data more publicly accessible. But he says Jenkins’ prosecution of drug users is misguided. “The answer for drug users is not the criminal justice system,” he says. “It has made our jails less safe … and contributed to the massive backlog of cases which has led to mass dismissals of serious cases.”

Data shows convictions have increased in San Francisco since 2022, but jails are often overcrowded. Should the city focus more on diversion and jail alternatives?

Jenkins says she will “absolutely support diversion and jail alternatives, especially for first-time offenders and young people who made one bad decision.” However, she believes diversion is not enough for people who commit more serious or violent offenses, and says those incidents must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. “If someone is repeatedly breaking into businesses or assaulting people, we need to keep them off the street,” she says.

Khojasteh supports restoring previous rates of referrals to treatment courts and diversion programs for drug users to allow attorneys to focus on more serious, repeat offenders. And he says the reduction in sending cases to diversion programs has fueled the backlog of cases and subsequent case dismissals at the Hall of Justice. “We must responsibly strike the right balance between accountability and rehabilitation,” he says.