Ousted San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin won’t rule out running again

Ousted San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said he won’t rule out running again for the city’s top prosecutor after he was voted out of the job in a recall election earlier this month.

Boudin told the San Francisco Chronicle another run for DA is not out of the question in his first interview since 61% of San Franciscans voted him out of office on June 8.

“A lot of my supporters and endorsements and donors and Democratic clubs that were behind me are urging me to run now, or in 2023,” Boudin said. “I’m committed, as I always have been my entire life, to doing the work to support our communities, to fight for a fairer system of justice.”

Residents in support of the recall effort disapproved of the progressive district attorney’s soft-on-crime policies which they said led to a surge in shameless shoplifting, car break-ins and rampant, open-air drug dealing.

But Boudin told the Chronicle he became the scapegoat for everything plaguing the city.

“I was only in office for two months with our courts functioning at their normal capacity. And despite that, I was attacked for literally everything that’s wrong in the city, things that have been wrong for decades,” he said. “And so when you put it in that context, I’m actually really proud of the fact that we won a lot more votes in 2022 than we did in 2019.”

Boudin, a former public defender and the son of convicted Weather Underground terrorists, won 50.8% of the vote in 2019 and was sworn in as San Francisco District Attorney on Jan. 8, 2020.

During his campaign, he vowed to reform a criminal justice system that he called historically racist and unfair. Once in office, he introduced prohibitions on seeking cash bail, prosecuting juveniles as adults and seeking tougher sentences under California’s anti-gang or “three strikes” laws.

Boudin, 41, is expected to vacate office within 10 days.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has not yet named an interim replacement.

A special election for the open seat will be scheduled for November, which Boudin could contend for.

With Post wires