Two veteran prosecutors in Northern Virginia were defeated yesterday by leftists backed to the hilt by George Soros’ money. In Arlington County, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti narrowly defeated longtime Commonwealth Attorney Theo Stamos. In Fairfax County, Steve Descano unseated incumbent Raymond Morrogh. I warned here and here that the massive influx of Soros money might produce these results.
Dehghani-Tafti and Descano both campaigned on the “criminal justice reform” mantra. After her victory, the former tweeted:
This election wasn’t about me but about the community’s recognition that criminal justice reform is one of the civil rights issues of our time.
It’s not really the job of prosecutors to institute “criminal justice reform.” It’s their job vigorously to enforce the criminal laws adopted by the legislature.
In practice,of course, prosecutors have the power to undo the legislature’s will and to undermine proper law enforcement in other ways, as well. Dehghani-Tafti and Descano seem determined to do just that. Dehghani-Tafti has said as much. (She also attacked the police based on a bogus claim of “brutality.” Two local police organizations demanded an apology, but as far as I know received none. It will be interesting to see how, as the top country prosecutor, she gets along with those who keep the public safe).
In view of all this, it’s clear why Soros (along with Terry McAuliffe) backed the two lefty challengers so strongly. His PAC spent nearly $1 million on these two races. (Remarkably, this local news story about the Arlington County race never mentions Soros’ massive involvement).
As usual, the left is ahead of the curve. It would never occur to conservative organizations to devote a million dollars to two local prosecutor races.
To make matters worse, conservatives aren’t likely to counter Soros’ gambit in future races like these. For one thing, races in jurisdictions like Arlington County are determined in the Democratic primary. Conservatives aren’t going to invest in Democrats.
More fundamentally, fat cat conservatives like the Koch Brothers back “criminal justice reform.” Is there any distance between Koch/Heritage Foundation and George Soros on these issues? If so, I don’t believe there is much.
Indeed, it’s not clear how much distance there is here between Soros and Jared Kushner (and thus the Trump administration). There’s no apparent distance between Kushner and Van Jones, in any case.
Criminal justice reform may be “one of the civil rights issues of our time,” but if we aren’t careful law and order may become one of the central issue of the time to come.
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