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2018 Archives

Local Cooperation with ICE Is on These Counties’ Ballot in Nov. 2018

Local officials wield great power over a county’s immigration policies. Many of their decisions escape widespread attention, but the organizing against ICE partnerships broke through in primaries this year, helping topple incumbent sheriffs in Milwaukee and in Charlotte. The scope of local immigration enforcement is now on the ballot in November. Below I profile 9 counties where the stakes […]

Daniel Nichanian Oct 11, 2018

2018 Election Preview: U.S. Senator from Texas

Watch and read Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke debate policing in Texas In a Sept. 21 debate, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and his Democratic challenger Representative Beto O’Rourke were asked about Amber Guyger, the Dallas police officer who killed Botham Jean in his own apartment. Cruz promptly attacked O’Rourke for disrespecting police officers. “I think it […]

Sep 27, 2018

2018 Election Preview: District Attorney of Tulsa County, Oklahoma

 In Tulsa’s DA race, challenger wants to shift criminal justice conversation Daniel Nichanian Jenny Proehl-Day, the Democratic nominee for Tulsa County district attorney, begins answering an ACLU questionnaire by noting that she is a former prosecutor: “I contributed to the issue of mass incarceration and now I am trying to be a part of the solution,” she […]

Daniel Nichanian Sep 20, 2018

2018 Election Preview: District Attorney of Plymouth County, Massachusetts

Plymouth County DA faces former employee who assails his ethics and policies Daniel Nichanian Massachusetts’s Sept. 4 elections resolved three hotly disputed Democratic primaries for district attorney—and they also added a Democratic candidate where there was none: John Bradley received enough write-in votes in Plymouth County (south of Boston) to make it onto the ballot as the Democratic […]

Daniel Nichanian Sep 20, 2018

2018 Election Preview: District Attorney of Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Democrats select Rachael Rollins, who faces independent Mike Maloney in November Daniel Nichanian Boston voters selected Rachael Rollins as the Democratic nominee for district attorney of Suffolk County. In so doing, they shifted away from the record of outgoing DA Dan Conley, a Democrat who has resisted criminal justice reform. Rollins defeated Gregory Henning (the candidate endorsed […]

Daniel Nichanian Sep 06, 2018

2018 Election Preview: District Attorney of Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Middlesex County debates guidelines and data necessary to achieve reform Daniel Nichanian The district attorney of Middlesex County—the state’s most populous county, home to Lowell and Cambridge—is campaigning for re-election as a progressive who has already been reforming the county’s criminal justice system. Her opponent in the Sept. 4 Democratic primary rejects that characterization, questioning the […]

Daniel Nichanian Aug 30, 2018

2018 Election Preview: State's Attorney of Bennington County, Vermont

Punitive practices are at issue in the race to be prosecutor of Bennington County. Daniel Nichanian “Bennington Locks Up More People Than Any Other Vermont County,” Seven Days reported in 2016. Led by State’s Attorney Erica Marthage since 2006, county prosecutors have consistently “thrown the book” at defendants, this investigation documents. Marthage’s office charged a man with murder […]

Daniel Nichanian Aug 28, 2018

Cole County Prosecutor Known for Prosecuting Clergy Protest Loses Reelection

Daniel Nichanian Eyes were glued on St. Louis County on Aug. 7, but another Missouri prosecutor was also ousted that same night. Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Richardson was seeking a fourth term, but he lost in the Republican primary to Assistant State Attorney General Locke Thompson. Cole County includes the state capital Jefferson City, […]

Daniel Nichanian Aug 14, 2018

2018 Election Preview: Prosecuting attorney of Platte County, Missouri

Reprimanded by state Supreme Court, prosecutor heads toward re-election Daniel Nichanian Platte County’s longtime prosecuting attorney Eric Zahnd was disciplined this year, just months before he is to face voters in this county north of Kansas City. In 2015, Zahnd oversaw the prosecution of a man who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child. At […]

Daniel Nichanian Aug 10, 2018

Milwaukee Votes for Sheriff after David Clarke’s Lengthy Tenure

Daniel Nichanian Seven people died in the Milwaukee County Jail under Sheriff David Clarke’s tenure. One man died in 2016 after being denied water for seven days, and a criminal complaint later described “an institutional practice of punitively shutting off water to unruly inmates.” Clarke was also known nationally for harsh policies toward immigrants, disparaging comments toward Black Lives Matter, and […]

Daniel Nichanian Aug 09, 2018

St. Louis Prosecutor Faces First Opponent Since Ferguson Protests

Daniel Nichanian St. Louis County’s longtime prosecuting attorney Bob McCulloch is seeking an eighth four-year term, four years after the 2014 Ferguson protests. That year, he drew heavy criticism for the way he handled his investigation into Michael Brown’s shooting and for his failure to indict Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Brown. His actions fit a […]

Daniel Nichanian Aug 02, 2018

2018 Election Preview: First Congressional District of Missouri

Ferguson activist challenges Democratic representative Criminal justice and policing reform are in the spotlight in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, which includes St. Louis and Ferguson. One of the candidates in the Aug. 7 Democratic primary is Cori Bush, a pastor who participated in the 2014 Ferguson protests and other local initiatives, and helped organize subsequent […]

Aug 02, 2018

Criminal Justice Reform is a Defining Issue in the Georgia Governor's Race

The Appeal: Political Report previews the governor’s race in Georgia. Daniel Nichanian Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee in Georgia’s gubernatorial race, has made criminal justice reform central to her unusually progressive campaign. She has laid out a detailed platform with the stated goals of decreasing incarceration and facilitating the re-entry of people released from prison. The first priority she […]

Daniel Nichanian Aug 02, 2018

2018 Election Preview: Attorney General of Colorado

This article is part of the Political Report’s coverage of the 2018 criminal justice elections. The Democratic primary for attorney general of Colorado pitted state Representative Joe Salazar against Phil Weiser, a law professor at the University of Colorado. Both articulated a series of reform-oriented positions: support for the state’s marijuana legalization and bail reform, opposition […]

Jul 09, 2018

2018 Election Preview: 14th Congressional District of New York

Criminal justice reform front-and-center in New York’s 14th Congressional District Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a victory heard around the country on June 26, becoming the Democratic nominee in New York’s 14th Congressional District, which encompasses parts of the Bronx and Queens. Ocasio-Cortez is heavily favored to win the general election. She published an essay on the “urgency of criminal […]

Jun 27, 2018

2018 Election Preview: State's Attorney of Baltimore City, Maryland

This article is part of the Political Report’s coverage of the 2018 criminal justice elections. State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby faces two challengers in Baltimore’s Democratic primary: former Deputy Attorney General Thiru Vignarajah and Ivan Bates, a former assistant state’s attorney who now works as a defense attorney. Mosby is known nationally for prosecuting six police officers over […]

Jun 25, 2018

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