UPDATE: This story has been updated to include a statement from the campaign behind the recall.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Supervisor Catherine Stefani confirmed to KRON4 on Tuesday that she endorsed the recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Stefani’s endorsement made her the first San Francisco supervisor to take that position.
Stefani represents District 2, which encompasses the Marina neighborhood, and has done so since January 2018. Before that, she worked as county clerk.
In a statement to KRON4, Stefani said the city is failing to keep its residents safe. She accused Boudin of abandoning domestic violence victims, providing a statistic that showed Boudin dismissed 118 of 131 felony domestic violence cases brought to his office in the fourth quarter of 2020.
“We cannot deny what we see all around us,” she said. “People don’t feel safe in our City anymore. And sadly, with Chesa Boudin in office, they have little reason to expect that to change. To have any prayer of making real progress, we need a District Attorney who will put aside ideology, who will seek to listen rather than to be heard, and who will take the problems we face seriously. That person is not Chesa Boudin.”
She also went after Boudin’s handling of drug crime, saying he has failed to send a single drug dealer to prison while large swaths of people have died from overdoses.
“We cannot afford to wait any longer,” Stefani said.
In an exclusive interview with KRON4 Monday, Boudin said that arrests and prosecutions alone can’t fix the drug crisis.
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“Law enforcement has limited tools,” Boudin said. “What I can do, primarily, is I can prosecute the drug dealers that police arrest. But in San Francisco right now police are making arrests, citywide, in about two drug sales cases a day.”
Boudin addressed the recall attempt, criminal justice reform and anti-Asian hate crimes in the interview. You can watch the full interview HERE.
The campaign to recall Boudin gave a statement to KRON4 late Tuesday touting the endorsement.
“Our campaign to recall Chesa Boudin is Democrat-led and includes a diverse mix of small business owners, families, and community leaders — like Supervisor Stefani — who want to feel safe in our city,” stated Mary Jung, the chair of Safer SF Without Boudin. “Unfortunately, Boudin has shown us that this isn’t a priority for him. San Franciscans are making it overwhelmingly clear that they have had enough of DA Boudin’s lack of focus and lack of action, and the only way to change this course is to hold Boudin accountable and recall him on the June ballot.”
The campaign opposing the recall did not respond to a request for comment by press time.