Incumbent District Attorney David Soares in recent years has become a thorn in the side of Democrats, with his position on the state’s major criminal justice reforms – bail reform and laws around sharing discovery with defense attorneys and youthful offenses. His positions not only were conservative and backwards looking, they branded all Democrats as soft on crime and twisting the facts about reform that was helping promote justice and get many peoples’ lives back on track.

In recent years, DA Soares had been the State GOP’s best advocate. His positions provided a voice to conservatives, a way to point out liberals – – and Democrats more generally – – were making the state unsafe and embolding criminals. While there is no evidence that is true, DA Soares amplified the GOP’s voice, allowing them to make inroads in state politics and almost delivering them the Governorship in 2022.

I didn’t think a non-African American could defeat DA Soares. There are many white liberals in the county, but without the coalition of African Americans, it’s hard to see them picking up the DA’s office. But apparently progressives in this low-turn-out election dumped the conservative Democrat from the DA’s office. Still it has to be a bit bitter irony that DA Soares, once the progressive challenger, was tossed out in the wastebasket by the voters for turning conservative, by a new progressive challenger.

Plus DA Soares kind of did in himself, getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. As the county’s highest paid employee, making over $200,000 a year plus with a county driver and full police protection, he decided he needed an additional $22,000 bonus from a state grant. While maybe not unlawful, such actions stunk to high hell, representing pure greed for soembody already well compensated and potentially too comfortable after 20 years in office.

Is DA Soares gone for good? It’s not clear. He could potentially petition and get on the ballot as using an Independent Nominating Petition, after collecting 1,500 signatures county-wide from people who hadn’t previously signed a DA’s petition. With the support of the County GOP and more conservative-minded Independent voters, he could potentially win his way back to the DA’s office. I could see conservative campaign contributors and police unions building a coalition to keep the conservative DA in his office.