Upstate NY Democrat launches write-in campaign after primary loss, breaks with party on bail reform
An upstate Democrat is launching a longshot write-in campaign to keep his job as prosecutor – bashing bail reform and other criminal justice reforms leaders of his own party pushed through in New York.Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who has been in office since 2005, is campaigning again after losing a June party primary to rival Lee Kindlon by 10 percentage points.“The issues that I’m running on are statewide issues.I’ve been the sole voice of the criticisms here on bail reform.
These reforms are harming our communities,” Soares said on 770 WABC’s the Cats Roundtable.Criminal justice reforms enacted in 2019 under then-Gov.Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic-led legislature eliminated cash bail for mostly non-violent felony crimes — a move activists said set up a system where people who couldn’t afford bail sat in jail awaiting court dates on low-level accusations.But critics have called the policies soft-on-crime, with backlash growing after several high-profile cases of accused criminals who committed violent crimes days after being cut loose on other charges.“We see more young men of color murdered on the streets by other young men of color, who are allowed to access the revolving door to the criminal justice system,” said Soares, who is black.“I’ve been here for 20 years,” he went on.
“I’ve seen the highs.I’ve seen the highs.
I can tell you, it’s never been worse … The root cause here is this irresponsible path that we’ve been put on by our leaders here in the state government.”Soares blamed his primary loss on his own public criticism of the cashless bail law and other reforms — including changing the age for defendants to be tried as an adult for crimes from 16 to 18.“I think that public safety has been so politicized in our community [that] if you say the wrong thing, if you call out the terrible policies that have been passed in the state capital, things are going to happen to you politically,” h...