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,” he said. “In my case, there was a primary run against me because of my criticisms over bail reform, raise the age … Therefore, now I am a write-in for district attorney here on Nov. 5.”
He blamed “the irresponsible bail laws that basically deprived judges of the discretion [and] deprived police officers in many instances from being able to make arrests,” thus emboldening criminals.
“We are living in one of the most important states in the country, and we cannot put handcuffs on people who are committing crimes … We allow for criminals to just continuously steal,” Soares said, referring to serial shoplifting.
“This is happening in every city in this state,” Soares added. “The idea that my party is the party that set us down this course is troubling … Things have to change. And by things I mean these laws that have been passed that are hurting our communities all throughout New York State.”
But primary winner Kindlon dismissed Soares as a write-in candidate.
Kindlon said the public backlash over Soares using part of a state grant to provide himself a $23,000 bonus as well as his lackluster record as DA cooked his goose.
“Soares was bad at his job and he stole taxpayer money,” Kindlon said Sunday after hearing Soares’ claims. “I didn’t win because I was a bail reform defender.
“I worry about David as much as I worry about a bug,” he added.
Ralph Ambrosio is the Republican candidate in the race and the two will face off on Tuesday.
Write-in campaigns are rarely successful.
But in 2021, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown easily won a fifth term as a write-in candidate in the general election after a stunning loss to democratic socialist India Walton in the Democratic primary.
Ambrosio, the Republican, a former state trooper and assistant prosecutor, is hoping he can win with Soares and Kindlon splitting the Democratic vote.
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