Louisiana election shows limits of ‘old tough-on-crime stuff’

Republicans spent the fall hammering Louisiana’s Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, as “dangerously soft on crime” and said his policies “put everyone in danger."

But then, Edwards won reelection in his conservative, Deep South state — and criminal justice reformers say that victory could have a major ripple effect in 2020, when critical races for big-city prosecutors and other offices with jurisdiction over tens of millions of people will feature candidates pledging to reverse mass-incarceration policies, long considered an untouchable political issue.

While Edwards broke from his national party in a number of key ways that helped drive his reelection, including on abortion and guns, the bipartisan legislation he signed to reduce Louisiana’s prison population has won serious plaudits from progressives. And Republican opponent Eddie Rispone and his allies tried to make Edwards pay for it in November, running major ad campaigns alleging rampant crime in the state under Edwards’ watch.

"I'm hopeful that his win is a springboard for further change," said David Menschel, a defense lawyer and outspoken criminal justice reform advocate. He added: "I think it shows that some of the old tough-on-crime stuff, it just doesn't have the same impact.”

“That kind of stuff isn't going to stop completely,” Menschel continued. “But I think it just doesn't need to be feared in the same way because it just doesn't have the same power."

Edwards' reelection follows success by other criminal justice reform-oriented candidates in district attorney races and other high-profile contests around the country. But Louisiana is the most conservative political turf yet for the movement, one where traditional tough-on-crime rhetoric has long been a campaign staple.

The Louisiana Republican Party and Make Louisiana Great Again PAC, a Republican super PAC run by Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry, aired ads attacking Edwards on crime. One Louisiana Republican Party ad featured President Donald Trump making the case himself, calling Edwards "dangerously soft on crime."

Another ad from the super PAC said that "when John Bel Edwards let thousands of criminals out of jail early, he put everyone in danger." The Edwards campaign sent a letter objecting to inaccuracies in the ad, and three Louisiana TV stations stopped airing it.

Though he was under attack on criminal justice, Edwards regularly pointed to the issue, and the reform laws he signed, as a point of bipartisan agreement he shared with some Republicans. Ahead of one of Trump’s pre-election visits to Louisiana, the governor noted that he had met with the president and his Cabinet to talk criminal justice reform and a number of other topics.

And internal polling data from Edwards’ campaign showed that Republican attacks on crime didn’t stick to the Democrat: Pluralities of respondents disagreed with the claim that Edwards is “soft on crime” throughout autumn.

The Edwards campaign parried the attacks by trotting out support from Republicans and law enforcement officials, noting his endorsements from the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association and the International Union of Police Associations.

One response ad by the campaign featured law enforcement officials saying criminal justice reform is "strongly supported by Republicans and Democrats, law enforcement officials and business leaders.” Edwards’ campaign also blasted out statements from a range of criminal justice allies, including the conservative group FreedomWorks, Republican state Sen. Danny Martiny and reform-focused groups, defending Edwards and criticizing the attacks.

Richard Carbo, Edwards' campaign manager, said the attacks against Edwards on the issue were limited because of bipartisan support for the proposal, which is not unique to Louisiana — a number of prominent conservatives in Congress and other powerful political positions, like megadonor Charles Koch, are also criminal justice reform proponents.

"We also spent two years talking about how the governor worked with the president on criminal justice reform," Carbo said.

Criminal justice reform advocates heralded Edwards' victory in response to attacks, in part, on criminal justice reform as another example of a sea change on how lawmakers should handle crime and a potential sign of things to come in the 2020 elections.

"I think that this gubernatorial race, as well as other races for district attorneys and elected prosecutors that we're seeing in the South and from coast to coast, are representative of a paradigm shift and a new moment in criminal justice reform," said Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of the group Fair and Just Prosecution.

Krinsky pointed to the upcoming Los Angeles district attorney's race, where former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón recently announced a reform-focused campaign for the job currently held by Jackie Lacey, who's known as more of a tough-on-crime prosecutor.

"I think one of the most widely watched races in the nation will be the Los Angeles race," Krinsky said.

"I believe when one looks nationally, the tough on crime rhetoric came and went and there's still people who are going to give it the swan song but for a variety of reasons people have backed away from that," said Bruce Reilly, deputy director of the New Orleans-based VOTE group.

Former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, who coauthored a Governing magazine article making the case for bipartisanship on the issue, said Edwards was smart to emphasize criminal justice reform "in a very bipartisan way." It helped, he added, that Trump himself likes to tout signing his own criminal justice reforms.

"I think people have gotten a whole lot smarter about it. I think it was a positive that Congress passed and Trump signed that bill," Markell said. "But frankly what's happening in the states is so much more important because the portion of people who are incarcerated in this country that are in federal prisons is really pretty small whereas in state prisons and local prisons is really pretty high so I think the real action is at the state level."

Now, strategists and criminal justice advocates expect candidates at varying levels to follow Edwards' example. Isaac Wright, a veteran Democratic strategist who specializes in rural races, said he expected to see congressional candidates avidly debating criminal justice reform in the next campaign cycle.

"You're going to have congressional districts in that cycle where that's going to matter," Wright said.

But, more commonly, advocates point to district attorneys races where the topic will come up.

Even though Edwards demonstrated he could win a high-profile statewide race by highlighting and defending his record on crime, Menschel said he expected to see more similar fights to play out at local levels.

"The most interesting thing I think going on in it is actually going on at the local level, not the statewide level," Menschel said.