SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert is officially running for California Attorney General in the 2022 election.
Schubert announced her candidacy in a press conference Monday morning.
Surrounded by crime victims and their family members, Schubert launched her candidacy as a rebuke of what she continuously referred to the “chaotic” and “reckless” actions and policies of California politicians.
“Countless victims across this state are being abandoned by the very people we have entrusted to support them and protect them,” Schubert said.
Schubert also took interim Attorney General Rob Bonta to task as being a part of the problem. Bonta could potentially represent the Democratic ticket in the 2022 election.
“Let me be clear, the newly-appointed attorney general has voted for and supported polices and laws that are not only destroying the lives of crime victims, but are destroying public safety in this state,” she said.
Bonta, a former state assemblymember, was chosen by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the position vacated by Xavier Becerra when Becerra became Secretary of Health and Human Services. Bonta was sworn in as interim-Attorney General on April 23, 2021.
“California’s criminal justice system is in chaos. When policymakers and reckless prosecutors talk tough about protecting all of us, yet they turn around and refuse to take action to protect any of us, that is chaos,” Schubert said.
Schubert may be most well-known for the Golden State Killer investigation and more recently for her efforts to expose the state's EDD scandal. However, Schubert has also been criticized for her decisions regarding officer-involved incidents.
In 2019, Schubert along with former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra decided not to press charges against the officers involved in the death of Stephon Clark. Schubert said her viewpoint on the matter remains the same.
“You have to remember that the shooting of Stephon Clark was tragic. My job as the district attorney is to follow the facts and the law. That’s what I did. It makes people sad and people may be angry about it, but it’s what my job is,” she said. “I will do the same thing as attorney general. I will follow the facts and the law, whatever that is, if that means holding police accountable, I’m gonna do that.”
Stephon Clark’s brother Stevante Clark said the news of Schubert’s run almost broke his heart.
“She has never, and I mean never, represented the fight, and the right, and the causes of the people. She has failed the underserved, underrepresented and at-risk communities,” Clark said. “Anybody should be ashamed of themselves who voted for her for district attorney and if she’s elected as attorney general, she will continue to fail the underserved, underrepresented and at-risk communities and I can guarantee you that.”
In July 2020, ABC10 reported that Schubert had never charged a police officer since she was elected. Bonta has said his first priority will be implementing a new state law requiring the state’s top law enforcement officer to investigate every fatal police shooting of an unarmed civilian, according to reporting by the Associated Press.
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