Crime in spotlight as Californians head to the polls in key races grabbing national attention

Voters in California, the nation’s most populous state, head to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in primary elections where the issue of crime is playing an outsized role in many of the key races.

"Murder up 54%. Nearly 1,500 shooting victims. A wave of property crime. There’s one candidate for mayor who can turn it around. Rick Caruso," says the narrator in a TV ad by Caruso, a pro-business billionaire developer who’s running a law-and-order type campaign for Los Angeles mayor.

Caruso, a former Republican who became a Democrat just before launching his mayoral bid, and who’s dished out tens of millions of his own money to finance his campaign, is one of the two leading contenders to steer an overwhelmingly Democratic city that hasn’t seen a Republican mayor in over two decades.

Crime’s also front-and-center in the race for California attorney general.

Incumbent Rob Bonta – who was appointed to the position last year by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom after Xavier Becerra stepped down to become Health and Human Services secretary in President Biden’s administration – is facing three challengers from the right in a contest that seems to serve as referendum on whether the Golden State’s gone too far in implementing criminal justice reform.