ELECTION 2024: Steve Napolitano on losing, and finding a way to continue the work 

Editors note: Following his loss at the polls on Nov. 5, in which he sought to become a Superior Court Judge, we asked Steve Napolitano for his thoughts on the election loss, and whether or not he may seek appointment by the Governor for the position. He declined to answer the latter question, except perhaps between the lines. Napolitano, a longtime Manhattan Beach councilperson, was one of two judicial candidates who made it into the runoff election in the March primaries. But his opponent, George A. Turner, picked up large PAC support and outspent him $250,000 to $60,000, all but dooming Napolitano’s chances.  

by Steve Napolitano

Well, as I said before, I knew my race was an uphill battle from the start. I’m not your traditional candidate for the bench, mainly because I don’t have the ballot designation as a district attorney or public defender, the latter of which my opponent had. Voters tend to equate judges with criminal law only, when in fact they can preside over many different types of law besides criminal cases. Even then, I have both civil and criminal law experience, but the rules for ballot designations are quite narrow now, and unless you’re a DA or PD, the most you can say is that you’re an “Attorney” to which I added “Councilmember.” Unfortunately, I’m not sure that gave voters a clear picture of my experience, which was praised by the LA Times, La Opinion and others, but didn’t translate as easily as my opponent’s simple ballot designation.

I laughed when I read LAist’s assessment of the judicial races, which emphasized a perceived bias against public defenders in the past. While there is some truth to that, the bigger bias has always worked against judicial candidates without a DA or PD background.

I think the real difference though, was that my opponent had an army of progressive groups behind him who had recruited several public defenders to run and financed their campaigns through lots of money received by Pat Quillan, the wife of the founder of Netflix, who lives in the Bay Area and is a big financier of criminal justice reform issues and candidates. They gave themselves a superhero title, the “Defenders of Justice” and ran on vague terms like democratizing the bench and decarceration. Or at least they started that way but later removed a lot of those terms and flew under the radar  when it was shown that Nathan Hochman was leading George Gascon for DA and Prop. 36 was favored to win. I was running on a platform of “justice without political agendas” while my opponent leaned into his progressive base, and especially his registration as a Democrat, endorsed by the County Democratic Party and supported by unions like the County Federation of Labor and AFL-CIO, and progressive groups like LA Forward and Ground Game LA and others who mobilized their members to get votes.

I’ve been registered no party preference for several years, and judicial offices are supposed to be nonpartisan, but the truth is that a lot of voters still rely on those Democrat/Republican labels when making their decision and I suppose that made it easier for some voters to just vote along party lines, especially with everything else on the ballot. 

Bottom line is I lost. And yes, losing sucks. I think the above helps explain why, with a few other reasons I’m sure, but no excuses here. At the same time, I can’t just leave it at that because I did the best I could with the resources I had and I had some amazing help from my friends and family to get to where I did, which was farther than a lot of folks expected. From being found qualified by the LA County Bar, to getting the endorsement of the Times and many others, including a big, bipartisan list of endorsements by local elected officials across LA County, it was quite a ride, and all in an effort to keep making a difference for folks here and beyond. I’m also wrapping up my time on council, I was inducted into my high school’s hall of fame, and I have two remarkable kids and an incredible group of family and friends. I’m blessed and have a lot to be thankful for. Certainly, this marks the end of a long campaign for one judicial office, but it’s not the end of me or the work I want to do. I’ll just have to find another way to do it. As the great Carthaginian general Hannibal said after he was told it would be impossible to cross the Alps, “Aut viam inveniam aut faciam”– I shall either find a way, or make one. ER