Races for local chief prosecutors’ offices were once about who appeared to be toughest on crime. Often called district attorneys or state attorneys, local chief prosecutors are publicly elected at county and sometimes city levels to steer criminal prosecutions on behalf of the people of a particular state. But since roughly a decade ago, a slew of progressive prosecutor candidates have won local races across the nation, including in Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. They are often aided by public sentiment following high-profile police-involved deaths and money from liberal donors such as George Soros. The prosecutors in this progressive wave mostly run on a two-pronged platform: going softer on crime to drive down the number of people—particularly black people—in jails and prisons, while going tougher on police to root out what they call “bad apples.” Upon assuming office, they fire the old guard and hire young idealists to …