Governor of California Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders launched a last-ditch effort to present voters with a second crime-fighting measure this fall, after unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a stricter proposal on the November ballot.
His measure, Proposition 2, would toughen penalties for repeat thieves and drug dealers who mix substances with fentanyl. It must win majority approval in each house Wednesday night for a vote before lawmakers take a month-long summer break.
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Proposal 2 is a provision that would kill the stricter crime initiative at the ballot box, as long as both measures pass and the measure supported by Newsom receives more votes.
The move comes after weeks of back and forth, with the coalition supporting the already qualified anti-crime initiative, and a failed effort to reach an agreement by last week’s deadline to remove issue issues from the vote. Newsom and Democratic leaders argued that the existing measure would lead to a sharp increase in the state’s prison population — and worried in particular about the ripple effects could be downvoted, especially for Democrats in competitive House districts that could determine control of Congress this fall.
At the heart of both measures is the issue of whether and how to roll back parts of Proposition 47the landmark 2014 criminal justice initiative that reduced penalties for some nonviolent crimes in a state that adopted tough sentencing laws in the 1990s. In June, a coalition of prosecutors and major retailers successfully qualified an initiative that would increase penalties for certain drug and theft crimes, allowing repeat offenders of theft or possession of certain drugs, including fentanyl, to be charged with a felony rather than a misdemeanor.
Lawmakers responded in April with its own package of public safety billsarguing that it was possible to curb retail theft without changing Proposition 47. These bills would establish a new category of crime targeting serial theft, give police power to make arrests without witnessing an incident or having footage of it, and allow the The value of goods stolen from multiple retailers within a 60-day period will be added to the theft, which can carry more severe penalties.
But efforts to negotiate with proponents of the existing initiative got off to a rocky start in June, after Democrats in the Legislature announced they would add provisions that would repeal many of the laws if voters approved the initiative in November.
Supporters of the ballot measure and Republicans in the Legislature quickly denounced the amendments as “poison pills,” and these provisions were removed from nearly all bills following the backlash, including defection of some moderate Democrats. Democrats on Saturday also removed language that would have established a new crime for serial theft.
The new initiative is expected to garner broad support from elected officials and Democratic candidates on all ballots. The existing initiative has shown signs of splitting the Democratic coalition, gaining support from prominent Democratic mayors such as San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and candidates in competitive House districts. as Dave Min.
At a press conference Friday in downtown Los Angeles, the head of the committee behind the ballot measure previewed the message he would use against Newsom and the Democrats’ countermeasure: that it is “a people’s initiative” versus a “people’s initiative.” of politicians.”
“Now they are apparently considering putting their own watered-down or weak measure on the ballot,” said Greg Totten, CEO of the California District Attorneys Association. “We are confident that when California voters see what’s in our initiative, an initiative that more than 900,000 of them have signed on to, they will reject Sacramento’s game, they will reject a policy initiative in favor of a grassroots initiative, and that’s what this is. .”
Asked later about the strategic challenges that a competing measure would represent for his coalition, Totten acknowledged that it will create new dynamics: “I mean, it is something that we will have to deal with”.
But he argued that, given the choice, voters will choose the strongest measure.
“I think Californians are very astute and will figure this out, and will support our initiative – we just need to get the message across,” Totten said in an interview.
