SACRAMENTO, California — California voters dealt a blow to the state’s decade-long experiment with progressive criminal justice reform by approving an anti-crime ballot measure and ousting a high-profile progressive prosecutor in the state’s most populous county.
Preliminary results show that Golden State voters have overwhelmingly embraced Proposition 36, a statewide ballot measure to increase penalties for certain shoplifting and drug crimes. The measure rolls back parts of Proposition 47, a 2014 ballot measure that reduced penalties for a wide range of non-violent crimes.
In liberal Los Angeles County, voters rejected progressive incumbent George Gascón and chose Republican-turned-independent Nathan Hochman. And early results in the San Francisco Bay Area show a significant lead in the effort to recall progressive Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price from an office she held for less than two years.
Taken together, the preliminary results mark a notable shift from California’s once-leading movement to roll back tough sentencing rules for non-violent crimes — a movement punctuated by a pandemic-era spike in property crimes and shoplifting, and due to growing concerns about very serious crimes. visible fentanyl use and homelessness on city streets.
“Security is a crossover issue,” Hochman told reporters at his election night watch party in Beverly Hills. “Whether you’re left or right, whether you’re black, white, Latino or Asian, people want to be safe in this community again. They want the police to actually do their job very well.”
California has spent more than a decade unraveling sentencing laws dating to the 1970s after a panel of federal judges ordered the state to reduce its prison population to address severe overcrowding.
Voters and lawmakers have passed initiatives and legislation that moves inmates convicted of lower-level crimes from jails to prisons, reducing sentences for some non-violent crimes and making it easier for inmates to earn parole credits . Prop 47 was one of these efforts, which significantly reduced California’s prison population.
“Criminal justice swings back and forth, and four years ago was a huge time of interest for reform,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta, who said he was not surprised the measure passed despite his concerns that it would lead to mass incarceration would lead. Bonta raised concerns about whether he would vote for the measure, but argued that there should be more accountability for breaking the law. “People want both. They want fairness and justice on the one hand, and security on the other.”
Bonta said Californians — including himself — were fed up with viral smash-and-grab videos and other blatant crimes. “You can’t have that in an ordered society,” he said. “It has to stop.”
California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said in a statement that the state’s election results showed California voters “have had enough of failed, radical policies that have taken our state and nation in the wrong direction – from the never-ending homelessness crisis to failing public schools, rising crime and rising costs.”
Yes on Prop 36
A group of prosecutors tried to roll back the reforms in 2020 with a sweeping ballot measure, Proposition 20, that would have classified many non-violent theft-related crimes as felonies and tightened rules for inmates to apply for parole. But the measure suffered from poor timing given the national racial reckoning sparked by the killing of George Floyd months earlier by a Minneapolis police officer. Prop 20’s supporters also failed to unite prosecutors and law enforcement figures behind the broad push to prioritize public safety above all else.
The architects of Prop 36 built a broader coalition by crafting a more precise measure aimed at punishing repeat offenders who commit drug and property crimes without touching California’s parole process. Their approach splintered Democrats, with Gov. Gavin Newsom opposing it and major city leaders like San Francisco Mayor London Breed endorsing it, chipping away at opposition to the measure.
And unlike 2020, Prop 36 supporters had the political wind at their backs as voters and a slew of state and local leaders grew increasingly frustrated with persistent drug and homelessness problems.
“This vote tonight was a demand for change,” Greg Totten, head of the California District Attorneys Association and co-chair of the Yes on 36 campaign, said Tuesday evening after the race was called. “The public has become aware of what they see every day… this is a powerful mandate for change in the state to address shoplifting, homelessness and fentanyl.”
But Democratic Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, an advocate for criminal justice reform who is nearing the end of his final term, argues that Prop 36 will embolden law enforcement to use overly harsh tactics against people accused of crimes on a committed at a lower level.
“Unfortunately for us, when it comes to law enforcement and bringing them in, we have to wait until they kill someone of color before we get outraged,” he said. “They now feel like they have the authority to go out and shoot someone for stealing a pack of gum.”
Proposition 6, an amendment to ban involuntary servitude in the state constitution, was also overtaken by the shift toward tough-on-crime policies. The measure, part of a nationwide movement to close the so-called “slavery loophole in state constitutions,” initially seemed like an easy sell in a progressive state like California, but was difficult to explain to voters. Early returns show it’s underperforming.
Prop 6 proponents said strong support for Prop 36, combined with a lack of funding, complicated their efforts to get voters on board.
Los Angeles loss
Those same political headwinds hurt Gascón, even in deep-blue Los Angeles County. His sweeping changes — largely ending cash bail, banning his prosecutors from seeking the death penalty and rejecting the use of many sentencing enhancements — sparked immediate backlash that dented his popularity.
“The shift to the right in America last night is heartbreaking,” Gascon said in a statement after his loss. “The Democrats still have a long road ahead, but the work is more important than ever and our commitment will not waver.”
Hochman capitalized on frustrations over crime in his campaign, accusing his opponent of pursuing “pro-crime extreme policies” — though he was careful to avoid partisan attacks. He even adopted some talking points from reformers, including a pledge to tackle the root causes of crime.
He said he would maintain some of Gascón’s initiatives, including prosecuting police officers for misconduct and maintaining a unit that analyzes cases to determine whether innocent people are behind bars.
“I would not only maintain that unity, but actually scale it up,” he said.
A pre-election survey found that reform efforts maintain some support among voters. About half of California’s voting public said in an October Berkeley IGS survey that they would prioritize expanding rehabilitation and treatment for first-time offenders — equal to the number of voters who said they would prioritize harsher sentences for lawbreakers.
Alameda County remembers
A similar story appears to be playing out for Price in Alameda County, although the race is still too early to call. Price rocked the county’s Democratic establishment in 2022 by winning on a promise to demand shorter sentences, reduce incarceration and prosecute police officers who unlawfully use deadly force. But rising crime in Oakland, the largest city in her district, spurred the recall effort against her, which was largely funded by real estate and financial interests but also backed by influential community activists.
“Prop 36 is only good if you have prosecutors willing to prosecute. I’m not just talking about Alameda County,” said Carl Chan, a recall advocate and president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.
The recall effort to remove Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao from office is seeing early results by nearly the same margins as the recall targeting Price. If she falls, Thao will have succumbed to a months-long recall campaign over the city’s crime and her financial worries, exacerbated by an FBI raid on her home in June.
“Some people here are about ninety years old. They want change. They’ve never seen Oakland like this, and it scares them.” said Cynthia Adams, president of the Oakland NAACP chapter, which supported Thao’s recall. “There’s nothing wrong with change.”
Still, Thao was defiant on election night. “We know that the work we did was actually great and it’s positive,” she said. “And it’s thanks to doom-loopers who keep talking about nasty crimes in the city of Oakland that people can believe that somehow crimes won’t happen.”
Alex Nieves, Eric He and Melanie Mason contributed to this report.
