Governor of California Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders have launched a last-minute effort to put a second crime-fighting measure before voters this fall, after failed attempts to negotiate a tougher proposal after the November vote.
Their measure, Proposition 2, would toughen penalties for repeat shoplifters and drug dealers who lace substances with fentanyl. It must win approval from a majority of each house Wednesday night to reach the floor before lawmakers enter a month-long summer recess.
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Proposition 2 is a provision that would invalidate the tougher crime initiative on the ballot, provided both measures pass and Newsom’s backed measure 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 attempt to reach a compromise before last week’s deadline to remove issue questions from the ballot. Newsom and Democratic leaders have argued that the existing measure would lead to a sharp increase in the state’s prison population — and privately worried about the ripple effects it could have at the ballot box, especially for Democrats in competitive House districts that fall could determine control of Congress. .
At the heart of both measures is whether and how to roll back parts of Proposition 47, the landmark 2014 criminal justice initiative that reduced sentences for some non-violent crimes in a state that adopted tough sentencing laws in the 1990s. A coalition of prosecutors and major retailers in June successfully qualified an initiative that would increase penalties for certain drug and theft-related crimes, allowing repeat offenders of theft or possession of certain drugs, including fentanyl, to be charged with a misdemeanor instead of a misdemeanor .
Lawmakers responded in April with their own package of public safety bills, arguing it was possible to curb shoplifting without changing Prop 47. Those laws would create a new crime category focused on serial theft, give police the authority to make arrests without witnessing or having footage of an incident, and allow the value of stolen goods from multiple retailers to a 60-day period is consolidated to grand larceny, which can carry stiffer penalties.
Negotiations with proponents of the existing initiative were fraught 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 condemned the amendments as “poison pills,” and those clauses were removed from nearly all bills after the backlash, including the desertion of some moderate Democrats. Democrats on Saturday also removed language that would have created a new crime for serial theft.
The new initiative is expected to receive broad support from Democratic elected officials and candidates of all levels. The existing initiative showed signs of splitting the Democratic coalition, gaining support from prominent Democratic mayors such as Mayor London Breed of San Francisco and Mayor Matt Mahan of San Jose, and candidates in competing House of Representatives constituencies such as Dave Min.
At a news conference Friday in downtown Los Angeles, the head of the committee behind the vote previewed the message it would use against Newsom and the Democrats’ countermeasure: that it is “the initiative of the people” instead of “a politician’s initiative.”
“Now they’re apparently considering putting their own watered-down or thin measure on the ballot,” said Greg Totten, CEO of the California District Attorneys Association. “We’re confident that when the voters of California see what’s in our initiative, an initiative that over 900,000 of them have signed, they’re going to reject Sacramento’s gamesmanship, they’re going to reject a politician’s initiative in favor of a people’s initiative, which is what this is.”
When asked afterward about the strategic challenges a competing measure would pose for his coalition, Totten acknowledged it will create a new dynamic: “I mean, it’s something we’re going to have to deal with.”
But he argued that given the choice, voters would choose the toughest measure.
“I think Californians are very astute and they will realize that and they will support our initiative. We just have to get the message out,” Totten said in an interview.
