On Election Day, Californians will face their most difficult vote yet: Should crime be illegal again?
Proposition 36 will give California voters the chance to allow felony charges for serial thieves and shoplifters with a sentence of, at maximum, three years behind bars. It would also increase felony sentences for criminals who take part in organized smash-and-grab robberies, which have plagued businesses in San Francisco and Los Angeles. On the drug front, Prop 36 would require felony drug dealers who distribute fentanyl and other hard drugs to serve their sentences in state prison instead of county jail in most cases.
Getting tougher on fentanyl dealers, organized theft rings, and career criminals with long track records seems pretty straightforward, right? Indeed it does, as Prop 36, which is repealing “reforms” from 2014’s Prop 47, is polling incredibly well. In its worst-performing polls, Prop 36’s support is in the mid-50s, including a Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll that puts the number at 56%. That includes 47% of Democrats supporting (to just 28% opposed), 58% of independents, and 73% of Latinos.
Democratic voters may be open to putting career criminals in jail, but Democratic politicians and media activists are not. The Los Angeles Times recently came out in opposition of the ballot measure because of “overcrowded” jails, the same “logic” that led to California letting these criminals run rampant in the first place. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) opposes Prop 36 as well because he is a liberal ideologue but doesn’t oppose it enough to try and campaign against it because that would hurt his future “centrist” messaging when he runs for president or joins a possible Harris Cabinet.
Speaking of centrist messaging and Vice President Kamala Harris, where the Democratic presidential nominee stands on the ballot measure is of unique importance. After all, Democrats want to portray Harris as a “lifelong prosecutor” and “centrist” Democrat, and she was once the attorney general in California. Surely she has some guidance to offer to voters here.
Alas, Harris does not. With less than a month before Election Day, Harris has taken an oath of silence on Prop 36 and how she will vote on it. Lifelong prosecutor Kamala Harris can’t say whether fentanyl dealers belong in prison or career thieves should be locked up.
Cut her a break. After all, that is a tough question for any prosecutor.
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Meanwhile, normal people and retailers have teamed up to try and clean up the streets with this proposition. Retail chains resisted Newsom’s attempts to bribe and blackmail them with the promise of new shoplifting laws that would only apply if Prop 36 failed. In-N-Out Burger donated to the cause as well. Democratic voters are breaking rank from their political leaders to back the changes, even as Newsom whines about and Harris hides from the only solution to the state’s crime problem that is being offered.
This will be the most important vote Californians face on their November ballot, and they are prepared to make the right choice even as they also reward Harris and her terrible judgment at the top of the ticket. California voters may not be able to connect Harris’s and Newsom’s leadership to the state’s problems, but they are able to connect soft-on-crime laws with increased criminal activity. It’s more than can be said for Democratic politicians.