California residents voted overwhelmingly to pass a ballot measure to strengthen criminal penalties for certain theft and drug-related offenses, a major rebuke to the progressive criminal-justice reform movement in America’s liberal bastion.
More than two-thirds of Californians voted in favor of Proposition 36 to impose harsher penalties for repeat shoplifters and large-scale drug dealers. The vote comes a decade after California did the exact opposite and passed Proposition 47, a ballot initiative to lower criminal penalties for small-scale theft and drug usage.
Law-enforcement groups strongly favored Proposition 36 and many Democratic politicians backed the measure. Wealthy progressive donors bankrolled the campaign against Proposition 36, but they spent too little too late to change public opinion and halt its momentum.
The result was not unexpected despite opposition from California governor Gavin Newsom (D), who stopped campaigning against Proposition 36 when it became clear it would be victorious. In opposing Proposition 36, Newsom argued it would needlessly increase the state’s overall prison population and return to a mass incarceration approach. Newsom was similarly supportive of Proposition 47 when it was hotly debated ten years ago, before he became a national figure and a potential future Democratic presidential candidate.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a former California senator and attorney general, did not take a position on Proposition 36 leading up to the election. Harris’s refusal to take a concrete stance was characteristic of her failed campaign against president-elect Donald Trump, her Republican rival. Votes are still being counted for a number of competitive California House races that could determine whether Republicans hold onto the chamber or Democrats regain control of it.
Proposition 47 caused a greater number of serious felony crimes and increased drug abuse over the past decade, according to a recent study from the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Deep-blue cities in California have grappled with spikes in violent crime and homelessness following the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots and the progressive push to defund urban police departments.
Progressive criminal-justice reform advocates have spent the better part of a decade pushing for lax prosecution of criminal activity, lower sentences, and reduced police presences across urban areas. They argue that racism is embedded in American legal institutions and claim that alternatives to sentencing will better serve serial criminal offenders and non-violent criminals.
In Los Angeles, independent former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman appears set to defeat incumbent soft-on-crime progressive district attorney George Gascon, another consequential defeat for California progressives. It follows San Francisco’s successful recall of progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin (D) two years ago because of a surge in crime, homelessness, and public disorder.