California Gov. Gavin Newsom scraps dueling retail theft initiative

SACRAMENTO – The legislature met an 11th-hour deadline to put a new governor-backed retail theft initiative in writing for the state ballot over the weekend. But now that plan has been scrapped and lawmakers won't even vote on it.

The Gov. Gavin Newsom ran out of time and on Wednesday he was not even in the state, splitting his attention with presidential politics.

Political strategist Steve Maviglio watched as the Governor and Democratic legislative leaders ran out of time.

"It was a mess, it was chaos, right," Maviglio said. "It came apart, people got pressure from different groups saying, 'Don't vote for this, vote for this.' And they said, 'Forget it, it's easier for this to all go away.'"

With viral retail theft videos on the minds of voters, the governor-backed plan would have created dueling Prop 47 reform initiatives, giving voters a double dose of retail crime initiatives to consider on the same November ballot.

Newsom suddenly pulled his version, the night before lawmakers were set to vote on placing it on the ballot.

Republican State Senator Roger Niello said the governor's counter-measure effort was bad politics.

"I've never seen anything like this before, it's absolutely remarkable," Niello said. "This was purely a political move from the beginning, and they forgot how to play the game."

Leaked emails CBS13 first reported show the Governor's involvement in seeking to keep a California District Attorney-crafted Prop 47 reform initiative off the November ballot.

Newsom's recent travel out of state has focused on presidential politics.

"He's more interested in national politics, he launched a podcast today, I mean all these different things rather than address a hot potato," Maviglio said.

So will the Governor now campaign against the DA's Prop 47 reform initiative?

He has a lot of money in his campaign war chest, we'll have to see how he wants to spend it.