SAN JOSE, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday used an event marking his signing of sweeping anti-theft legislation to bash a ballot initiative on crime.
Newsom accused supporters of the ballot measure — a coalition that includes the mayors of San Jose and San Francisco — of lying to Californians about their proposal by framing it as an effort to treat alleged felons rather than convict and sentence them. He described the ballot measure as a return to the 1980s tough-on-crime era and contended that the legislative package actually addresses the retail theft issue.
“That initiative is about going back to the 1980s and the war on drugs. It's about mass incarceration,” Newsom told reporters. “I don't want to move us backwards.”
The governor was surrounded by retailers, law enforcement and Democratic lawmakers as he enacted 10 bills to crack down on organized retail theft during a ceremony in the back aisle of a Home Depot store. His office called it the most significant effort to combat property crime “in modern California history,” pointing to legislation that will allow prosecutors to more easily charge repeat offenders with felonies and crack down on organized theft rings.
The bill package was initially treated as a form of leverage to convince big-box retailers and district attorneys to withdraw Proposition 36, a November ballot measure led by district attorneys that would roll back parts of a decade-old criminal justice reform measure that reduced prison sentences for some theft and drug crimes. But those negotiations imploded earlier this summer, and Newsom and legislative leaders have instead sought to use their bill package to divert support and funding from the ballot measure campaign.
Among those standing behind him was California Retailers Association President Rachel Michelin. She signaled that her group, which is still officially supporting Prop 36, will likely reconsider its position. Peeling off the retailers, a major potential source of campaign funding, has been a key part of opponents’ strategy to undercut the measure.
“Retailers have never been about mass incarceration or that type of mentality,” she said.
Michelin told POLITICO afterward that the association’s board could vote to remove its support for Prop 36 in the coming weeks. She added, “We are really hyper-focused on retail theft. A lot of (Prop 36) is more focused on drug sentencing.”
Big-box retailers like Walmart, Target and Home Depot separately contributed millions to qualify the measure for the ballot. Newsom and Michelin said they weren’t sure if those businesses would still put their money behind the initiative.
The Democratic governor, meanwhile, must also grapple with leaders in his party who’ve endorsed Prop 36 , including big-city mayors like Matt Mahan of San Jose, London Breed of San Francisco and Todd Gloria of San Diego.
Mahan held a press conference outside San Jose City Hall on Friday to respond to Newsom’s public statements. He argued Prop 36 would give courts a crucial tool to compel more repeat offenders into addiction treatment, though he also supported the anti-theft bills Newsom signed.
“It’s not controversial at the local level,” Mahan said of Prop 36. “This seems to have gotten very politicized and very partisan in Sacramento.”
Newsom dismissed the notion of an intraparty rift during his event, saying, “This is not the Democratic Party, it’s just a couple of mayors.”
The governor was also noncommittal about the extent to which he would campaign against Prop 36 this fall: “There are a lot of things that I don’t like on the ballot … it’s just, what’s the capacity?”
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