Delivering a strong rebuke to Gov. Gavin Newsom, progressive prosecutors and other left-wing activists, California voters have approved a new ballot initiative designed to reverse recent criminal justice reforms blamed for the sustained spike in crime across the state and empower police and prosecutors to more effectively fight crime.
While votes are still being counted and are likely to be counted across the Golden State for days, if not weeks, voters handed an easy win to Proposition 36.
According to unofficial tallies, with more than half of the vote now counted, more than 70% of voters backed Prop36.
The results aligned with opinion polls throughout the summer and fall which indicated overwhelming support for the measure from California voters.
The measure drew support from a broad coalition of California voters, including nearly all Republicans and moderate Democrats, who noted California criminal justice reform measures in place for a decade have handcuffed cops and prosecutors, while emboldening criminals.
The measure was proposed by a coalition calling themselves Californians for Safer Communities, seeking to repeal certain criminal justice reform measures enacted in 2014 through a ballot question then known as Proposition 47.
Supporters of Prop 47 prominently included the state's former Attorney General and current U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
They had passed the measure at the time with the stated goal of reducing prison populations in California and the relieving the alleged negative impacts imposed on racial minorities by incarceration. The measure sought to accomplish that goal by redefining a host of relonies as misdemeanors, preventing prosecutors from pursuing jail time against offenders.
Prop 47 particularly tied the hands of police and prosecutors to address retail theft, burglaries and other so-called "property crimes," as well as drug trafficking.
According to analyses conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California and others, Prop 47 has been a significant driver in the explosion of drug and property crime and other criminal behavior in California in the past decade, particularly when coupled with state policies enacted in response to the Covid pandemic.
The PPIC analysis noted also that Prop 47 appears to have also dropped participation by drug-related offenders in the state's drug court system, reducing the number of people completing court-ordered drug addiction treatment.
All told, California voters appeared to come to agree that Prop 47 has produced significant problems for California's communities and the state's economy, making streets less safe and leading to store closings and other kinds of disinvestment and exodus from California.
Prop 36 would again rewrite California's criminal justice code to increase penalties for retail theft and other property crimes. Under Prop 36, police and prosecutors would again be allowed to charge retail thieves for the total amount of merchandise they have stolen to trigger harsher penalties, rather than a sentence based solely on the amount of goods they may have taken in one shoplifting episode.
Prop 36 will also stiffen penalties for drug trafficking and would require the state to treat fentanyl like other illegal street drugs. Fentanyl dealers and distributors could also face murder charges if the drugs they sell result in someone's death.
Prop 36 supporters said the measure would also restore strong incentives to persuade drug offenders to go through the drug court system to avoid jail time and receive addiction treatment.
Despite the strong support for the measure, it was opposed by Newsom and other prominent California Democrats and left-wing activist organizations, including the ACLU.
Newsom said the measure would return California to the "war on drugs" and result in renewed "mass incarceration."
Harris famously refused to comment on Prop 36 and refused to say how she may have voted on the measure when she cast her ballot in her home state in late October, fueling speculation she had quietly joined with Newsom and other political allies in the Golden State to oppose the measure.
Supporters of Prop 36, however, said Californians' support for Prop 36 shows they have had enough of "soft on crime" policies that leave their communities needlessly exposed to crime and its effects.
On the social media platform X, Corey Uhden, campaign manager for San Diego Supervisor candidate Kevin Faulconer lauded the overwhelming passage of Prop 36: "The legislature tried to stop this. The governor tried to undermine it. But the people of California prevailed and #Prop36 is as close to a complete repudiation of the Democrats' soft-on-crime policies as it could be. 70%. Every County. Everywhere."
For their part, the Californians for Safer Communities organization posted a response to the vote on social media, saying: "Thank you for voting YES on Prop 36! Together, we're making our communities safer for all Californians."