Over 70% California voters back measure to combat crime despite Harris’ silence

CV NEWS FEED // California Proposition 36, a ballot initiative aimed at substantially reducing the amount of crime in the Golden State, passed with over 70% of the vote on Tuesday.

Voters in California backed the measure by a landslide despite the fact that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Democratic Party had vehemently opposed it.

In addition, failed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, a Californian, declined to take a stance on the measure.

By Wednesday afternoon, with over half of the vote in, an overwhelming majority of voters in all 58 counties of the reliably blue state backed the measure – including even deep-blue San Francisco County, where voters favored Proposition 36 by a two-to-one margin.

The proposition is titled “Allows Felony Charges and Increases Sentences for Certain Drug and Theft Crimes.”

The New York Post reported that the measure “authorizes felony charges for possession of drugs including fentanyl and for thefts under $950 if the offender has two prior drug or theft convictions.”

Furthermore, Proposition 36 “creates a new category of crime called ‘treatment-mandated felony’ that allows a person to have their drug conviction set aside if they complete rehab,” the Post noted.

Last Sunday, a reporter in Michigan asked Harris how she voted on the proposition in her home state. 

“I am not going to talk about the vote on that,” Harris replied. “Because honestly it’s the Sunday before the election and I don’t intend to create an endorsement one way or another around it.”

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The California Democratic Party had urged its members to vote “no” on Proposition 36, claiming that it “Restarts failed costly war on drugs.” Multiple Democratic state lawmakers nonetheless supported the “yes” campaign.

Newsom had emerged as perhaps the proposition’s most high-profile opponent.

At a September public event, the controversial governor urged Californians to vote against the initiative. “It’s about mass incarceration,” he claimed. “It’s about bringing us back to a 1980s mindset. The impact it’s going to have on the black and brown community is next-level.”

Proposition 36 will undo parts of Proposition 47, a 2014 measure passed by just under 60% of California voters that classified thefts of items totaling under $950 as misdemeanors as opposed to felonies. 

At the time Proposition 47 was passed, Harris was serving as California’s attorney general. As in the case of Proposition 36, she declined to take a position on the measure one way or the other.

Adam Meyer, a California architect, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that Newsom’s opposition to the anti-crime measure coupled with Harris’ apparent neutrality “should tell you everything you need to know about how out of touch the Democratic establishment was with voters this election cycle.”

Also on X, FOX News national correspondent Bill Melugin reported that on the same day Proposition 36 passed, Democratic Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon lost his reelection bid in a landslide to independent Nathan Hochman.

Gascon, who is widely regarded as a “soft-on-crime” prosecutor, was one of the main proponents of the decade-old Proposition 47. He has also been heavily scrutinized for his ties to controversial left-wing billionaire George Soros.