SACRAMENTO, California — California voters dealt a blow to the state’s decade-long experiment with progressive criminal justice reform by approving a tough-on-crime ballot measure and ousting a high-profile progressive prosecutor in the state’s most populous county.
Preliminary results show Golden State voters overwhelmingly embraced Proposition 36, a statewide ballot measure to increase penalties for certain retail theft and drug crimes. The measure rolls back parts of Proposition 47, a 2014 ballot measure that reduced sentencing for a host of nonviolent crimes.
In liberal Los Angeles County, voters rejected progressive incumbent George Gascón, electing Republican-turned-independent Nathan Hochman. And early results in the San Francisco Bay Area show a sizable lead for the effort to recall progressive Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price from an office she has held for less than two years.
Taken together, the preliminary results are a striking shift away from California’s once nation-leading movement to roll back harsh sentencing rules for nonviolent offenses — one punctuated by a pandemic-era spike in property crimes and retail theft, as well as growing concern about highly visible fentanyl use and homelessness on city streets.
“Safety is a crossover issue,” Hochman told reporters at his election night watch party in Beverly Hills. “Whether you’re on the left or the right, whether you’re Black, white, Latino, Asian, people want to be safe again in this community. They want the police to actually do a very good job at their job.”
California spent more than a decade unraveling punitive sentencing laws dating back to the 1970s after a panel of federal judges ordered the state to reduce its prison population to address severe overcrowding.
Voters and lawmakers passed initiatives and legislation shifting inmates convicted of lower-level crimes from prisons to jails, reducing penalties for some nonviolent offenses and making it easier for inmates to earn early release credits. Prop 47 was among these efforts, which substantially reduced California’s prison population.
“Criminal justice swings back and forth, and four years ago was a huge time of interest in reform,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta, who said he was not surprised the measure passed, despite his concerns it would lead to mass incarceration. Bonta demurred about whether he voted for the measure but argued there needs to be greater accountability for breaking the law. “People want both. They want fairness and justice on the one hand, and they want safety on the other.”
Bonta said that Californians — himself included — were fed up with viral smash-and-grab videos and other brazen crimes. “You cannot have that in an ordered society,” he said. “It must stop.”
California Republican Party Chair Jessica Millan Patterson said in a statement that the election results in the state showed California voters “are fed up with failed, radical policies that have taken our state and nation in the wrong direction — from the never-ending homeless crisis to failing public schools, rising crime, and surging costs.”
Yes on Prop 36
A group of prosecutors tried to roll back reforms in 2020 with a sweeping ballot measure, Proposition 20, that would have reclassified many nonviolent theft-related crimes as felonies and tightened rules for inmates to request early parole. But the measure suffered from poor timing, given the national racial reckoning triggered by George Floyd’s murder months earlier by a Minneapolis police officer. Prop 20’s backers also failed to unify prosecutors and law enforcement figures behind its broad push to prioritize public safety above all else.
The architects of Prop 36 built a broader coalition by crafting a more precise measure focused on punishing repeat offenders who commit drug and property crimes without touching California’s parole process. Their approach splintered Democrats, with Gov. Gavin Newsom opposing it and big-city leaders like San Francisco Mayor London Breed endorsing it, scuttling resistance to the measure.
And unlike 2020, Prop 36 backers had the political winds at their back, as voters and a slate of local and state leaders grew increasingly frustrated with persistent drug and homelessness issues.
“This vote tonight was a demand for change,” Greg Totten, head of the California District Attorneys Association and co-chair of the Yes on 36 campaign, said Tuesday night after the race was called. “The public has awakened to what they’re seeing every single day … this is a powerful mandate for change in the state to address retail theft, homelessness and fentanyl.”
But Democratic Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a criminal justice reform advocate nearing the end of his final term, argues Prop 36 will embolden law enforcement to use overly harsh tactics against people accused of committing lower-level crimes.
“Unfortunately for us, when it comes to law enforcement and reeling them in, we have to wait until they kill someone of color before we become outraged,” he said. “They now feel they have the authority to go out there and actually shoot someone for stealing a pack of gum.”
Also caught up in the shift toward tough-on-crime policies was Proposition 6, an amendment to ban involuntary servitude in the state constitution. The measure, part of a nationwide movement to close the so-called “slavery loophole” in state constitutions, at first seemed like a straightforward sell in a progressive state like California, but it was difficult to explain to voters. Early returns show it trailing.
Prop 6’s backers said the strong support for Prop 36, combined with a lack of funding, complicated their efforts to get voters on board.
Los Angeles loss
Those same political headwinds hurt Gascón, even in deep-blue Los Angeles County. His sweeping changes — largely ending cash bail, banning his prosecutors from seeking the death penalty and rejecting the use of many sentencing enhancements — sparked immediate backlash that tanked his popularity.
“The rightward shift across America last night is heartbreaking,” Gascon said in a statement after his loss. “Democrats have a long road ahead, but the work is more vital than ever and our commitment will not waver.”
Hochman capitalized on frustrations over crime in his campaign, accusing his opponent of enacting “pro-criminal extreme policies” — though he was careful to avoid making partisan attacks. He even adopted some talking points from reformers including vowing to address the root causes of crime.
He said he would keep some of Gascón’s initiatives, including prosecuting police officers for misconduct and maintaining a unit that analyzes cases to determine if innocent people are behind bars.
“Not only would I keep that unit, I would actually scale it up,” he said.
A pre-election survey suggested reform efforts maintain some support with voters. About half of California’s voting public said in a Berkeley IGS poll from October that they would prioritize expanding rehabilitation and treatment for first-time offenders — equal to the number of voters who said they would prioritize stricter penalties for lawbreakers.
Alameda County recalls
A similar story appears to be playing out for Price in Alameda County, though the race is still too early to call. Price rocked the county’s Democratic establishment in 2022 by winning on a pledge to seek shorter sentences, reduce incarceration and prosecute police officers who unlawfully use lethal force. But surging crime in Oakland, the largest city in her district, propelled the recall push against her, which was funded largely by real estate and finance interests but also supported by influential community activists.
“Prop 36 is only good when you have district attorneys who are willing to prosecute. I’m not only talking about Alameda County,” said Carl Chan, a recall supporter and president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.
The recall effort to remove Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao from office leads in early results by nearly the same margins as the recall targeting Price. If she falls, Thao will have succumbed to a months-long recall campaign over the city’s crime and its financial concerns compounded by a June FBI raid on her home.
“Some people here are about 90 years old. They want change. They’ve never seen Oakland like this, and it frightens them.” said Cynthia Adams, president of Oakland’s NAACP branch, who supported the Thao recall. “There’s nothing wrong with change.”
Still, Thao was defiant on election night. “We know that the work that we have done was actually great and it’s positive,” she said. “And it is because of doom-loopers that continue to talk about nasty crimes in the city of Oakland that allows for people to believe that somehow crimes aren’t coming down.”
Alex Nieves, Eric He and Melanie Mason contributed to this report.
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