(Bloomberg) — California Governor Gavin Newsom abruptly abandoned a carefully negotiated ballot measure designed to tackle property crime and a fentanyl crisis, stunning the state’s political establishment a day after his office trumpeted the proposal.
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Democrats had hashed out the initiative over the weekend as an alternative to a tougher crackdown that’s backed by a district attorneys association and will appear on the November ballot. Party leaders tried unsuccessfully to block that measure, which would amend Proposition 47, a decade-old law that reclassified some nonviolent drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
In a statement late Tuesday, the governor said Democrats were “unable to meet the ballot deadline to secure necessary amendments to ensure this measure’s success.” Conceding to political realities, he said the initiative would be withdrawn.
Despite the last-minute reversal, Newsom said he would still “soon sign a robust public safety package that expands criminal penalties, bolsters police and prosecutor tools, and cracks down on retail theft.” He faulted the California District Attorneys Association for backing a measure “that would revive policies from the era of mass incarceration and the failed War on Drugs.”
Greg Totten, the head of the district attorneys group, applauded Newsom’s decision to withdraw the proposal.
“We are pleased the governor and legislature have dropped their countermeasure and welcome them to join our campaign to responsibly amend Proposition 47 to deal with retail theft, the fentanyl crisis and homelessness,” Totten said.
Newsom abandoned the ballot initiative as he prepared to join a meeting of Democratic governors with President Joe Biden, who’s reeling from his disastrous performance in last week’s debate with former President Donald Trump. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are also heading there.
As the top elected official in the nation’s most populous state, Newsom has long been spoken of as a potential presidential candidate. But the governor, a prominent Biden surrogate, continues to back the president following the rocky debate.
“All this other talk… it’s unhelpful and unnecessary,” Newsom wrote in a widely reported fundraising email the day after the debate. “We aren’t going to turn our backs because of one performance. What kind of party does that?”
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