• CA Ballot: Gov. Gavin Newsom and California's Democratic-run legislature announced Tuesday evening that they'd abandoned their effort to place a measure on the November ballot that would have been an alternative to what they've called a "draconian" proposal to increase penalties for many non-violent crimes.
Supporters of that proposal, which they've dubbed the "California Drug and Theft Crime Penalties and Treatment-Mandated Felonies Initiative," collected the requisite number of signatures in the spring. The plan would roll back parts of Proposition 47, a decade-old measure that the California District Attorneys Association and big-box retailers have been attacking.
This latest plan, which has not yet been assigned a number, would increase the punishment for several crimes related to drug possession and theft whose penalties had been reduced by Proposition 47. The San Francisco Chronicle reported last month that the "yes" side had raised $8.5 million, with Walmart, Target, and Home Depot serving as its largest donors.
Democratic lawmakers hoped they could convince the plan's proponents to remove it from the ballot ahead of last week's deadline by introducing several bills aimed at combating retail theft, but they failed to reach an agreement.
Newsom and legislative leaders said they would instead place a rival measure on the ballot to "put public safety first without reverting to outdated and ineffective policies of decades past" and had until Wednesday to secure the necessary support in both chambers. On Tuesday evening, though, the governor said that Democrats' alternate measure wouldn't move forward.
"We are unable to meet the ballot deadline to secure necessary amendments to ensure this measure’s success and we will be withdrawing it from consideration," Newsom said. "I look forward to working with the Legislature and our public safety and retail partners to go even further in the days ahead, without returning to the damaging policies of decades past."