County and statewide citizens rebuke Supe Ellenberg, pass Prop 36 by wide margins
Image by Damian Dovarganes
Even though County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg (in a bizarre rant) opposed Prop 36, it passed with over 70% approval on Election Day. (Prop 36 called for increased punishments for many drug and theft crimes and created a new treatment-focused court process for some drug possession crimes.) SJ Mayor Matt Mahan proved more in touch with local voters, and was an enthusiastic proponent of Prop 36. CA Globe reports.
Getting 70% or more on something during an election is incredibly hard to do. To achieve that, you need to have a majority of conservative, liberal, and centrist voters all wanting the same thing.
In the 2024 election in California, the results so far show only a handful of House seats achieving this.
As for issues, specifically statewide issues, there are none. Well, except for one – Proposition 36, which aims to make multiple changes to California drug and theft laws and bolster them in the process.
The road to Prop. 36, and its current popularity, dates back 10 years ago to Proposition 47, which passed by voters in 2014, not only changed California law so that most theft and drug felonies are only charged as misdemeanors, but it also allowed convicted felons to reclassify those convictions to misdemeanors. It also helped solidify the $950 felony/misdemeanor threshold for thefts that was first brought up through AB 2372 in 2010.
With crime going up as a result of Prop. 47, many began working to craft a new proposition to help reform those laws. The result was Prop. 36, which qualified for the November 2024 ballot to be voted on exactly one decade to the day that Prop 47 was passed. Under Prop. 36, punishments for many drug and theft crimes will be increased once again, including making some current misdemeanor thefts back into felonies, lengthening felony sentences, and requiring that felony sentences be served in prison. In addition, it will also create a new treatment-focused court process for some drug possession crimes, and require that some felonies be served in prison.
Out of the gate, Prop. 36 proved to be very popular. Many retail and voter groups signed on to the initiative. Unusually, Prop. 36 also didn’t have the normal party and geography divides, with even typically liberal Los Angeles and San Francisco, both of which have seen rises in crime and “smash-and-grab” robberies in recent years, providing support.
In August, a Los Angeles Times/UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll found that 56% of Californians supported Prop 36, with only 23% opposing it. Over two thirds of conservatives and moderates were for it, and even around half of all liberal voters were for it as well, due in part to the crime swings in major cities. Support jumped significantly last month where the previous PPIC poll found that 71% of voters were in favor of Prop 36, with only 26% in opposition. Political affiliation support was also in the majority across the spectrum, ranging from 85% Republican support to 63% support amongst Democrats. Last month, a new PPIC poll found that 73% of voters were now in favor of Prop 36, with only 25% against and 2% undecided. In comparing PPIC and IGS, IGS puts a bigger emphasis on undecided voters, meaning that with split undecided voter percentages, the IGS and PPIC polls were very closely correlated.
In the last month in the leadup to election day, opponents made one final strong push against it. Vice President Kamala Harris even joined the effort against it. However, this failed, as the newest IGS poll found that 60% of voters were in favor of Prop 36 with only 25% against it and 15% undecided. All demographics were found to be for the Proposition, with the exceptions of strongly liberal voters who are 60% against it and voters between the ages of 18-29, who are split 41%-41% on it.
And on Tuesday, it became overwhelmingly clear that those polls were highly accurate. With 57% of precincts reporting on Friday, 7,115,523 Californians had voted for Prop 36, with only 3,029,855 against it. This was enough for a 70.1%-29.9% split and Prop 36 being the first issue call of the night.
“California voters have spoken with a clear voice on the triple epidemics of retail theft, homelessness and fatal drug overdoses plaguing our state,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan earlier this week. “In supporting Proposition 36, they said yes to treatment. They said yes to accountability. And they said yes to putting common sense before partisanship, so we can stop the suffering in our communities."
Read the whole thing here.
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