Vice President Kamala Harris won’t say how she voted on California’s Prop 36, a measure to impose harsher sentences on criminals.
“So, I have [voted]. My ballot is on its way to California, and I’m going to trust the system that it will arrive there, and I am not going to talk about the vote on that,” she said.
“Because, honestly, it’s the Sunday before the election, and I don’t intend to create an endorsement one way or another around it.”
Ms. Harris was asked several times on the campaign trail the past few months where she stood on the tough-on-crime measure intended to stop the smash-and-grab epidemic in California, but she and her campaign team always rebuffed reporters’ questions about it, despite running her campaign as a “tough on crime” district attorney.
On Oct. 16, when asked by The Los Angeles Times on the tarmac before boarding a flight from Michigan to New Jersey where she stood on the issue, she responded, “I’ve not voted yet, and I’ve actually not read it yet.” She added, “But I’ll let you know.”
In September she was asked her position on the measure and she declined to take a stand.
Proposition 36, dubbed the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, would roll back the defendant-friendly limits of Prop 47, the 2014 initiative that sought to reduce prison overcrowding by lowering the number of nonviolent offenders.
Prop 47 changed particular felony crimes to misdemeanor charges for those who steal merchandise valued under $950 or commit certain drug crimes.
Ms. Harris’ office wrote the 2014 ballot summary when she was California’s attorney general.
Although she publicly remained neutral about where she stood on Prop 47, she was criticized by her detractors, including Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, that she wrote the measure’s summary in a “misleading” way on the ballot.
The title read: “Criminal Sentences. Misdemeanor Penalties. Initiative Statute.”
“Because of Kamala Harris and Prop 47, a crime wave has hit California — with our communities across the state experiencing an unprecedented spike in both retail/property crimes as well as violent crimes ranging from assault, rape and murder,” Mr. DeMaio said.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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