Vice President Kamala Harris has been waffling on a California ballot initiative to stop the smash-and-grab epidemic.
The former San Francisco district attorney has deflected questions on Proposition 36, a measure seeking to combat soaring property crime by overhauling the 2014 law that bumped some drug crimes and thefts under $950 from felonies to misdemeanors.
Ms. Harris, a registered voter in California, has declined to commit when asked about her stance, most recently last week as she prepared for a flight from Detroit to New Jersey.
“I’ve not voted yet, and I’ve actually not read it yet,” Ms. Harris told reporters, as per the Los Angeles Times. “But I’ll let you know.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this report.
Proposition 36, dubbed the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, would roll back the defendant-friendly strictures of Proposition 47, the 2014 initiative that sought to reduce prison overcrowding by lowering the number of nonviolent offenders.
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In that, the measure succeeded — the average daily prison population has dropped by 28% since 2014 — but critics say Californians have paid the price in organized retail theft, car break-ins, homelessness, and the closure of fast-food and storefront businesses over safety concerns.
As attorney general, Ms. Harris did not take a position on Proposition 47, but her office was responsible for writing the ballot summary.
Jessica Millan Patterson, California Republican Party chairwoman, said Ms. Harris “owes voters an answer on whether she stands by the disastrous policy.”
“How does she expect voters to believe she’s ready for the White House when she isn’t even ready to come clean on how she’ll vote on her own ballot?” asked Ms. Patterson.
Proposition 36 would allow felony charges for thefts under $950 and possession of hard drugs such as fentanyl, increase penalties for drug trafficking and repeat theft offenders, and incentivize rehabilitation by offering to expunge the convictions of repeat offenders who complete drug treatment.
Polls show the initiative enjoys strong voter support — the latest survey shows it passing with 60% of the vote in November — but California Democrats are far from united on the issue, presenting a conundrum for Ms. Harris, the Democrat’s presidential nominee.
“Proposition 36 has split the Democratic Party right down the middle, and it’s clear that Harris doesn’t think she can afford to offend either side of the debate,” Dan Schnur, a former Republican strategist who teaches at the University of California Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, told The Washington Times.
Leading the opposition is Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has ripped Proposition 36 as being “about mass incarceration, not mass treatment,” putting him at odds with the Democratic mayors of cities including San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose and Santa Monica.
“Politicians in Sacramento had a decade to fix this mess, but they stalled, they delayed, and they failed,” said Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park at a Sept. 30 press conference. “That’s why voters across California are coming together in support of Proposition 36. It is now up to us to restore sanity and common sense in our criminal justice system and end this failed experiment.”
Pushing the measure are the state’s retailers. Earlier this month, a group of 7-Eleven franchise owners donated $1 million to the Yes on 36 campaign, which is also funded by Walmart, Target and Home Depot.
Proposition 36 increases penalties for ’smash-and-grab’ crimes. Vote YES on Prop 36. #YesOn36https://t.co/Pde2sYxHyJ pic.twitter.com/NdoAnEU5iT
— Yes on Prop 36 Californians for Safer Communities (@VoteYesProp36) October 19, 2024
The initiative’s high profile has also drawn attention to the Harris campaign’s mixed messaging on crime as the presidential race enters the final stretch.
Democrats initially sought to frame the race as “the prosecutor versus the felon,” contrasting Ms. Harris’ year as San Francisco DA and California attorney general with former President Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions in New York City for falsified business records.
“We need a president who has spent her life prosecuting perpetrators like Donald Trump,” said the narrator of a video that played in August at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
With polls showing Mr. Trump gaining support with Black men, however, the Harris campaign has taken a liberal U-turn when it comes to law enforcement.
Last week, Ms. Harris emphasized her support for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in an interview on “The Breakfast Club,” a radio show hosted by Charlamagne Tha God that caters to a Black audience.
The legislation, which the House passed in 2021 with one Republican vote, would lower the criminal-intent standard for officer misconduct, create a National Police Misconduct Registry, and limit qualified immunity for officers in civil liability cases.
“I’m still going to always work on getting the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed,” Ms. Harris said on the show, emphasizing her support for “the freedom to just be free and be free from any brutality, including police brutality when and where it occurs.”
Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Zack Smith said Ms. Harris has long sought to have it both ways regarding law and order.
“When she wants her supporters to believe she was tough on crime, she trots out her tried-and-true tropes about being San Francisco’s and then California’s top legal officer,” he said in an Aug. 19 op-ed. “If that doesn’t sound good, she flip-flops and touts her progressive bona fides.”
He added: “But this isn’t Burger King; she can’t have it her way. It’s the White House; the truth matters.”
Ms. Harris isn’t the only California Democrat ducking Proposition 36. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who is running for Senate, has not taken a position on the measure. Neither has Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Media outlets in California and elsewhere have taken notice.
“Prop 36 has divided Democrats — but many are refusing to weigh in at all,” said an Oct. 3 article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Los Angeles Times said in an Oct. 16 headline: “Kamala Harris still won’t weigh in on California’s tough-on-crime ballot measure.”
Former White House and congressional staffer J.T. Young called Ms. Harris “too chicken to back repeal of California’s pro-crime Proposition 47” in an Oct. 8 op-ed in The Hill.
The Democratic divide doesn’t appear to have hurt the measure’s chances. A University of California Berkeley IGS survey of likely voters released Oct. 4 found that 60% support the measure and 21% oppose it.
That may explain why Democrats like Ms. Harris are sitting out the debate.
“Polling shows that it will almost certainly pass,” said Mr. Schnur, “so she may believe that many Democrats aren’t as focused on it as they would be if the race was closer.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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