(Bloomberg) -- A California ballot measure to crack down on store theft and drug crimes is heading to the polls with support from big retailers, law enforcement groups, a crypto billionaire — and now, more than 70 mayors.
Representing cities from Beverly Hills to Fresno, the mostly Democratic or non-partisan mayors bucked Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom by throwing their support behind Proposition 36, which will go before voters in November. The initiative would roll back a landmark criminal justice law from a decade ago, stiffen penalties and force drug users into treatment to avoid prison time.
The mayors’ backing underscores rising voter frustration with a sense of public disorder fueled by open-air drug markets and homeless encampments in cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as by retail theft that has prompted Target Corp. to shutter some stores. Target and Walmart Inc. have helped fund the ballot initiative, which also has support from the California District Attorneys Association.
“Too many Sacramento politicians have attempted to dismiss the pleas of local officials seeking commonsense solutions to address the crisis of drug overdoses, theft and homelessness plaguing our communities,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who spearheaded the campaign to secure the new endorsements.
“We are not ‘just a couple of mayors’ as some have suggested, but rather a groundswell of local elected officials — mostly Democrats,” he said.
Indeed, the measure has increasingly exposed rifts among leaders in the Democratic-dominated state over how to approach criminal justice policies. Backers of Proposition 36 say California’s Proposition 47, a voter-approved law from 2014 that reduced penalties for low-level offenders, has emboldened criminals.
But opponents including Newsom argue that the new initiative will increase racial disparities in the legal system, threaten progress in slashing recidivism and exacerbate the very problems the measure is attempting to address.
California’s independent fiscal and policy adviser said Proposition 36 could increase the state’s prison population by a few thousand people, potentially resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual costs.
“This is about restarting the war on drugs – plain and simple,” said Anthony York, spokesperson for the No on 36 campaign. “This is going back to the failed policies of the past.”
Newsom stunned the California political establishment in July by abandoning an effort to produce a competing ballot measure after negotiations stalled among Democratic factions in the state legislature. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has yet to take a position on Proposition 36.
Voters, however, are signaling strong support. The initiative has brought together many conservatives and liberals, with 83% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats backing the measure in a September poll from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.
Chris Larsen, the billionaire co-founder of crypto company Ripple Labs, has contributed $250,000 to a committee backing Proposition 36.
“Everybody’s mad, businesses are suffering, tourists aren’t coming into downtown,” said Larsen, a Democrat. “You’ve got to have accountability.”
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