Batman vs. Prop 47

From: POLITICO California Playbook - Wednesday Mar 23,2022 01:20 pm

Mar 23, 2022

By Jeremy B. White, Chris Ramirez, Juhi Doshi and Graph Massara

Presented by CVS Health

THE BUZZ — STILL PROPPED UP: California won’t be discarding or diminishing Proposition 47 any time soon.

Less than a decade after voters overwhelmingly slashed drug and property crime penalties, scrutiny of this landmark criminal justice initiative has risen in parallel with crime concerns. The same share of voters who passed the measure in 2014 told a 2022 poll they’d amend it to stiffen punishments for theft. State lawmakers have reflected those trends by introducing a flurry of bills to let voters amend or outright abandon Prop 47.

But that legislation is going nowhere. The Assembly Public Safety committee has extirpated a series of Prop 47 bills in the last few weeks. That has included Republican bills whose demise will fuel a midterm narrative of Democrats forsaking crime fears; gone are GOP measures to repeal Prop 47 or reinstate petty theft offenses for repeat offenders. It has also encompassed Democratic bills like an effort to expand the jurisdiction for prosecuting thefts, which led Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin to lament that Californians will need to look to Batman.

On Tuesday, the committee halted a measure that would’ve lowered the threshold for felony property crimes. Moderate Democratic Assemblymember Rudy Salas — who happens to be challenging Rep. David Valadao in one of California’s marquee midterm races — noted the aforementioned poll and said elected officials must “show we not only recognize this problem, but we’re trying to address it.” That failed to persuade Democratic chair Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who argued the change would merely “fill prisons again.” (Jones-Sawyer previously carried legislation creating an organized retail theft task force.)

Some larger dynamics to remember: the Legislature’s respective public safety committees tend to be led by progressives rather than law-and-order types. (There’s a reason a prison guards union spent more than $1 million to unseat Jones-Sawyer last cycle.) And that affects what types of bills can or cannot get through. We’re also less than two years removed from voters rebuffing law enforcement’s ballot initiative to unravel aspects of Prop 47.

But Democrats are not oblivious to the public mood. Two Democrats hardly considered moderates, Assemblymembers Mia Bonta and Miguel Santiago, held off on Salas’ bill. Many Democrats are seeking a balance, safeguarding criminal justice reforms while demonstrating they’re attentive to public safety — and showing that the two goals needn’t be in conflict.

Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins said earlier this year that lawmakers should “be able to say where change is needed,” even as they “uphold the will of the voters.” Progressive Attorney General Rob Bonta said he was open to “tweaks and changes” to deal with “unintended consequences.” Gov. Gavin Newsom has defended Prop 47, while pointing out prosecutors can go after organized retail crime under current law — and encouraging them to do so. “These are not victimless crimes, Newsom said last year, “and I have no empathy for these criminal elements.”

BUENOS DÍAS, good Wednesday morning. While the Senate Judiciary Committee considered elevating the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, California yesterday registered a different legal milestone: Justice Patricia Guerrero will be the first Latina to serve on the California Supreme Court.

Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit jwhite@politico.com or follow me on Twitter @jeremybwhite.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “When someone mentioned that, you know, we need Batman or while we wait for Batman to come in — well, Batman is the attorney general. Batman is the California Highway Patrol. We do have a Batman.” Jones-Sawyer casts some shade.

TWEET OF THE DAY: Sen. @Scott_Wiener on Supreme Court hearings: “Ketanji Brown Jackson was in my law school class. Everyone thought she was a nice & brilliant person. Ted Cruz was a year ahead of us in law school. Everyone thought he was a major jackass, as he is demonstrating yet again today.”

WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.

A message from CVS Health:

Throughout the pandemic, in California and communities across the country, CVS Health has been there. We’ve opened more than 4,800 COVID-19 test sites, administered 41 million tests and given 59 million vaccines. We’ve expanded access to prenatal and postpartum care via telemedicine, increased remote access to mental health services and invested in affordable housing to help build healthier communities. We’ve been on the frontlines, making health care easier to access and afford. Learn more.

Top Talkers

THE INDOMITABLE CEQA — “After Berkeley drama, Newsom eyes change to California environmental law. It won’t be easy,” by the Sac Bee’s Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow: “Enacted during Ronald Reagan’s governorship, it’s proven to be one of California’s sturdiest pieces of legislation, thanks to broad support from influential environmentalists and California’s network of neighborhood activists.”

TAX SEASON — “Newsoms earned nearly $1.5M in 2020, ” by POLITICO’s Susannah Luthi and Colby Bermel: “The disclosures are required under a 2019 bill the governor signed in an attempt to force former President Donald Trump and other White House candidates to release their tax returns.”

HOLY … “Health Officials See Bright Future in Poop Surveillance, ” by California Healthline’s Anna Maria Barry-Jester: “Sewage surveillance is proving so useful that many researchers and public health officials say it should become standard practice in tracking infectious diseases, as is already the case in many other countries.”

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT — “ At the Peak of the Defund Era, L.A. received $600 million in Covid relief, half went to LAPD,” by LA Taco’s Lexis-Olivier Ray: “Despite receiving half of the funds thus far, the LAPD is absent from the city controller’s ARPA report.”

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CAMPAIGN MODE

LA MAYORAL UPDATE, via Alex Nieves: Billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso said Tuesday that he would release his full tax returns when confronted on his financial history during a Los Angeles mayoral debate at the University of Southern California on Tuesday night.

That declaration came in response to a challenge from Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, who questioned whether Caruso dodged paying taxes on a megayacht — valued at around $100 million — registered in the Cayman Islands, and he called on the businessman to immediately publicize his tax returns.

Caruso hit back at Feuer, saying that he has not avoided paying a fair share of taxes and that he would commit to releasing his returns if the four other candidates on the stage at USC did the same. Feuer said he was prepared to release his taxes Wednesday, while Rep. Karen Bass and Los Angeles City Council members Kevin de León and Joe Buscaino indicted that they’d be willing to do the same, but didn’t offer timelines.

— “ Rivals take aim at Caruso (and his yacht) in his first mayoral debate,” by the LA Times’ Dakota Smith, David Zahniser and James Rainey.

— “Column: So who won the L.A. mayoral debate? Here’s what some voters are saying, ” by the LA Times’ Steve Lopez.

OC AIRDROP: GOP former Assemblymember Scott Baugh is getting more national assistance for his bid to unseat Rep. Katie Porter, with the GOP leadership PAC Congressional Leadership Fund adding Baugh to its “trailblazers” program, unlocking financial support.

DEPARTMENT OF DE LEÓN — “De León proposes a new city department of mental and public health,” by the LA Times’ Benjamin Oreskes: “De León wants to the city to become its own continuum of care, which is a federal designation that is used to distribute money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.”

— “While Democrats Debate ‘Latinx,’ Latinos Head to the G.O.P.,” by the NY Times’ Mike Madrid: “Under newly drawn district lines, four of the most competitive House seats will have Hispanic populations of at least 38 percent and are in California, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.”

CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR

SANCTUARY STATE — Newsom signs bill to lower the cost of abortions, by POLITICO’s Victoria Colliver: The new law makes California the fourth state to ban out-of-pocket costs for the procedure. The law's signing also sets the state on a path to become a place where both residents and people from out of state can seek abortions if the U.S Supreme Court overturns or significantly pares back Roe v. Wade.

UH-OH … “Fire season in Northern California could be coming early again, ” by the Mercury News’ Jake Hutchinson: “Each year in California seems to get dryer and dryer, with an ongoing drought and an ever-expanding fire season. The 2022 fire season is shaping up to continue the pattern.”

THE FINE DETAILS — “Newsom’s new push for homeless mental health treatment lacks details. That has some worried, ” by the LA Times’ Hannah Wiley: “Despite the urgency, the number of people who would likely benefit from the initiative is limited. Newsom’s administration believes that 7,000 to 12,000 people could qualify for the court-ordered care, a fraction of the estimated 161,000 people experiencing homelessness in California”

HOMELESSNESS HELP — “ ‘We have failed’: how California’s homelessness catastrophe is worsening,” by the Guardian’s Sam Levin: “While homelessness remains concentrated in major metro areas like Los Angeles, San Jose, the San Francisco Bay area and San Diego, communities from the north to the Mexico border are facing their own emergencies.”

DROUGHT DANGERS — “ ‘Historic dry conditions’: California warns of water cuts due to drought’s third year,” by the Sac Bee’s Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler: “Newsom has so far resisted ordering mandatory water cutbacks for urban users, relying instead on a 15% voluntary call for conservation. But for the most part, Californians aren’t responding.”

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK — Auditor: California has more potential to convert state property to affordable housing, by POLITICO’s Chris Ramirez: The state says it will take seven years to make its remaining 73 properties available; however, the report detailed how hiring one more staff member could cut that time by roughly two years.

HERE WE GO AGAIN — “Can the Bay Area avoid a BA.2 COVID surge?” by the SF Chronicle’s Aidin Vaziri: “Even though BA.2 is now the dominant strain in northern parts of Santa Clara County, health officer Dr. Sara Cody said it is not yet slowing the decline of cases coming out of the winter omicron-driven surge.”

— “Mayor London Breed is taking on San Francisco’s far left. Can she prevail?” by the LA Times’ Seema Mehta: “Breed has repeatedly said that she is ‘unapologetic’ and has rebuked white progressives such as Boudin — who is facing a June recall — as not understanding what it is like to be poor and a minority in San Francisco.”

— “CSU halts program that paid millions to executives after they departed, ” by the LA Times’ Colleen Shalby and Robert J. Lopez: “The meeting marked the first time that trustees met in public since news about Castro’s handling of allegations, first reported by USA Today, roiled the system.”

— “Keely Bosler to step aside as Newsom budget chief, ” by POLITICO’s Jeremy B. White: “She told colleagues in an email that she would depart after the budget is cemented in June.”

BIDEN, HARRIS AND THE HILL

ANOTHER ONE — “California senators Feinstein, Padilla take on a new SCOTUS nominee amid shadows of past confirmations,” by the SF Chronicle’s Tal Kopan: “Feinstein’s questions were in line with other Democrats on the committee who have supported Jackson’s nomination, and she in no way acknowledged criticisms that Republicans have used in the hearings to raise questions about past confirmations.”

SILICON VALLEYLAND

— “Amazon pauses work on proposed San Francisco warehouse after city supervisors vote on delivery moratorium,” by the SF Chronicle’s J.K. Dineen: “While the board didn’t discuss the legislation at Tuesday’s meeting, the vote was preceded by a fiery rally in front of City Hall at which organized labor, environmental watchdogs, and residents of San Francisco’s southeast neighborhoods denounced Amazon’s expansion plans.”

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HOLLYWOODLAND

LOUD AND PROUD — “Disney had a tight-lipped employee culture. Then Florida happened,” by the LA Times’ Ryan Faughnder: “The protests culminated weeks of mounting employee blowback against Chief Executive Bob Chapek’s response to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, derisively nicknamed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill by opponents.”

MIXTAPE

— “Former Vallejo police lieutenant testifies that he started badge bending practice at Concord PD,” by the Vallejo Sun’s Scott Morris.

— “A search for answers to anti-Asian violence,” opines the LA Times’ Frank Shyong.

— “ A wave of SRO listings have set Chinatown on edge: ‘The next generation doesn’t want anything to do with these buildings,’” by the SF Chronicle’s J.K. Dineen.

DIGGING FOR ANSWERS — “Officials Push for New Solutions to Homelessness in East County, ” by the Voice of San Diego’s Jakob McWhinney.

— “Scammers send phishing texts claiming to be California EDD or Bank of America,” by KTVU’s Brooks Jarosz.

— “Judge confirmed as 1st Latina on California Supreme Court,” by the AP’s Brian Melley.

BIRTHDAYS

Maya Lau … Tim Bulakul

A message from CVS Health:

At CVS Health, we’re more than 300,000 caring employees ensuring Californians and millions of Americans can access health care services.

We have been offering COVID-19 vaccines at more than 9,600 CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide.

Nothing should stand in the way of mental health and well-being, so we have been increasing remote access to mental health services.

We have been supporting safer pregnancies and expanding access to prenatal and postpartum care via telemedicine.

Recognizing the strong connection between housing and health, we have been investing in affordable housing to support underserved populations and build healthier communities.

Every day, CVS Health works to bring quality, affordable health care into neighborhoods, homes and hands—so it’s never out of reach for anyone.

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