Top California Democrats announce ballot measure targeting retail theft

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Top California Democrats announced Sunday they will ask voters to approve a plan cracking down on retail theft.

The plan, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is an effort to compete with another crime-focused measure backed by a coalition of business groups that lawmakers said would result in more people being put behind bars. Newsom and lawmakers negotiated the plan behind closed doors over the weekend after failing to convince the coalition to withdraw its effort from the ballot.

Both proposals would include make shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders and increase penalties for fentanyl dealers.

Under the retailers' plan, any prior theft-related convictions, even if they happened years ago, would count toward a three-strike policy for increased sentences. Lawmakers also are proposing harsher punishment for repeat thieves, but the convictions would have to happen within three years of each other.

Prosecutors could aggregate the amount of all stolen goods within three years to charge harsher offenses under the Democrats' plan.

Lawmakers will vote to advance the plan and deliver it to Newsom for his signature before the deadline on Wednesday.

They hope to place the measure as the first item on the ballot in November. With two competing measures on the ballot, the one with more votes would prevail.

Republican lawmakers blasted the Democrats' plan, with one calling it " a sham " to confuse voters.

The last-minute plan is an attempt by top California Democrats to override another initiative cracking down on shoplifters and drug dealers, which is backed by a broad coalition of businesses, district attorneys and local officials. The coalition and state leaders have clashed over how to crack down retail theft crimes.

The retailers' proposal would roll back parts of Proposition 47, the progressive ballot measure approved by 60% of state voters in 2014 that reduced certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors to help address overcrowding in jails. In recent years, Proposition 47 has become the focus of critics who say California is too lax on crime.

It would also make possession of fentanyl a felony and authorize judges to order those with multiple drug charges to get treatment. Proponents said the initiative is necessary to close legal loopholes in existing laws that has made it challenging to prosecute shoplifting and drug-related charges.

But lawmakers said the retailers' proposal is too broad. They worry those changes would disproportionately incarcerate low-income people and those with substance use issues rather than target ringleaders who hire large groups of people to steal goods for resale online.

State leaders, including Newsom, had repeatedly rejected calls to unravel Proposition 47 or to go back to voters for crime reforms.

Democratic lawmakers were fast-tracking a legislative package of 13 bills that would go after organized online reseller schemes and auto thieves and provide funding for drug addiction counselors. State leaders planned to enact the proposals into laws as soon as this month and void the package if voters approve the business groups' proposal in November. They abandoned that plan Saturday night.

Democrats also are concerned the retailers' tough-on-crime proposal would drive more Republicans and conservative voters to the polls in contested U.S. House races that could determine control of Congress.

Crime is shaping up to be the major political issue in California's November's election. San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón face tough reelection bids against challengers who have criticized their approaches to crime and punishment.