This article was originally published in CBS
By Steve Large
SACRAMENTO – More California mayors who are Democrats are stepping forward to support a statewide ballot initiative on retail crime that Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes.
The mayors of San Jose and Elk Grove, along with the Sacramento County district attorney, announced a new political action committee Wednesday aimed at getting the sweeping state retail and drug punishment initiative Proposition 36 passed.
“We know that the public safety debate has at times become partisan. It should not be,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said.
Mahan stood at the state Capitol alongside Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen.
The pair of Democrats are two of the newest California mayors actively campaigning to pass Prop. 36, aimed at increasing punishments for retail theft and drug crimes across the state. The governor opposes it.
Viral videos of group smash-and-grab robberies have become a high-priority political issue.
“We’ve heard the narrative that perhaps Proposition 36 is only supported by Republicans. That is not true,” Singh-Allen said.
Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho joined the mayors to launch their new political action committee seeking to raise money to get their message out.
“What we need to raise to get the message across to the voters is that this is about mass treatment and not mass incarceration,” Ho said.
The governor spoke earlier this summer about plans to campaign against the initiative. He tried to prevent it from reaching the ballot.
“Well I think it’s a bad initiative,” Newsom said. “It’s really a drug policy reform that brings us back decades, very concerned about that.”
According to the Legislative Analysts Office, Prop. 36 will turn some theft misdemeanors into felonies, require a warning of possible murder charges for selling or providing drugs and create a new charge called a “treatment-mandated felony.”
The LAO reports, if passed, Prop. 36 will increase the prison population and could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
CBS13 political analyst Gary Dietrich says the Democratic mayors have weighed the political risks of supporting an initiative the governor opposes.
“And you know there are certainly funding implications,” Dietrich said. “Potentially down the road for a lot of relationships with the top dog, but the other thing is they have their own constituency.”
Dietrich added this campaign is now shaping up to be less of a partisan issue than a divide between Capitol and local elected leaders.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed also supports Prop. 36.