RING IT UP: Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire celebrated as the Assembly and Senate advanced a slate of retail-theft proposals that have dogged leaders throughout the summer. “These bills that were passed today, full stop, will do more to blunt retail theft than anything else,” McGuire said to reporters in the Capitol after the Senate vote. McGuire may have been speaking to the press, but his real audience was the group of big box retailers that bankrolled a tough-on-crime ballot initiative that Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats failed to negotiate away last month. Walmart, Target, Home Depot and others spent millions to get the initiative backed by state prosecutors on the November ballot. Their financial support for Proposition 36 could make or break the campaign. McGuire and other Democratic leaders who’ve pushed the legislative package have argued the ballot measure is too punitive. They insist their bills are better for Californians than the initiative and the changes it would make to Proposition 47, which reduced sentences for some non-violent felony crimes. Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who chaired the Assembly Select Committee on Retail Theft, said the bills will “give voters an understanding that we have already acted in a responsible way in the Legislature.” The California Retailers Association is still officially supporting Prop 36 and won’t re-evaluate its position until Newsom signs the bills, Rachel Michelin, the group’s president, told Playbook. But she said members are “thrilled,” especially about elements of the package that aren’t included in Prop 36, such as making permanent a regional property crimes task force and a statute on organized retail theft. It’s possible, she said, that the legislation will sway some of the group’s bigger members to yank funding. “We'll see what happens from an individual perspective,” she said. “But I think that you might see some of them not necessarily supporting financially.” The bills passed easily, though some progressive lawmakers and members of the Legislative Black Caucus registered their unease with them. They said the legislation, which is expected to receive final approval on Monday, drags California back to a time of punitive sentencing laws that hurt communities of color. “These measures deepen mass incarceration, and deepening mass incarceration is going in reverse of where Californians wanted us to go,” said state Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas during floor debate. Los Angeles-area Assemblymember Tina McKinnor said in a pointed X post after the vote that she views approving the package as undoing lawmakers’ racial justice efforts after the police murder of George Floyd that set off a summer of protests in 2020. “What will we do when the chants to roll back immigration laws or LGBTQ rights reach us?” she wrote. “Remember: first they come for us, then they come for you. We must be better than this.” McKinnor told Playbook she thinks there are already laws to address the issues the bills are meant to tackle, specifically referring to the six-month jail sentence those convicted of shoplifting could currently receive. “I hate to see us go from that type of punishment to one to three years for someone stealing something,” McKinnor said. SCOOP — DEM DEFECTION: State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil is leaving the Democratic Party and registering as a Republican, according to two people with direct knowledge of the decision, our Jeremy B. White was first to report. Alvarado-Gil's press representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The defection is not likely to have a huge effect on Democrats' ability to pass legislation given that they will still have a greater than two-thirds majority in the upper chamber, currently holding 32 out of 40 seats. But it is a rare departure from Democratic dominance. Politico Pro subscribers can read more here. IT’S THURSDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to lholden@politico.com. | 
Comments
Post a Comment