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Passage Of Prop 36 Could Lead To More Balanced Approach On Crime

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A watchtower at a prison, with prison walls and barbed wire in the foreground.
A watch tower at California State Prison, Sacramento, on April 13, 2023. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

Here are the morning’s top stories on Wednesday, November 13, 2024…

  • Supporters of criminal justice reform in California suffered some big losses in last week’s election. But people on both sides of the debate over crime and punishment say the election shouldn’t be seen as a renunciation of progressive reforms entirely.
  • In the Central Valley, Republican Congressman David Valadao has won re-election, moving the GOP closer to control of the House. 
  • For the first time in history, women will make up at least half of the California State Senate.

Criminal Justice Advocates See Hope Despite Election Losses 

Proposition 36, the ballot measure that increases criminal penalties for repeat thieves and drug users, easily passed. As of Wednesday morning, the yes vote sits at 69%.

The measure will roll back portions of Proposition 47. But Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, who helped author Prop 36, said he doesn’t see this as a full-on return to tough on crime laws in California. “Prop 36 was a modest amendment to Prop 47. It wasn’t a total repudiation of all of the reforms. Prop 47 went too far,” he said. “And this kind of brings it back to the middle.”

Lenore Anderson, who wrote Prop 47 and has been a leading national voice for criminal justice reform as president of the Alliance for Safety and Justice, notes that Prop 36 was not framed to voters as a return to the lock-em-up policies of the 1990’s. “The proponents of the campaign talked about mass treatment. They talked about a balanced approach to public safety,” Anderson said. While she opposed Prop 36, Anderson says she believes it was successful precisely because it borrowed cues from the reform movement in focusing on rehabilitation over incarceration.

Rep. David Valadao Wins 22nd District

Republican Rep. David Valadao has won reelection in California’s 22nd Congressional District in the state’s Central Valley farm belt, defeating Democrat Rudy Salas for the second time.

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Valadao is an anomaly — an elected Republican in a heavily Democratic district in a heavily Democratic state. Democrats hold a 14-point registration edge in the district, but Valadao has kept a grip on the seat nonetheless. Valadao held the seat from 2013 until 2019, lost it for a term, then won it back in a 2020 rematch with Democrat T.J. Cox.

The California Legislature Sets Record For Women In Office 

California’s state Senate will be at least 50% women for the first time in history and, depending on a few undecided races, the state Legislature overall could reach gender parity for the first time.

“What is a milestone like gender parity for, if not a moment like this?” said Susannah Delano, executive director of Close the Gap California, an advocacy group to elect progressive women, referring to potential policies from the incoming Trump administration. “State legislatures have and will continue to be the front line for many of those impacted to contest harmful policies and protect lives at risk.”

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