Two Democratic California mayors have endorsed a new ballot initiative to hold repeat offenders accountable in an effort to tackle the growing crime epidemic in the state .
San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan threw their support behind The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act , which takes aim at the failures of California’s Proposition 47. The proposition was adopted in 2014 and recategorized a number of felonies as misdemeanors.
“Some people want to call this [a] Republican cause,” Anne Marie Schubert, co-chair of the campaign, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “It’s a California cause. It’s a cause that touches every demographic in this state, and we not only see that in the polling, we see it by the momentum.”
“We cannot be afraid to challenge the status quo when it is clearly not working for our residents,” Mahan said upon endorsing the measure. “Prop 47 was well-intended but what really matters is its impact — and unfortunately, it’s hurting far too many families and small businesses across the state.”