SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Democratic leaders are spending their last week before summer break pushing a ballot measure changing portions of Proposition 47 — even though a large chunk of their members may not support it.

On Monday, 35 Assembly members voted in favor of a last-minute initiative from Newsom and legislative leaders rolling back portions of the 2014 voter-approved initiative that made certain theft and drug crimes misdemeanors and set a $950 felony threshold for shoplifting. One Democrat voted against the measure.

While 41 votes will ultimately be needed for passage — and usually Democratic leaders get that easily on plans they endorse — 28 legislators, almost all Democrats, did not vote for a variety of reasons. At least six were absent.

The remaining 22 not-voting members included a mix of moderate and progressive Democrats leaders will need to reach the threshold required to officially get the bill off the Assembly floor by Wednesday night.

Even Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, seemed to be supporting the ballot measure only reluctantly. He told the Sacramento Press Club on Monday he would be voting for it, even though “it is unfortunate that we are here.”

“I do not believe that if we’re seriously going after retail theft that we need to amend Prop. 47,” McGuire said. “I think we have the legislative package that’s in front of us right now that will solve for that challenge.”

The vote was the next step in moving Senate Bill 1381 — which lawmakers gutted and amended to include the ballot measure language — through the Capitol.

Last-minute initiative

Gov. Gavin Newsom, McGuire and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, have said repeatedly a district attorney-backed ballot measure to change Proposition 47 would take the state back to the tough-on-crime era of decades past, which they said resulted in mass incarceration of Black and brown Californians.

They created a 14-bill package tightening penalties on retail theft crimes as an alternative and tried to get the California District Attorneys Association to remove their initiative. As part of that effort, Rivas and McGuire changed some of the bills voiding the legislation if the district attorneys’ measure passes.

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