Top California Dem Controversially Defends No Vote On Bill

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A powerful California Democrat who recently helped kill a Republican-backed state bill that would have increased criminal sentences for those found guilty of various forms of sexual assault, including rape, explained his decision amid widespread backlash because he opposed the measure.

Representative Reggie Jones-Sawyer, chairman of the California Assembly’s public safety committee, voted last week along with the rest of the panel’s Democrats against Bill 229, which would classify domestic violence, human trafficking and several sex crimes as a violent crime in the United States . stands.

As a result, the bill failed to make it into committee, despite the committee’s two Republicans voting in favor of the legislation.

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The successful attempt to crush the bill was met with backlash, both in the media and online.

“This week, CA Democrats rejected a GOP bill to increase sentences for domestic violence, human trafficking, and other sex crimes. Moments later, they passed a Democratic bill to increase sentences for theft of property over $275,000,” Emily Hoeven, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, tweeted. “If Dems don’t show ideological consistency in their votes, they owe it to us to allow a broader range of ideas to be vigorously debated. Their party, which controls a legislative supermajority, has come nowhere close to resolving CA’s problems in matters of its own.”

Hoeven was referring to the fact that shortly after the Democrats on the Public Safety Committee killed Assembly Bill 229, they passed a separate measure to increase sentences for people convicted of stealing, damaging or destroying property worth more than $275,000.

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