Gov. Gavin Newsom says Democrats need to be more “culturally normal.” His call could be why Democrats in the Legislature are changing their tune on crime bills.

Assembly Member Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin, pictured in 2025, tried for years to pass legislation to classify domestic violence as a violent crime. His bill could pass the Democratic-controlled Legislature this year.

Assembly Member Nick Schultz, D-Burbank, pictured with his daughter Ella in 2024, chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, supports colleague Joe Patterson’s bill on domestic violence. 

If concerns over public safety dominated the 2024 election in California — culminating in voters’ overwhelming approval of Proposition 36, which rolled back criminal justice reforms that just a few years earlier felt politically sacrosanct — affordability is shaping up to be the animating issue of 2026. 

At the California Democratic Party convention last weekend, gubernatorial candidates one-upped each other in their pledges to bring down the state’s absurdly high cost of living.

Yet crime is still teetering on the edge of voters’ consciousness. 

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This week, Californians erupted in outrage following the news that a 64-year-old man convicted of 16 counts of molesting children — including using candy to lure a 5-year-old girl into his car and violently raping her before leaving her on the side of the highway — was approved for parole. Despite being sentenced to multiple terms of 25 years to life, he was eligible for release under a state law that permits parole consideration for certain “elderly” prisoners 50 years or older who have been incarcerated for at least 20 years. 

He was set to be released Thursday, but was turned over to local law enforcement after a new warrant was issued for his arrest. Meanwhile, lawmakers are racing to close the law’s obvious loopholes — and tamp down a public-safety revolt before it metastasizes. 

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State Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks (Sacramento County), is pushing a bill to........

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