By Cris Alarcon, InEDC Writer. (Aug 21, 2025)
El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson on Wednesday used social media to accuse Gov. Gavin Newsom of
“attempting to defy the will of Californians,”
criticizing the governor’s opposition to Proposition 36 and a new push in Sacramento to redraw California’s congressional maps before 2030.
“Is Governor Newsom once again attempting to defy the will of Californians?”
Pierson wrote, adding that he co-authored Proposition 36 and that Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, was “instrumental” in helping qualify and support it.
Proposition 36, a 2024 ballot measure that increases penalties for certain drug and theft crimes and creates “treatment-mandated” felonies in some cases, passed with about 68% support statewide. The measure rolled back parts of Proposition 47 and took effect in late 2024. Pierson is listed publicly as a co-sponsor; Kiley campaigned for the measure.
Newsom opposed Prop. 36 and last year signed a separate package of retail-theft bills, arguing his approach targeted organized theft without reviving mass incarceration. “This is the real deal. Grocers and retailers understand that,” the governor said when signing the legislation on Aug. 16, 2024. He had earlier floated—and then pulled—a competing anti-crime ballot measure as talks with initiative backers collapsed.
Pierson also alleged the governor “refused to fund” Prop. 36 by claiming treatment beds are too costly. Fiscal debates have been ongoing: while some advocates and editorial boards criticized Newsom’s initial budget drafts for lacking dedicated dollars to expand treatment capacity under Prop. 36, the final 2025-26 spending plan approved in July included $80 million for counties to implement voter-approved crime reforms.
The district attorney further tied his critique to the governor’s new redistricting push, which would ask voters to approve mid-decade congressional map changes through a special election—sidestepping the state’s voter-created Citizens Redistricting Commission. Newsom and Democratic leaders argue the change is about fairness and compliance with federal law; Republicans and good-government groups call it a power play that weakens independent map-drawing. The debate is rapidly evolving in Sacramento this week.
For El Dorado County readers, the stakes are local: Kiley’s 3rd Congressional District includes much of the region. He won re-election in 2024 over Democrat Jessica Morse, a former Newsom administration official—context for Pierson’s claim that voters here rebuked the governor’s political orbit.
Some of Pierson’s broader critiques mix fact and argument. California does have one of the highest unemployment rates among states this year and the largest total homeless population in the nation, driven especially by unsheltered homelessness. But drug mortality rates are more complex; California’s per-capita overdose death rate trails several states even as fentanyl deaths rise. Those data points will shape the upcoming policy fights over treatment capacity and sentencing under Prop. 36.
A spokesperson for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. In past remarks, Newsom has framed his approach as balancing accountability and reform: “We didn’t just wake up to this issue,” he said of retail theft last year, touting new tools for prosecutors and police.
