California Republicans have developed something of a formula in the state Legislature.
Push to raise penalties for certain kinds of sex crimes, like trafficking minors. Press the Democrats, many of whom remain wary of increasing prison sentences in the waning heyday of criminal justice reform, on the details. Have a field day in the media with the ensuing public outrage.
It’s become a reliable way over the past three years to deliver small wins for the superminority party. Even if Republicans aren’t always successful at passing the legislation, they can use it to expose fault lines among the opposing party that dominates the Capitol, or even score some support from the state’s de facto Democratic leader, Gov. Gavin Newsom.
That strategy has led them to win bipartisan approval for bills to increase the penalties for child sex trafficking and soliciting 15-year-olds and under for sex.
The latest such episode exploded in the Assembly this week when Republicans tried to push Democrats to increase penalties for soliciting 16- and 17-year-olds for sex or prostitution. That crime is a misdemeanor punishable by between two days to a year in jail.
Solicitation involves asking for or arranging sex in exchange for money or something valuable; a host of other sex crimes involving minors of any age are felonies, including paying for and having sex with a minor.
This time, Republicans had the backing of freshman Democratic Assemblymember Maggy Krell, of Sacramento, who authored Assembly Bill 379. Krell objected on Tuesday when her colleagues removed the provision on soliciting older minors, saying fellow Democrats had forced her to agree to it on the threat the Public Safety committee would refuse to hold a hearing otherwise.
When Republicans said they would try to add the provision into another bill on the floor on Thursday, she bucked Democratic leadership by supporting them.
