ALBANY, New York — Democrats want to talk tough on crime in an election year. Their target — shoplifting.
Successfully pursuing retail theft could rob the GOP of a winning message on criminal justice and give Democrats a national roadmap for addressing the issue.
Now New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is waging her own war on shoplifters through a mix of tougher criminal penalties and funding in her $233 billion budget proposal. She wants to create new police teams to address the matter, while offering a tax credit for businesses to help bolster security measures.
Hochul’s move comes as Democrats look to flip five U.S. House seats in New York in the narrowly-divided chamber this year, while Republicans press on with the anti-crime message that has helped them clinch electoral victories throughout the country.
“It’s a perception because it’s happening right in front of their face,” state Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, a Democrat who represents heavily Republican Staten Island, said in an interview. “You walk into a store and everything is locked up.”
The GOP has effectively linked Democrats to spikes in crime, and tackling shoplifting makes political sense: Voters see everyday items under lock and key or social media videos of thieves picking shelves clean. In New York, Republicans in suburban House districts like Reps. Anthony D’Esposito and Nick LaLota clinched victory in 2022 with a focus on crime and are both facing reelection challenges this year. Across the country, California could be in for a change of direction, with many officials there citing retail theft as a breaking point for the state. Getting tougher policies on crime would be a departure for the state after years of rewritten sentencing laws favored by the left.