The Democrats have sent a vivid message to the GOP on their fear of the crime issue, if only the party has the wit to exploit it.  They know that the explosion of crime is enough to scare voters into supporting the GOP, and as a result, 36 of the 51 Senate Democrats (70%) voted to overturn the absurd Washington, D.C. "criminal justice reform" bill that would make many murders and carjackings into misdemeanors and overwhelm the court system by allowing jury trials for misdemeanors.  Dems know that appearing soft on crime would alienate a broad swath of voters currently living in fear.

Senate votes 81-14-1 to block changes to D.C.’s criminal code.

14 Dems voting no:
Booker
Cardin
Duckworth
Durbin
Hirono
Markey
Merkley
Murphy
Reed
Sanders
Warren
Van Hollen
Welch
Whitehouse

Warnock voted present

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) March 9, 2023

As I wrote yesterday, the D.C. City Council attempted to extract its Democrat colleagues in the Senate from the dilemma of having to choose between angering their pro-criminal based by voting yes and scaring the voting public by voting no and appearing soft on crime.  They know that should the D.C. law stand, crime in the District, already at levels scaring the public, would explode.  But the dopes on the Council failed to understand that they lacked the power to withdraw their stupid bill from congressional review.

Of the 14 who voted no, 6 (Cardin, Hirono, Murphy, Sanders, Warren, and Whitehouse) are up for re-election in 2024.  That is 30% of those up for re-election, the same percentage of no votes as for all the Senate Dems.

Caricature by Donkey Hotey, CC BY 2.0 license.