Unassigned

CA Sen. Scott Wiener Votes Down Ban on Registered Sex Offenders Holding Office

Creepy California state senator and congressional candidate Scott Wiener was operating in his position as senator when he, as a member of the Senate Elections Committee, voted not to advance a measure that would ban registered sex offenders from holding office in the state. This is a democracy, he says, and we're going down a slippery slope if we keep people with flaws from running for public office.

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KFSN in Fresno reports:

California bill aimed at preventing registered sex offenders from holding local elected office was halted Tuesday after a Senate committee declined to advance the measure without changes opposed by its author.

Assembly Bill 2753, introduced by Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria in February, would have prohibited anyone who is or has been required to register as a sex offender from running for local elective office.

California's sex offender registration system is divided into three tiers. Tier 1 offenders are generally required to register for 10 years, Tier 2 offenders for 20 years and Tier 3 offenders for life.

According to Soria, committee members proposed limiting the bill to Tier 3 offenders. She rejected those amendments, arguing that the legislation should apply more broadly.

"For this not to be the law today, where we're banning people that have committed some of the most horrific crimes against children, against other people, you know, and we have survivors out there, I think it's a disservice," Soria said.

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About those three tiers? You can thank Wiener for those. He described the legislation as improving public safety by letting police focus on dangerous offenders rather than low-level ones. Wiener was also responsible for legislation giving judges discretion in whether to require sex offender registration for non-forcible sex acts involving minors aged 14–17 with partners within 10 years of their age.

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And he'll likely be sworn into Congress next January, on a copy of Gender Queer, unless the Democrats and Democratic Socialists stay home because he's Jewish.

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