In California, as of this week, a registered sex offender can run for local office, win, and serve. There is no law preventing it. There was a bill that would have changed that. State Sen. Scott Wiener voted it down.
Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria introduced Assembly Bill 2753 with a straightforward premise: registered sex offenders shouldn't be allowed to hold local elected office. The bill went to the Senate Elections Committee on July 1. California operates a three-tier sex offender registration system — Tier 1 requires 10 years on the registry, Tier 2 requires 20 years, and Tier 3 means lifetime registration for the most serious offenses. Soria's bill covered offenders across all three tiers.
Wiener's objection was that the prohibition was too broad. The committee wanted the ban narrowed to Tier 3 offenders only. Soria refused to limit the bill's scope, and the committee killed it without advancing it to the full Senate.
"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.
Wiener characterized some of the offenses that would have triggered the ban as "minor crimes." The sex offender registry exists because the state has already determined these crimes are serious enough to require long-term public tracking. Calling them "minor" while voting to preserve offenders' access to elected office is a specific policy choice.
It's also not a new one for Wiener. He authored SB 145, the bill that gave judges discretion to waive sex offender registration requirements for certain non-forcible sexual acts involving minors aged 14 to 17. That legislation drew national controversy when it passed. The pattern is consistent — when legislation involves sex offenses and the question is whether to tighten or loosen restrictions, Wiener reliably lands on the same side.
The committee had options. They could have passed the bill with narrowing amendments over Soria's objection. They could have advanced it to the full Senate and let the broader chamber debate the scope. Instead they killed it entirely. No version of "sex offenders can't hold office" made it out of that room.
Wiener is currently running for Congress, which means voters well beyond his Sacramento district will soon have a look at this voting record.
A sitting state senator looked at a bill that would bar registered sex offenders from holding local elected office, called the underlying offenses "minor crimes," and voted no. The bill was AB 2753. The vote was public. The record is right there.
