Rene Campos, a registered sex offender in California, has expressed celebration following the failure of Assembly Bill 2753, which aimed to prohibit registered sex offenders from running for local or state elected office in the state. Campos, who had previously sought a seat on the Fresno City Council, viewed the bill's demise as a victory for constitutional rights.
"The First Amendment does not belong to the comfortable," Campos told Fox26 News. "Today, the Senate Committee did what Fresno refused to do. It stopped and remembered the Constitution."
The legislation was introduced by Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria in response to Campos' controversial campaign for Fresno City Council earlier this year. Campos failed to gather the necessary 20 signatures to qualify for the ballot in March. His campaign drew significant attention and criticism, with opponents arguing that registered sex offenders should be barred from holding public office.
Under the proposed AB 2753, all registered sex offenders would have been barred from seeking office, irrespective of their tier on California's sex offender registry. California's registry categorizes offenders into three tiers based on the severity and frequency of their crimes, with Tiers 1 and 2 requiring registration for 10 and 20 years respectively, and Tier 3 offenders remaining on the registry for life.
The bill stalled in the Senate Elections Committee, chaired by Sen. Scott Wiener, after lawmakers and Soria could not reach a compromise. Committee members argued that the bill was overly broad, as the registry includes offenders convicted of lower-level offenses. Senators proposed amendments to limit the ban to Tier 3 offenders, but Soria rejected these changes, asserting they would undermine the bill's purpose.
"If you look at the crimes of people in Tier 1 and Tier 2, we need to draw the line somewhere, and I believe that if you're a registered sex offender, you have no business running for local or state office without a compromise," Soria stated.
Campos' candidacy had previously generated backlash. He had pleaded no contest in 2018 to a misdemeanor charge of possessing child sexual abuse material. Critics questioned his ability to represent constituents, particularly given restrictions registered sex offenders face around schools. Campos also faced criticism for holding a campaign press conference near an elementary school, which prompted school officials to file a police report.
Despite the failure of AB 2753, Soria indicated her commitment to continuing efforts to prevent registered sex offenders from running for office. "The fight continues. We don't give up just because we lose once," she said.
Campos, however, suggested broader political motivations behind the legislation, arguing that similar urgency was not applied to issues such as homelessness and housing in Fresno. He stated his investigations indicated a pattern of officials potentially using their positions for self-protection rather than public service.
"So the real question is not why this bill failed. The real question is why Fresno was so willing to push it in the first place," Campos told Fox26 News.