The holier-than-thou crowd is pushing for Rod Wright to be forced from office as soon as possible, even though state law is clear that it shouldn’t happen until trial court sentencing (Gov’t Code 1770). Yes, by fibbing about where he “domiciled,” the senator did the equivalent of driving 65 in a 55 zone, which turns out to be a felony. Those calling for his expulsion care nothing about the case, but just want one fewer seersucker suit and Democrat votes and are happy to deprive his very liberal district of representation during the time it takes to hold a special election to elect a similarly voting replacement. And, there are holier-than-thou folks on the left that are happy to see him go as he’s one of the most moderate members of the Democratic caucus.
Of course, everyone knows that Mimi Walters did the same thing while she tried to sell her house in her old district and rented a 570 square foot apartment in her newly reconfigured district. Both cast votes supporting their districts, and should be eligible to serve for that reason.
“Prosecutorial discretion” is a remarkable thing, and the Los Angeles D.A. likes to focus on political corruption, while Orange County’s D.A. likes to focus on black youth pulling pranks that lots of wealthy white youth growing up around me did over the years while working at Disneyland. Meanwhile, we have a candidate for governor who has a penchance for running afoul of gun laws–perhaps enjoyingly so to reiterate his support for the Second Amendment.
It’s time to get rid of the silly “domicile” requirement for state office and be consistent with rules for congressional offices, and take away the authority for our district attorneys to waste limited taxpayer dollars to play “gotcha.” Let voters decide who they want to represent them. If Tom McClintock and Dan Lungren want to run in districts far from home, let them. If Rod Wright is a couple of miles out of the district and the voters choose him, so be it.
Meanwhile, if there are other ticky-tack laws, get rid of them too. We have plenty of public safety and legitimate public corruption issues for our prosecutors to focus on.
Cross-posted at The Nooner.