California’s cowardly U-turn on barring sex offenders from office

Californians should be able to agree that convicted sex offenders should not be allowed to hold public office.

Yet legislators killed a proposed ban because of a bizarre fight over which sex offenses should count.

The issue came up after a registered sex offender announced his candidacy for City Council in Fresno County, shocking local voters.

Local officials searched for a legal basis to keep him off the ballot, but because no law prohibited a registered sex offender from running for local office, there was little they could do.

Ultimately, the candidate failed to gather enough signatures to qualify. But the incident exposed a glaring gap in California law.