A registered child sex offender will be running for city council in California, prompting outrage from local residents.
Rene Campos was arrested and charged with possession of child sex abuse material in 2018. According to the California Post, he “pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge.” Since California law removes a resident’s right to vote only if they are currently in prison for a felony conviction, Campos is able to run for public office.
“Rene Campos announced this week he will run for the District 7 seat on Fresno City Council. He pleaded with voters to overlook his twisted past, which includes being charged for possession of child sex abuse material,” per the Post.
Local residents have decried his candidacy. Nav Gurm, a small business owner also running for District 7, called the past crime disqualifying.
“I think it should be a disqualification to serve in public office,” said Gurm. “If I’m the next councilmember in District 7 and I can’t show up to a school site, how can I best represent the people in the neighborhoods I want to serve?
“If someone is a registered sex offender they can’t be on campus at a school site, how are you going to be able to fulfill the duties of the job?” Gurm added.
Gurm called upon state legislators to work on a bill to prevent sex offenders from running for public office in the future.
“It should be California law that if you are a registered sex offender, you can’t run for public office,” he said.
Campos told reporters he believes “Fresno deserves leaders who are honest from the very beginning, not the end. Going into this, I am putting my life out there.”
The candidate also promises on his website to “target repeat crime areas with coordinated police, mental health and city response teams.”
“I’ve been given a chance to rehabilitate through the courts and go back into the system,” he said. “They say let’s choose somebody outside the box, somebody who knows the system from the inside out, because I’ve experienced the laws that we are trying to reform right now.”
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