What’s a Guy Got To Do To Get Kicked Out of the California Legislature?

California State Sen. Rod Wright, a Democrat
representing Inglewood, was convicted in January of eight counts of
voter fraud and perjury for lying about whether he lived in his
district. Though he has taken a
leave from his position, he is still technically a state
senator. Republicans have attempted to remedy the situation with a
resolution to expel Wright from the Senate, only to have Democratic
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg shift the resolution to
committee to block it.

Republicans are amazed at the decision, with Sen. Steve Knight
pointing out that its unprecedented for a state lawmaker to be
convicted of felonies and not have resigned by this point.
Hilariously, Steinberg seems to think that there’s a chance that
the judge could overturn the verdict, so they shouldn’t act too
rashly. From the
Sacramento Bee:

Permanently expelling Wright is premature, Steinberg said,
because the action couldn’t be undone and Wright is planning to ask
the judge to overturn the jury’s guilty verdicts. He is scheduled
to be sentenced May 16.

“Senator Wright has already left the building. And unless the
judge sets aside the jury’s verdict, Senator Wright will not be
coming back,” Steinberg said during his floor speech.

Steinberg acknowledged that judges almost always uphold juries’
verdicts, but said Wright is not technically convicted until the
judge finalizes the jury’s verdicts.

“The integrity of this institution cannot tolerate a convicted
felon in its ranks. But at this point in time Senator Wright is not
a convicted felon,” Steinberg said.

If Wright goes and if State Sen. Ron Calderon, recently charged
by the feds for
corruption, gets convicted, the Democrats will lose their
supermajority in the legislature, thus giving Republicans a little
bit more influence on lawmaking.

In an interesting counternarrative,
John Hrabe at CalNewsroom writes about how, despite this one
lie about where he lived, Wright was very good at challenging his
own party on its love of regulation and the impact on California
citizens and was a supporter of gun rights. He also supported

legalizing online gambling in California.