Thursday, May 10, 2012
Richard Alarcon of Los Angeles' 7th City Council District (sort of)
It’s been 20 years since California politics witnessed so many lawmakers getting arrested.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was Shrimpscam that got so many legislators into trouble, after federal agents conducted a sting operation to root out influence peddling at the state capitol.
More recently, half a dozen assemblymen and senators have made the news for getting busted for a variety of reasons.
State Senator Roderick Wright, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area, faces eight felony counts, including voter fraud and perjury, for allegedly lying when he said he lived in his Senate district representing Inglewood.
Former state senator and assemblyman and current City Councilman Richard Alarcon, another Democrat from Los Angeles, has been charged with 18 counts for lying about where he lived and voting fraudulently.
Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, a Republican from San Bernardino, pled no contest last month to two misdemeanor charges for attempting to take a loaded handgun onto a commercial airliner.
Democratic Assemblyman Roger Hernandez of West Covina was charged last week with drunk driving. Another assemblyman, Republican Martin Garrick of Carlsbad, was charged with a DUI last summer.
Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward) pled no contest in January to shoplifting clothes worth $2,500 from Neiman Marcus in San Francisco.
Wright, Alarcon, Donnelly and Hernandez are all running for office this year. Garrick and Hayashi are not because of California’s term limit law, but both have said they plan to run again in 2014.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Some California Legislators Bring Arrest Records To Their Campaigns (by Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times)
Cooley Refiles Charges After Judge Rejects Alarcon Case (by Catherine Saillant, Los Angeles Times)
Tim Donnelly Gets Fine, Probation After Plea On Gun Charges (by Michael J. Mishak, Los Angeles Times)
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