California state Senator Roderick Wright, one of the strongest and most consistent champions of online poker in the Legislature, stepped down from his seat last week after being sentenced to three months in jail for claiming that he lived in Inglewood, in the district he served when he actually lived in Baldwin Hills.
State law requires that public officials live in the districts that they represent.
For several years in a row Wright, as chairman of a powerful Senate committee unsuccessfully tried to push a law that would legalize online poker in the state. Many capitol observers feel that without the felony prosecutions he might have succeeded this year.
Wright was convicted for perjury, a total of eight felonies, in January and later suspended without pay, although he didn’t actually resign. If his conviction is upheld, he will be banned from holding public office or carrying a firearm for life.
In an interview with the Sacramento Bee, Wright said, “My Senate career is over. My legislative career is over. I don’t believe now that I did anything wrong. Certainly nothing criminal. But a jury saw differently, and we did not defend ourselves well enough to win that case. So I have to live with that.”
Governor Jerry Brown has two weeks to call for a special election.
