Assembly Bill 2753 asked one question: should registered sex offenders be banned from running for local elected office in California? Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria introduced the bill back in February, and it sailed through the Assembly because — and I realize this is a high bar — most California legislators agreed that convicted sex offenders probably shouldn't be making zoning decisions about where playgrounds go.

Then it hit the State Senate committee. And Democrat Senator Scott Wiener said no.

The California State Senator voted against AB 2753, effectively halting a bill that would have prohibited anyone required to register as a sex offender from running for local elective office. According to American Wire News, Wiener characterized some of the offenses that land people on the registry as "minor crimes" — a phrase that's doing a lot of heavy lifting when the registry in question exists specifically to track people convicted of sexual offenses.

Soria didn't mince words about the vote. "For this not to be the law today, where we're banning people that have committed some of the most horrific crimes against children, against other people, you know, and we have survivors out there, I think it's a disservice," she said.

She's right. It is a disservice. It's also one of the rare moments in politics where the question on the table is so straightforward that getting it wrong requires genuine effort.

Committee members tried to meet Wiener partway, proposing to narrow the bill so it would apply only to Tier 3 offenders — the most serious category on the registry. That compromise apparently wasn't enough to earn his vote either. The bill stalled.

Now, Wiener has built a long legislative career in Sacramento, and he's no stranger to controversy around age-related legislation. Attorney Jennifer Kennedy put it bluntly on social media: "Creating loopholes for sex offenders is Wiener's wheelhouse." That's not a partisan attack. That's a pattern observation based on his own voting record.

Here's what makes Wiener's position structurally incoherent. California already bars felons from holding office while serving their sentence or on parole. The state already accepts the principle that certain criminal convictions disqualify you from public trust. AB 2753 simply extended that logic to people whose offenses were serious enough to require lifetime registration. Wiener isn't arguing against a new principle. He's arguing that sex offenses specifically should be the exception.

Every state legislator who voted yes on this bill managed to read the room. Soria managed it. The Assembly managed it. The question was whether California wanted registered sex offenders holding positions of public authority over the communities they live in.

Scott Wiener looked at that question and picked the sex offenders.