Reality check: Sex offender should quit race for Fresno City Council

There’s a reason we seldom see registered sex offenders running for public office: They lack judgment, they’re unpopular, and they have no business going near elected positions of public trust.Such realities have yet to deter Rene Campos, the sex offender running for city council in Fresno.Campos, convicted in 2018 of possessing child sex abuse materials, would do well to quit the race — and leave the June 2 election to others.Instead, he feeds the frenzy, defending his ludicrous bid for a council seat.On Wednesday, Campos staged a press conference near a school and a church, alarming officials at both.The Diocese of Fresno issued a blistering statement that read in part:“Mr.Campos independently and irresponsibly chose the location for the press conference and used the Catholic Church and the school as props in his theater of politics.”Meanwhile, would-be colleagues and others have scrambled to block the sex offender’s path to office:Fresno City Councilman Miguel Arias proposed a city ordinance to bar registered sex offenders for running for council; the council’s president, Mike Karbassi, said he’d refuse to seat Campos if voters elected him; and a Merced assemblywoman has sponsored statewide legislation to keep sex offenders out of elected office.In a world with reality checks, none of this would be necessary: The 40-something Campos would read the room.Nearly everyone, save Campos himself, seems to realize he’s unqualified to oversee public safety and other core functions in a city with more than half a million people.It’s possible, we suppose, that Campos was rehabilitated by the 27 days he spent in jail for his crime, despite recurrent poor judgment since his release.And it’s possible that now, he genuinely wants to serve his community.Whatever the case, he should end his quixotic council bid, and accept that sex offenders simply have no place in elected office.If redemption is his goal, he should find another way....