Way back in 2008, I called out a Senator for a bill that I thought invaded medical privacy. The original post was fairly policy focused. His chief of staff didn’t much care for what I wrote, and let me know. I told him that I would republish his email, and he said go for it. So, I did just that right here in a response and further analysis of the bill. Just for giggles, here is that fun email:

Brian,

You should go back to public policy school and learn how to read a bill. You apparently don’t know how to or are too lazy. If you had bothered to do that, rather than taking the word of others who haven’t read the bill either, you’d have known how inaccurate your misinformed little column is. And accuracy should be important, even for bloggers. If you would like to discuss you can reach me at (916) xxx-xxxx.

Chief of Staff
Senator Ronald S. Calderon
30th Senate District

Ah, good times. Even more fun was the conversation I recalled in that post with the CoS, wherein he told me that elites (like me?) would never get Calderon like his district got him.

All that is to say, Ron Calderon is about to go to jail. But it was probably all because of the elites who, according to his lawyers when this all first came out, entrapped him into taking bribes.

Charged in a corruption scandal that could have sent him to prison for three lifetimes, former Sen. Ron Calderon dropped his entrapment defense, pleaded guilty and admitted taking bribes in exchange for his influence in Sacramento.

As he faces sentencing Friday, though, prosecutors say Calderon is not taking responsibility for his actions and has presented a “whimsical and revisionist view of his conduct” in an effort to serve no time behind bars for graft that lined his own pockets and helped put his children through college.(AP 10/21/16)

Ron Calderon’s removal and term limits now means that only Ian Calderon, a 31-year old Assembly member from Whittier, is the last of the Calderon family political machine left in office.