State politicians set new record for mug shots (their own)

As if California politicians’ popularity weren’t low enough: Patrick McGreevy at the LA Times points out that five current lawmakers and one ex-state senator, all with active campaigns, have posed for mug shots during the past year. “Not since the FBI sting known as Shrimpscam, which targeted influence peddling in the Capitol in the 1990s, have so many state lawmakers posed for booking photos in such a short span of time,” he says.

Quiz: How many can you name? Answers are after the jump.


Here they are, with the nature of the charges against them, some adjudicated, some not, in parenthesis: State Sen. Roderick Wright (voter fraud, perjury), Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (trying to take a loaded pistol aboard an airliner), Assemblymen Roger Hernandez  and Martin Garrick (drunken driving), ex-senator and current LA councilman Richard Alarcon (voter fraud) and, last but not least, the Bay Area’s own Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi (shoplifting).