SACRAMENTO-

California State Senator Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, was arrested Wednesday morning on bribery and corruption charges.

In addition to being a state senator, Yee also had his name on the ballot for Secretary of State.

The race’s three other candidates each released statements on Yee’s arrest.

Independent candidate Dan Schnur:
“Today’s news is yet another in a series of reminders of why Californians have so little trust in their elected officials. My hope is that this will prompt the legislature to take much more aggressive and meaningful action to fix a broken political system than they have been willing to do to date.” 

Green Party candidate David Curtis:
“I learned Senator Yee was arrested as I was driving to Sacramento to interview with the Sierra Club.
I do not have all the facts related to his case, so I will avoid responding to specifics.
I believe it necessary that this state not remain dominated by one or two parties. There is a need for alternate voices at the state level. That is in part why I continue to work with the Green Party in an attempt to build an alternate path for our government.
As a Green candidate, I am disconnected from the financial motives that may influence decisions that corporate-sponsored officials sometimes find themselves compelled to make.
My campaign is 100% transparent regarding its funding. My donors self-report their donations online in real time to my campaign website. I also have CSV exports of all the data that I can make available.”

Democratic Party candidate Derek Cressman:
“Coming on the heels of the corruption charges of Senator Calderon and the conviction of Senator Wright, today’s actions need to be a wake up call. We are clearly beyond the point of looking at one bad apple and instead looking at a corrupt institution in the California senate.  The constant begging for campaign cash clearly has a corrosive effect on a person’s soul and the only solution is to get big money out of our politics once and for all.”