California Democrats, Republicans clash over who’s harsher on sex offenders
One of the latest Republican blasts at politically vulnerable Central Valley Democratic congressmen: “Should we now add ‘protecting predators’ to their growing list of radical priorities?’’
Democrats are slugging back with their own accusations against their political opponents’ records on sex with minors, saying GOP Assembly members want to protect their party, “not our kids.”
The battle is over efforts in the state Legislature to toughen laws regarding sex involving minors.
This war over who’s strongest in the fight to protect minors from sexual predators began a week ago.
Republicans struck first, sending out statements on four different days suggesting Democrats were sympathetic to sexual predators. In one case, it called Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, “spineless” and a “coward” on the issue.
Later in the week, the state Democratic Party began running ads on Facebook saying Republican Assembly members “voted against stronger laws protecting 16 and 17 year olds.”
The Republican claim that Gray or the other recent Republican target, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, are in any way sympathetic to child predators is completely false. So is the Democratic assertion that Republicans oppose tougher laws against sex with minors.
Democrats’ take on all this: “House Republicans are using dirty, cynical tactics to distract the public from the fact that they’ve broken their promise of lowering costs for the American people,” said Viet Shelton, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The Republican view: “California state Democrats are showing their desperation. They’re running fake ads and gaslighting voters to cover up their own shameful record. Time and again, they’ve chosen to protect predators rather than support stronger laws to protect 16 and 17 year old victims of sex trafficking,” said Monday’s GOP statement.
Republican claims
The Republican allegation first surfaced in an April 29 statement from the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party’s House campaign arm.
The headlines were “Jim Costa Stands With Predators Not Californians,” and “Adam Gray Stands With Predators Not Californians.”
Two days later, the NRCC sent out another missive about Gray making the same claim, headlined “Spineless: Adam Gray Sides With Predators to Protect His Donors.”
The next day, the NRCC sent out another statement.
“Democrats in California excluded felony charges for adults who buy 16- and 17-year-olds for sex. Will Adam Gray remain silent or should we now add ’protecting predators’ to their growing list of radical priorities?”
Christian Martinez, NRCC spokesman, said the state Assembly’s inaction recently regarding an effort to strengthen laws regarding sex with minors showed “state Democrats side with predators.”
He also said Gray had another motive: He “handed a win to sexual predators to keep the campaign cash flowing.”
The NRCC link takes the reader to Equality California, a state LGBTQ+ civil rights organization that supported Gray in last year’s election.
The group’s political action committee gave Gray $2,000 during the 2024 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data. It gave a total of $45,500 to 13 candidates.
Democrats fire away
Facebook ads that ran beginning Thursday characterized some Republican lawmakers, including Assemblyman Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, and Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, as having voted last week against “stronger laws protecting 16 and 17 year old victims of sex trafficking.”
The California Democratic Party confirmed Monday morning they ran the ads.
Republicans did vote against a bill last week that had to do with penalties for soliciting sex with 16- and 17-year-olds, but only because they wanted the original, broader language to apply.
Republicans were furious. “What a desperate and pathetic attempt to mislead and gaslight Californians,” Hoover wrote on X.
The Assembly issue pushed by the Republicans involved a bill whose purpose was to increase penalties for buying sex and create a fund for victims.
The bill’s author, Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, included a provision to toughen penalties for people who solicit, or exchange money or goods for sex with a 16-or 17-year-old. The measure was in legislation written last year by state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield.
This year, the Democratic-run Assembly Committee on Public Safety took the section out, saying there are plenty of laws already that could make sex with a minor a felony.
They were concerned that under the Krell proposal, prosecutors could more harshly punish teenagers in consensual sexual relationships, between a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, for instance.
Assembly Republicans saw that logic as badly flawed. Gallagher said Democrats “caved to fringe activists.”
To add further fuel to the fire, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sided with Krell and Republicans when he issued a statement last week that: “The law should treat all sex predators who solicit minors the same — as a felony, regardless of the intended victim’s age. Full stop.”
Whether any of this will matter in the congressional races involving Costa and Gray is impossible to say. Gray, now in his first House term, won his 2024 election by less than 200 votes. Costa, who has been a House member since 2005, won last year with 52.6%.
Erin Covey, U. S. House editor at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, found that so far Republicans are most intent on focusing on border security and transgender rights.
All in all, she said, “It’s hard to say how much any of these specific claims matter at this stage in the cycle.”
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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