Animal Rights Hall of Shame: Ronald Calderon

Criminals, Sex Predators and Drug Addicts. Welcome to the World of Animal Rights.

Meet ex-Senator Ronald Calderon.  

Ronald Calderon (D-Montebello) is a long-time political operative and animal rights activist in California. He’s also a convicted felon.

Ronald Calderon was also a long-time water carrier for the vegan lawyers of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). When he wasn’t being paid for votes, he was shilling for the ‘cute puppy’ vote by promoting an animal rights animal-less vegan world as a member of the California legislature’s Animal Protection Caucus.

Calderon is also well-known in Sacramento for accepting gifts, tickets to sporting events, and exotic trips from lobbyists, including first class accommodations in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and the AT&T Pro Am in Pebble Beach. Some estimates of the gifts from special interests are between $45,000 and $60,000, since 2000, significantly more than any other legislator.

In 2013, Calderon was promoted on the Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF)’s Humane Scorecard for being a co-sponsor of one of HSUS’s typical anti-animal bills,the anti-hunting bill A.B. 789 and a supporter of the rest of their legislation that year. He signed a letter asking California Congressional leaders to stop the King Amendment to the Farm Bill which would have nullified the attempts of California vegans to control the nations egg supply and deprive the rest of America from enjoying a healthy egg omelet breakfast.

“We can’t let every state decide what’s going on in all the other states or refuse to accept their products,” King said. “We have inspectors from California that are now traveling around Iowa with their tape measures, measuring the cage sizes of our laying hens in Iowa.”

For American’s in fly-over country, they’d rather tell urban liberal Californians to go pound sand than listen to their arty-farty clueless ideas on how to raise chickens. Or as Congressman King, member of the House Agriculture Committee stated, Iowa should not be “held hostage to the demands of California’s vegan lobby and California’s regulatory agencies.” States do not have the Constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. Of course, state Senator “my vote is for sale” Calderon disagrees.

The indictment describes a scheme in which Ron Calderon allegedly solicited and accepted approximately $100,000 in cash bribes – as well as plane trips, gourmet dinners and trips to golf resorts – in exchange for official acts, such as supporting legislation that would be favorable to those who paid the bribes and opposing legislation that would be harmful to them. The indictment further alleges that Ron Calderon attempted to convince other public officials to support and oppose legislation.

Busted in 2014, the same year as his pal Leland Yee, Calderon was caught accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribe money. He sold his office to the highest bidder and solicited jobs for his son and daughter from constituents. His son in particular was paid $30,000 for just 15 days of work over the summer.

“Mr. Calderon betrayed the public trust,” said U.S. Atty. Eileen Decker. “A basic premise of our society is that elected officials will not exchange their votes for monetary gain and that’s what Mr. Calderon did.”

“Here, defendant’s trafficking in his legislative votes (for, by contrast, over $150,000 in benefits) caused a reverberation of negative effects throughout California and put a stain not just on his career, but on the reputation of the state legislature,” Jenkins wrote.

“Here, defendant sold his vote not just to help pay for the expenses of living beyond his means, but for the more banal and predictable aims of corruption — fancy luxuries, fancy parties and fancy people,” Jenkins wrote, attaching to the file a photo Calderon took with rappers Nelly and T.I. at a Las Vegas event.

Calderon was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court in 2016. He admitted to accepting bribes. Huge bribes. Up to the end he kept whining about how he was innocent and this guilty plea would ruin his ‘legacy’ as a politician. Cry me a river.

“I did not really hear Sen. Calderon accept responsibility or apologize,” she said. “It was really about himself.”

While the judge was being forced to listen to Calderon whine about his life, his brother was starting his own prison sentence. Former state Assemblyman Tom Calderon was sentenced to a year in prison for laundering his brother’s bribe money.