<\/p>\n
In July, the Fresno Council of Governments (COG) heard from many about an initiative to renew Measure C on the ballot this fall. The renewal was on the Fresno City Council agenda at its meeting Thursday, Aug. 11.<\/p>\n
ERIC PAUL ZAMORA<\/p>\n
ezamora@fresnobee.com<\/p>\n
Rene Campos, who is a registered sex offender, intends to run in the crowded Fresno City Council race<\/a> for the District 7 seat in the June primary election.<\/p>\n In 2021, Campos pleaded no contest to a 2018 charge of possession of child pornography and served two years of formal probation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not something I want to hide from,\u201d Campos said. \u201cIt is my past. It is public record. It is something I\u2019ve learned from and something that I\u2019m growing from.\u201d<\/p>\n Campos told The Bee that his main driver for running for City Council<\/a> comes from his personal experiences of dealing with homelessness as a teenager and facing biases as a gay man. He says this background equips him to better understand and serve the community despite his former conviction.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be blunt. I\u2019ve had a very hard life, and it\u2019s these life experiences that have pushed me towards helping people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n If elected, some of his key priorities include supporting small businesses, implementing job training programs and economic stability for working families.<\/p>\n Campos has worked in the food service industry for over 10 years. He worked his way from cook to a management position at McDonald\u2019s. Campos later transferred to a general manager position at Wendy\u2019s, where he worked for various locations.<\/p>\n Leading up to his arrest, the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a cyber tip reporting suspicious online activity associated with an IP address in Fresno, said Tony Botti, the Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Office spokesperson, told The Bee. These cyber tips often come from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children\u2019s Network, Botti said.<\/p>\n The IP address led officers to Campos\u2019s residence, where they found he was downloading and sharing obscene material depicting a minor in sexual conduct, Botti said. He was then arrested for possession of child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n Conviction or registration for a sexual offense does not generally disqualify a person from running for office, James Kus, Fresno County Clerk and Registrar of Voters, said in an email.<\/p>\n The only legal limits for an active registered voter in the jurisdiction to run for public office are covered by California Election Code section 20,<\/a> which lists a series of disqualifying felonies. The disqualifying felonies do not include sexual offenses.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no limits on a registered sex offender for the process of filing to run for office, but their status may impact their personal process for campaigning \u2014 limiting what events they can attend or locations they could visit\/contact,\u201d Kus said.<\/p>\n In California, registered sex offenders face restrictions like mandatory public listing on the Megan\u2019s Law website and residency limitations, usually 2,000 feet from schools, among other things. In Fresno County, an ordinance was recently passed to limit any halfway houses that have a registered sex offender to no more than six beds. An advocacy group has filed a lawsuit against the county<\/a>, saying the law is preempted by state law.<\/p>\n Campos is a lifetime registrant and does not have any special restrictions other than those of any other sex offender in California, Fresno Police Department spokesperson Lt. Larry Bowlan said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not hiding from it,\u201d Campos said. \u201cI have went through it. I\u2019ve already closed it out and dealt with it. It\u2019s something that helps shape my future.\u201d<\/p>\n The primary election will take place on June 2. Fresno City Council District 1<\/a>, District 3<\/a>, District 5<\/a> and District 7<\/a> seats will be on the ballot, as well as two Fresno County Supervisor seats<\/a>.<\/p>\n To secure a seat, a candidate must receive over 50% of the vote in the primary election. If no one gets a majority of the vote, the top two candidates will advance to the Nov. 3 general election.<\/p>\n This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 10:49 AM.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In July, the Fresno Council of Governments (COG) heard from many about an initiative to renew Measure C…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[85385,85384,112,8019,114,113,85383,85382],"class_list":{"0":"post-179902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-2026-primary","9":"tag-district-7-campaign","10":"tag-fresno","11":"tag-fresno-city-council","12":"tag-fresno-headlines","13":"tag-fresno-news","14":"tag-registered-sex-offender","15":"tag-rene-campos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Rene Campos is running for Fresno City Council District 7 in the 2026 primary election. PROVIDED: RENE CAMPOS <\/p>\n