Calderon sent out a mailer to voters earlier this week that claimed that Bermudez “took care of porn sellers. “In the Assembly, Rudy Bermudez voted for AB 281 to keep up to 100 pieces of child pornography before they could be guilty of a felony,” the mailer stated.
“While Ian Calderon was growing up as a surfer in Orange County, Rudy was risking his life as a prison guard and parole agent. Nearly every day, I watched Rudy put on his bullet proof vest to go arrest some of California’s most violent criminals to send them back to prison. I never knew if the next knock on the door would be the Chaplin telling me that something horrible had happened to my husband,” Nancy Bermudez stressed in the mailer.
LCCN sent a copy of the mailer to Leslie Rodriguez, campaign manager for Calderon Wednesday night via email.
“It’s easy to take photos of the Internet and misrepresent them to the public. The photos in this hit piece are of Mr. Calderon in Halloween costumes when he was a freshman in college,” Rodriguez said.
“Mr. Bermudez does NOT deny that he voted to allow anyone to poses 100 pieces of child porn before they can be charged with a serious crime. Every picture or video of child pornography sold means that another child will be abused and enslaved. Possession of ANY piece of child porn should be a felony. That is what Mr. Calderon believes. Rudy Bermudez thinks its O.K for anyone to have 100 pieces,” Rodriguez said.
“Ian is accountable for his beliefs and Rudy has to be held accountable for his record,” she said.
“Not only does Rudy think its O.K for people to have child porn in their possession, he has teamed up with his friend Michael Ross, a lobbyist for the porn industry to attack me. His Campaign Manager, who is responsible for this hit piece, was convicted and sentenced for mail fraud and now Rudy Bermudez and his Team is being investigated for fraudulent money laundering by the Fair Political Practices Commission,” Ian Calderon said in a statement to Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.
But on Thursday, Bermudez campaign advisor Bruce Young countered that statement to LCCN with the following, “Ian Calderon’s lips are moving so he’s lying again. The bill passed 73-0. Ian is attacking his own uncle Senator Ron Calderon and 72 other Assembly members for supporting child pornography, which is absurd.”
“What sane person actually believes the District Attorneys of California would sponsor a bill for pornographers? Ian needs to take responsibility for his lies and the fact that he is under investigation by the FPPC for hiding money and falsely signing forms under penalty of perjury,” Young blasted.
