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 Wright, who was convicted in January of lying about whether he
lived in the district he sought to represent, was the first of three
California Senate Democrats to face criminal proceedings this year.
This effectively cost the party a cherished two-thirds majority in
the California Senate.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge sentenced Wright on Friday to 90
days in jail and said he was no longer eligible to hold office in
California.
“Effective Sept. 22, 2014, I hereby resign from the California State
Senate,” the Los Angeles-area Democrat wrote in a letter to the
secretary of the legislative body on Monday, three days after his
sentence was handed down.
California state Senate Democratic leader Darrell Steinberg had
urged Wright on Friday to resign, saying he was free to appeal his
case as a private citizen. A Steinberg spokesman said Steinberg had
accepted Wright's pending resignation.
 Candidates for U.S. Congress are not required to live in their
districts, but state lawmakers are mandated to do so under
California law. Prosecution under the law is somewhat rare, however.
Wright, whose lawyer has said he plans to appeal the conviction,
owned a home in the working-class suburb of Inglewood, which is part
of his legislative district, but lived in the affluent Baldwin Hills
neighborhood of Los Angeles.
He had contended that a state law requiring lawmakers to keep
domiciles in their districts allows candidates to reside elsewhere.
Both the jury and judge in the case rejected that distinction.
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Wright was the first of three Democratic state senators embroiled in
separate criminal cases in California to announce their
resignations, a move welcomed by the Senate Republican leadership.
All three were suspended with pay earlier this year. Senator
Leland Yee of San Francisco was indicted on racketeering, wire fraud
and conspiracy charges, and Senator Ron Calderon is fighting two
dozen counts of bribery, fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
On Monday, state Assemblyman Isadore Hall, a Democrat who represents
an area that partly overlaps Wright's senate district, said in a
statement he would run for Wright's seat in a special election
expected to be held within the coming months.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)
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