Openly gay Republican accused of sexual harassment
by Brian Leubitz
I’ve not really mentioned the burning wreck that is Carl DeMaio’s 2014 Congressional campaign. But, boy is it in fire right now. Voice of San Diego has a full timeline of the various scandals with a very fitting opening sentence:
In 10 years covering San Diego politics, including the one where Bob Filner was mayor, I have never seen a more bizarre political scandal than the one surrounding Carl DeMaio’s congressional campaign over the last few weeks. (VoSD)
The article follows the rather bizarre twists and turns of a plagiarism story turning into a sexual harassment story. Because it is two gay men, the media has been somewhat confused how to play this whole thing, with reactions landing all over the place. But, as a gay man myself, I can think of no reason why it should be handled differently than any other case. Sexual harassment is just never ok.
But the long and short of it is that after the plagiarism story, a staffer, Todd Bosnich, got the blame and was ultimately fired. But not immediately, as he stuck around a few days on the campaign. According to Bosnich, somewhere during his time on the campaign, he was rather aggressively harassed. I’ll let you go to the original article for all the sordid details and the full timeline.
Well, the Voice of SD article would have been a complete timeline, except the latest scandal DeMaio got caught up in this week:
On Jan. 22, DeMaio sent an email to two members of his staff, campaign spokesperson Dave McCulloch and then-policy director Todd Bosnich (Bosnich has accused DeMaio of sexually harassing him and trying to buy his silence). The email’s subject line is “Kate Lyon” and includes a photo of an overweight woman wearing a bra and eating what looks to be a Twinkie chicken nugget. (The woman in the photo is not Lyon.) Based on the email’s metadata, it appears to be authentic.
Kate Lyon is the deputy campaign manager for Scott Peters, the 52nd District congressional representative whom DeMaio’s challenging in the upcoming election. (CityBeat)
Stay Classy, Carl DeMaio.
This is definitely a swing district, and Scott Peters still has a tough race on his plate. But, in a city that is still recovering from a sexual harassment story involving its former mayor, more inappropriate behavior is not really a good asset in prospective public servants.
Wait…. what? It’s not a television show?!? It’s real???
This is nuts. Poor San Diego. Poor Scott Peters- he has to try to run a legitimate re-election campaign in this environment?
I get that every city has it’s colorful people (like Emperor Norton) and you sometimes see them running for City Council or such. But this is for the US House of Representatives!
I feel like we need Jim Phelps (of Mission Impossible) and his team to sneak back in, return the “bible” and re-connect all the cables. As usual should he or any of his team be captured, the State Dept. could deny any knowledge about it… dunt..dun… dun….
Fact can truly be stranger than fiction. And that image may not do Mr. DeMaio any favors….(a little too “here’s Johnny” as played by Jack Nicholson for me).
This is EASY !!
DeMaio just has to find Jesus and repent all his sins
He’ll be elected in a landslide !!
(He should hire me as his campaign manager)
C’mon Carl, come to Jesus !!