Republican attempts to present a more tolerant face by backing, Carl DeMaio, an openly gay candidate for California's 52nd Congressional District in San Diego, have hit a bump in recent days with allegations that DeMaio sexually harassed his former campaign policy director, Todd Bosnich. In a T.V. add DeMaio is trumpeted as "a new generation Republican," and U-T San Diego endorsed him as "a gay man who will chip away at the party's image as intolerant and inflexible." John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have both vowed support for DeMaio, and Boehner is scheduled to hold a fundraiser for him today, but Republicans may be finding this tolerance and flexibility thing a bit more difficult than they hoped.
DeMaio is currently locked in a tight battle against first term incumbent, Democrat Scott Peters for the 52nd Congressional District. In another ironic twist DeMaio first earned national notice in 2012 when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Democrat Bob Filner, 71, a 10-term member of Congress who became the city's first Democratic mayor in two decades. Filner had to resign after being charged and convicted of sexual harassment.
Filner resigned in August amid accusations from more than 20 women that he sexually harassed them. In October, he pleaded guilty to one felony count of false imprisonment and two counts of misdemeanor battery involving mistreatment of women.
He served a 90-day sentence of home confinement and is now on three years probation.
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DeMaio tried to make the scandal an issue in the campaign saying he would insist on "zero tolerance" of sexual harassment in his administration.
Bosnich made the accusations in a radio interview that never aired, but was subsequently obtained by Politico. He complained that he had been sexually touched by DeMaio and witnessed him masturbating in his office.
In an interview with CNN Bosnich said that as an openly gay Republican himself, he was eager to work for DeMaio's campaign.
But Bosnich said his enthusiasm for his boss was soon replaced by dread, because DeMaio would find him alone and make inappropriate advances, massaging and kissing his neck and groping him.
One morning last April, Bosnich said he arrived early at campaign headquarters and DeMaio called him back to his office.
"I came over to his office, door was open. And he was masturbating," Bosnich said. "I saw his hand, his penis in his hand and he had a smile on his face. And as soon as I came over he was looking at me."
It wasn't until several months later that Bosnich said he mentioned the behavior to campaign manager Tommy Knepper, who "laughed it off."
"'That's just the way Carl is,'" Bosnich recalls Knepper saying. "And that if I really felt that uncomfortable I shouldn't have let him know that I'm a gay man."
Knepper, Bosnich said, was blaming him.
"He was implying that it's my fault, that it's incumbent on me to stop Carl DeMaio from these behaviors," Bosnich said. "And I was really offended."
It wasn't until a few weeks after the masturbation incident, Bosnich said, that he confronted DeMaio, telling him to either stop the harassment or drop out of the race.
"It was the very next day, in the morning, that the campaign manager called me into his office and said that Carl lost his trust in me and that he'd terminated me," Bosnich said. "He offered me a position in the county Republican Party and also told me to sign a non-disclosure agreement in exchange for $50,000."
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Bosnich says he never took any money and conducted the interview with the conservative radio station the day before the primary but it was not broadcast.
CNN followed up after hearing the recording and interviewed DeMaio about the accusations, who strongly denied them and struck back with allegations of his own against Bosnich.
"This is an individual that was let go by our campaign manager for plagiarism. A well-documented plagiarism incident of taking a report from the National Journal and passing it off as his own work," DeMaio said. "He was terminated. He admitted that he plagiarized. He apologized for plagiarizing and when we told him he was no longer welcome in the staff and in the campaign office, even as a volunteer, he left. Days later, he broke in."
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CNN)
DeMaio told CNN he could provide evidence of the break in and plagiarism. "DeMaio later offered to briefly share the documents only if CNN agreed not to report it. On its own, the material did not appear to refute Bosnich's claims."
In an attempt to follow up with DeMaio, CNN was handed over to former Romney campaign spokesman, Richard Grenell, who refused to answer questions and of course accused CNN of being on a witch hunt. Washington based GOP lawyer, Ben Ginsberg, was assigned to handle CNN's questions but he referred them back to the campaign for answers. Bosnich's lawyers have also produced the results of a lie detector test that showed no deception and four months after the break in San Diego police, who interviewed Bosnich, say they have no suspects.
It appears that yet another 2014 Republican candidate is ensnarled in a sordid tale of sexual misconduct that threatens to derail his campaign--see my diary on the Pennsylvania Governor. (http://www.dailykos.com/...)
It will be interesting to find out how Boehner's fundraiser for DeMaio went tonight. I'm guessing it was a bit tense. It is a mystery to me why someone who is gay would choose be an active member of the Republican party. This is the party whose base considers homosexuality to be an illness and a sin to be cured through prayer, a party that votes against work place protections and marriage equality. I can't help but wonder how the Republican party would be reacting if DeMaio were actually the Democratic candidate. With only a few weeks to go they can only hold their nose and hope their cynical minority outreach program will pay off at the polls in San Diego.
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Peters is a centrist Democrat who has only missed about 1% of floor votes, below the median average of 2.5% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. Follow the link to check out his voting record. https://www.govtrack.us/...
If you'd like to donate to his campaign here is a link: http://www.scottpeters.com/