Politics

Liberals accuse GOP congressional candidate of masturbating at work

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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Just because Bob Filner — accused by numerous women of sexual harassment — resigned as mayor of San Diego on Friday doesn’t mean the city doesn’t have another potential sticky wicket on its hands.

A California news outlet is reporting that Carl DeMaio, a Republican who once ran against Filner for mayor but is now running for Congress, is now being accused by his former colleagues on the city council of, well, masturbating while on the job.

Two Democratic members of the San Diego City Council were quoted on the record at VoiceofOc.org making the allegation that DeMaio often polished his family jewels in a bathroom while at work. But a spokesman for DeMaio strongly denied the allegations to The Daily Caller on Friday.

“There is no other way to respond to this than to call it what it is: a lie,” DeMaio spokesman Jason Roe told TheDC.

Reached by TheDC on Friday, a spokeswoman for then-City Council president Ben Hueso, one of the Democrats who made the allegation, did not dispute the accuracy of Hueso’s words in the VoiceofOc.org story. She declined to make any comment. The other accuser, San Diego City Councilwoman Marti Emerald, did not return an email seeking comment.

DeMaio’s camp returned fire, accusing Hueso of dirty politics.

“If Ben Hueso started this rumor,” Roe added, “he embarrasses himself and our great city. This is exactly the kind of gutter politics that has lead to the dysfunction of our political system in San Diego and Washington, D.C. Ben Hueso and his union allies ignored Bob Filner’s serial sexual harassment to keep Carl from winning the mayor’s race and now he’s manufacturing a lie to stop Carl’s momentum.”

DeMaio, who is said to be simultaneously considering another run for mayor with Filner’s resignation, served on the San Diego City Council from 2008 to 2012.

Here is how the VoiceofOc.org — billed as Orange County’s Nonprofit Investigative News Agency — described the masturbation allegations:

 

[T]here never has been a public accounting of how during 2009 DeMaio allegedly would leave the San Diego City Council dais during meetings to masturbate in a men’s room — events known by elected officials and suspected by members of the media.

 

In the months before last November’s mayoral election, Ben Hueso, the City Council’s president in 2009, acknowledged to this reporter that he witnessed DeMaio engaging in the practice twice. Hueso, now a Democratic state senator, and others suspected DeMaio’s alleged inappropriate activity was more frequent.

 

Describing the scene that spring when he walked in on DeMaio, who was in front of a urinal with his pants down, Hueso said:

 

“DeMaio was masturbating. He jumped, caught by surprise. He jumped to the sink … saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’ about six times. Then washed his hands, darted out.”

 

Hueso again confirmed this account last week.

 

San Diego City Councilwoman Marti Emerald confirmed Hueso’s account, saying she saw him in the hallway immediately after the encounter with DeMaio.

 

“Ben was in a state of shock, face red, eyes bulging,” recalled Emerald recently. “I said: ‘You look like you just saw the devil?’ He said: ‘DeMaio is masturbating in the middle of the room.’ ” Another witness to the aftermath supported Emerald’s account.

 

DeMaio, who is openly gay, has recently received positive press with his interest in running for the congressional seat against freshman Democratic Rep. Scott Peters. Yahoo! News titled a piece on DeMaio: “How a young, gay congressional candidate could shake up the GOP.”

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