Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Ariz sheriff says he's gay after misconduct claims

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Ariz sheriff says he's gay after misconduct claims

    This guy has a tough mountain to climb to get that nomination.

    FLORENCE, Ariz.
    (AP) — A sheriff seeking the GOP nomination for an Arizona congressional seat was forced to confirm he is gay Saturday and resigned from presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's Arizona committee amid allegations of misconduct made by a man with whom he previously had a relationship.
    Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu denied claims he tried to threaten the man, a Mexican immigrant and a former campaign volunteer, with deportation if their past relationship was made public. The man's allegations were first published Friday in The New Times, a Phoenix alternative weekly magazine.
    Babeu, a first-term sheriff who has risen to national prominence with his strong opposition to illegal immigration and smuggling, said the accusations were an attempt to hurt his political career.
    He vowed to continue his campaign in Arizona's rural western 4th Congressional District seat, but said he had called presidential candidate Mitt Romney's staff to say he would step down from his post as state campaign co-chair.
    "This whole rumor, this whole of idea of who I am in my private life has been shopped around," Babeu told reporters during an hour-long press conference Saturday in front of his sheriff's office. "This was a way, the hook, of how this could be brought out, and to malign and attack a sheriff who does stand for conservative principals, who does enforce the law."
    The lawyer for the man, Melissa Weiss-Riner, did not returns calls or emails from The Associated Press on Saturday, but told The New Times that Babeu's attorney and campaign consultant falsely told her client that his visa had expired. Babeu told reporters he believed the man, identified only by his first name Jose, was living in the country legally.
    The New Times posted a photo provided by the man of the two embracing. It also posted a cell phone self-portrait of a smiling Babeu in his underwear and another of what appears to be the shirtless sheriff in a bathroom, posted on a gay dating website. The man provided the magazine with photos of himself and Babeu and text messages between the two. Babeu didn't deny their authenticity.
    The huge congressional district where Babeu is seeking election runs from western Arizona all the way to the desert south of Phoenix. Its voters are heavily Republican and generally very conservative.
    Babeu issued a sweeping denial of any wrongdoing in front of his headquarters. The press conference was attended by about three dozen high-ranking uniformed deputies, local elected officials and citizens.
    "I'm here to say that all the allegations that were in the story were untrue — except for the instance that refers to me as gay," Babeu said. "That's the truth — I am gay."
    He said he didn't have the power as a local sheriff to get anyone deported.
    Babeu, who is not married, said he had been in a relationship with Jose that ended sometime before September. Jose also ran his campaign website and Twitter account, and Babeu said he began posting derogatory items on the sites after their breakup.
    Babeu said he had his lawyer contact Jose and demand that he stop and turn over passwords allowing access to the sites. Babeu said the postings and actions amounted to identity theft but that he chose to deal with the matter privately through his lawyer.
    It's wasn't immediately clear if Babeu's admission would hurt him politically, but his primary opponents came out swinging.
    Babeu is taking on an incumbent tea party Republican who switched districts, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, and state Sen. Ron Gould, a conservative from northwestern Arizona, in August's 4th District primary........."

    Ariz sheriff says he's gay after misconduct claims - Yahoo! News
    Removing a single turd from the cesspool doesn't make any difference.

  • #2
    I'd hope his being gay wouldnt have any weight and the electorate would base the decison by performance rather than prejudice. I do think if the charges he threatened to have his ex gay lover deported are true...well that's an animal of a different stripe. Hell, even if he had an illegal as an intimate other at all I'd think when it comes to public service it would be disqualifiying
    Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.”
    ~Ronald Reagan

    Comment

    Working...
    X