San Diego, California Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives Carl DeMaio has been accused by a former staffer of sexual harassment.
Mediaite reported on accusations by Todd Bosnich, the DeMaio for Congress campaign's former policy director, who said that he wanted to work for DeMaio because, as a gay Republican himself, he shares DeMaio's vision for a less antigay Republican Party.
However, he said, DeMaio made repeated sexual advances toward him, Bosnich says, openly masturbating in front of him, grabbing at his genitals and drunkenly attempting to kiss him.
Bosnich told CNN that when he complained about the behaviors, he was fired.
The DeMaio campaign disputes the report, saying that Bosnich was fired for plagiarism and that there are questions about whether the disgruntled aide was responsible for a break-in at the campaign's offices.
“It’s unfortunate,” said a campaign spokesman. “He’s clearly troubled he got caught for the damage he did to the campaign and now he’s manufacturing, in essence, a cover story to explain away his actions.”
However, this is not the first time DeMaio has been accused of sexual impropriety.
He was accused of publicly masturbating in the men's room of the San Diego City Council headquarters by city council member Ben Hueso in 2009. DeMaio dismissed those charges as a political hit by Democrats out to halt his meteoric rise in Republican circles.
DeMaio called those charges “disgusting, humiliating and nothing more than a character assassination attempt.”
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