GOP candidate’s campaign reels in wake of sexual harassment claims
The sexual harassment debate that has roiled Sacramento for months erupted into the governor’s race on Monday, as Republican candidate Travis Allen faced the political fallout of newly revealed harassment allegations against him.
Allen, a state Assemblyman from Orange County, was one of seven current and former lawmakers named in a cache of documents released by the state Legislature on Friday detailing “substantiated” harassment claims over the past decade. The documents alleged that a woman accused Allen in 2013 of making her uncomfortable by regularly getting too close to her and squeezing her shoulders from behind.
One of his most prominent Republican supporters, Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, who’s been outspoken on harassment issues and has fought for a bill strengthening whistleblower protections in the legislature, promptly withdrew her endorsement.
“I informed gubernatorial candidate Travis Allen on Friday, after reviewing claims of inappropriate conduct, I have no choice but to withdraw my endorsement of his candidacy,” Melendez said in a statement to the Bay Area News Group on Monday.
The allegations, which Allen denied, sparked a vigorous bipartisan debate in California political circles about whether he should face political consequences or deserved the benefit of the doubt.
Meanwhile, several of Allen’s rivals suggested he should quit the race. “Travis Allen is now a known predator and should drop out,” tweeted Delaine Eastin, the former state schools chief and a Democratic candidate for governor. “I say #TimesUp for ALL sexual harassers seeking to subjugate half the population.”
According to the heavily redacted, two-page record of Allen’s case, one woman reported in February 2013 that he gave her shoulder squeezes from behind and “made a practice of being unnecessarily close.” One time, the woman said, he stood with his arms spread open inside her office door and when she waved, he responded, “You can do better than that.” Another woman reportedly said that Allen “petted” her hand after they shook hands.
The document says that Jon Waldie, then chief administrator to the Assembly, brought the complaints to Allen’s attention and “reminded him to be conscious of his conduct.” Allen told Waldie he “could not recall a time when he might have been too familiar with staff,” but did recall times when women had “become overly friendly with him” at an event outside of work.
Allen denied that he had ever acted inappropriately, describing the document drop as politically motivated.
“The release of this unsubstantiated complaint is a political attack by a Democrat-led committee,” Allen said in a statement. “I’m sure I’ve shaken many people’s hands, tapped many people on the shoulder, and have even tapped people’s feet accidentally. But there has never been anything in any of my actions that has been inappropriate, and nor will there ever be.”
Allen was the only Republican member of the
legislature to be named in the documents — all six of the other current and former lawmakers are Democrats.
The political response was quick. Democratic
governor candidate John Chiang, the state treasurer, said in a statement that “any man who has abused his power and sexually harassed others is unfit to serve: as a legislator,
as a mayor, or as governor.” He didn’t mention Allen’s name.
Republican candidate John Cox, a San Diego County businessman, declared that “today’s revelations are not just about Travis Allen, they’re about hush money, cover-ups and a pervasive culture that has existed far too long in Sacramento.”
Other Republican leaders came to Allen’s defense.
“I don’t think based upon that evidence there’s anything here that Travis needs to apologize for,” said Shawn Steel, a Republican National Committeewoman for California, arguing that the allegations were anonymous, five years old and relatively benign.
“We’re reaching the Robespierre landmark in the #MeToo movement where a look across the room can be considered sexual harassment,” Steel said. “I would certainly trust my daughters in the company of Travis Allen.”
But that might not be enough to help Allen’s campaign, which was already
in debt and stuck in single digits in recent polls even before the allegations came out.
“We tend to put people and actions into buckets, and now, for better or worse, he’s in the sexual harassment allegation bucket,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School. “Given that he wasn’t doing all that well before, this could be a death knell for his chances.”
Allen shouldn’t minimize the complaints, argued Christine Pelosi, the general counsel of the anti-harassment group We Said Enough: “He humiliated people, and he needs to take responsibility for his actions.” Still, she said, it was hard to say for sure what political consequences he should face. “Are we going to say that somebody who did what Travis Allen did should never be in public office again? Then we’d be emptying out a lot of people from the Capitol building,” she said.
Republican hopeful Doug Ose, a former Sacramento-area congressman, said he thought voters should also consider the marital infidelity of gubernatorial frontrunners Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor, and Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles. Both had consensual affairs while they were mayors of San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively — Newsom with an appointments secretary in his office while he was going through a divorce with his wife, and Villaraigosa with a TV anchor.
“Whether your last name is Allen, Newsom or Villaraigosa, if you treat women this way, you have to ask if you belong in office,” he said.
Newsom spokesman Nathan Click responded: “This, from someone who refuses to condemn the president for openly bragging about sexual assault, does a profound disservice to the movement happening in our culture right now.” Villaraigosa’s campaign declined to comment.