Scandal puts harsh spotlight on new congresswoman

AGUA DULCE, Calif. — California U.S. Rep. Katie Hill has apologized to friends and supporters for engaging in an affair with a campaign staffer, but Susan Slates still feels let down by the 32-year-old Democrat who arrived in Congress just this year.

Slates is a beauty salon owner in Hill’s hometown of Agua Dulce, a lightly populated expanse of grassy hills and horse ranchettes north of Los Angeles. She tightens her lips when asked about Hill, who in addition to acknowledging the affair with the young female staffer now is under investigation by a congressional committee for an alleged intimate relationship with a male senior aide, which Hill denies.

“Disappointed,” Slates, a Democrat, said flatly. But she quickly jumped to Hill’s defense, saying anything she did pales in comparison to what’s she’s witnessed under President Donald Trump. “I still love her,” she added.

Just across the street at the local liquor store, the reaction was far different, highlighting the deep political divide that cuts through California’s 25th Congressional District, a long-standing Republican redoubt that has recently tilted Democratic.

“It’s a bad role model for the children,” said owner Danny Hawara, a registered independent who leans right. He has a message for members of Congress who don’t uphold the standards of conduct voters expect: “Leave office,” he said.

Compromising photos of Hill and purported text messages from her to the campaign staffer, a recent college graduate, surfaced online last week in a rightwing publication and a British tabloid.

Claremont Mckenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said it’s “not a good situation for her, to put it mildly.” But he added: “Perhaps the public will just shrug.

“To anybody who thinks this is an automatic political death sentence, I have three words: President Donald Trump.”

The risk for Hill, Pitney said, is if the ethics panel finds any improper conduct with her legislative director.

House rules prohibit members of Congress from engaging in sexual relationships with staff members.

Hill, a first-term House member who identifies as bisexual, also is contending with a contentious divorce from a husband she calls abusive and blames for circulating the photographs. While not providing any evidence of abuse by Kenneth Heslep, Hill says she turned elsewhere for companionship because of their turbulent relationship.

In court papers, Heslep says he was rejected by an ambitious wife.