Politics Report: The Fall of Swalwell

Not since Cesar Chavez has a canceling wave hit someone as hard as the one that crushed Rep. Eric Swalwell this week.

Thursday, he was the most likely candidate to win the chaotic California gubernatorial race. Friday, he was fighting to even stay in the race.

The San Francisco Chronicle posted a story Friday about a former staffer of Swalwell who said he sexually assaulted her twice amid other consensual encounters. Within hours, the two co-chairs of his campaign dropped him, the powerful California Teachers Association and SEIU-California suspended their endorsements, as did an array of officials including Sen. Adam Schiff, Sen. Ruben Gallego, who is a friend who had chaired Swalwell’s failed presidential bid.

But I wondered about former Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, who leads the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO. The Labor Federation had endorsed Swalwell and three other Democrats for governor.

It has to be a tough situation for Gonzalez, who has dealt first-hand with how these situations can get less morally clear after the first accusations surface.

In a video, Swalwell said he would fight them. “These allegations of sexual assault are flat false,” he said. “They did not happen. They have never happened.”

He acknowledged mistakes and consensual encounters that he said are matters between him and his wife.

It has similarities to the situation Gonzalez confronted when her husband, Nathan Fletcher, was accused of assault. He denied hurting anyone but acknowledged mistakes and consensual encounters.

Later, the accusations and lawsuit against Fletcher unraveled leading Gonzalez to explain how troubling it was for her to have to accept that you could not necessarily believe accusers.

“I have to admit, this has been hard for me because I did believe that women didn’t lie about sexual assault. I thought, for the most part, you know, that’s why I wrote all those bills. I’ve talked to hundreds of sexual assault survivors and sexual harassment survivors. The truth is it’s very rare. And I think the damage that she did to that movement is the real problem here,” Gonzalez said at a Sept. 12 press conference. Fletcher is continuing a defamation lawsuit against his accuser, Grecia Figueroa.

Swalwell’s attorney sent two women warning letters that they could face a defamation lawsuit if they continued with their accusations. Later Friday, CNN reported that another unnamed woman was accusing Swalwell of assault saying she connected with him online about politics and ended up at his hotel room extremely intoxicated and unsure what had happened between them.

Saturday morning, Gonzalez and the unions she represents made a decision.

“This morning, the Executive Council of the California Federation of Labor Unions unanimously voted to withdraw our endorsement of Rep. Swalwell for Governor. The allegations made by women who worked for and with Rep. Swalwell are overwhelming and unacceptable. Ultimately, our duty is to serve California’s workers, not any politician,” Gonzalez said in a written statement.

Notes

Still thinking about this: In January, former Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, now a candidate for San Diego City Council, had an interesting op-ed exchange with Michael Zucchet, the general manager of the largest union of city employees. Bailey said the city had a spending and management problem. Zucchet countered that “many of the issue areas that Bailey cites (personnel and pension costs, lack of public safety spending and trash collection fees) San Diego is in line with or even outperforming other cities – including the city of Coronado under Bailey’s leadership as councilmember and mayor for 12 years.”

But they both agreed on one thing: The city hired way too many middle managers.

This week, Mayor Todd Gloria acknowledged it for the first time. In a video, he defended middle managers briefly before saying cuts to those ranks had already been made and would continue.

“The next budget includes about 48 fewer management jobs,” he said.

Tenant becomes landlord: The Prebys Foundation has bought another building downtown. Union-Tribune: “On Friday, Prebys Foundation purchased the seven-story office building at 1420 Kettner Blvd., branded as Kettner & Ash, for $30.5 million in cash and debt …” The building is the site of the Foundation’s headquarters.

If you have any feedback or ideas for the Politics Report, send them to scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org or will.huntsberry@voiceofsandiego.org.

The post Politics Report: The Fall of Swalwell appeared first on Voice of San Diego.