Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.)
Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) is finding himself in an October sex scandal, about two years after his GOP predecessor Mark Foley was forced to step down in the wake of his own personal indiscretions.
ABC News is reporting that Mahoney agreed to pay a $121,000 settlement to a former mistress, Patricia Allen, who worked on his Congressional and campaign staff since his 2006 campaign.
The story also reveals that Mahoney promised her a job at the consulting firm that handles his campaign’s media production.
Some of the juicy bits excerpted from the ABC story:
— A spokesperson for [Democratic Caucus Chair] Rahm Emanuel, said he confronted Mahoney “upon hearing a rumor” about an affair in 2007 and “told him he was in public life and had a responsibility to act accordingly.” Emanuel’s spokesperson said he had not had any further contacts with Mahoney on the subject and did not know the woman involved worked on Mahoney’s Congressional staff until informed by ABC News.
— The affair between Mahoney and Allen began, according to the current and former staffers, in 2006 when Mahoney was campaigning for Congress against Foley, promising “a world that is safer, more moral.”
At the time, Mahoney’s campaign ads featured a picture of him with his wife, Terry, with the line, “Restoring America’s Values Begins at Home.”
— The staffers say Mahoney first met Allen at a campaign stop and later arranged for her to work as a volunteer on the campaign. Allen also appeared in a Mahoney campaign television commercial, criticizing his opponent.
Friends of Allen told ABC News that Allen sought to break off the affair when she learned Mahoney was allegedly involved in other extra-marital relationships at the same time.
Her friends say she told them Mahoney threatened that ending the relationship could cost her the job.
“You work at my pleasure,” Congressman Mahoney told Allen on a January 20, 2008 telephone call that was recorded and played for Mahoney staffers. ABC News was provided a copy.
This brewing scandal clearly benefits Mahoney’s Republican challenger, Tom Rooney. Rooney already was running competitively against Mahoney before the scandal broke, but now it’s hard to see how Mahoney survives.
Rooney spokesman Jeff Ostermayer declined to comment on the ABC story.
