San Diego Very Close to Electing First Openly Gay (and Libertarian) Republican Congressman

This morning
less than 800 votes separate Republican Carl DeMaio from
incumbent Democrat Scott Peters in San Diego. With late mail and
provisional ballots uncounted, this means it’s too soon yet for
DeMaio to grab a surfboard and join to Republican wave.

If the numbers hold up, Carl DeMaio will become the first openly
gay man elected to Congress as a Republican (retired Jim Kolbe of
Arizona is the actual first gay Republican congressman, but he came
out while in office). DeMaio is also a libertarian pension reformer
(full disclosure: DeMaio is an independent contractor for the
Reason Foundation research division’s pension reform project). I
profiled DeMaio back in
July, and he’s featured in my preview
of the midterms in the December issue of Reason on stands
now.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, there could
be as many as 50,000 provisional and late mail-in ballots to count,
so this may take a while. We won’t see another tally until
Thursday.

The race also turned nasty and personal toward the end. DeMaio
ended up mired in scandals. A former campaign worker accused DeMaio
of sexual harassment. DeMaio’s camp, though, said the man was
retaliating because he was fired for his alleged role in
plagiarizing some content for the campaign’s website. DeMaio also
accused him of responsibility for a
break-in at their campaign office earlier in the year, but the
city’s district attorney determined there wasn’t enough evidence to
file charges. Then another former staffer came forward just

days before the election with similar sexual harassment
accusations. DeMaio’s camp has again denied the claims.

Polls had barely put DeMaio ahead back in October so the
closeness of the race should not come as a surprise, and it’s not
clear whether the late scandal affected the vote in any way. DeMaio
dismissed the scandals again last night. From the
Union-Tribune:

“I’ve also, particularly in the past several weeks, received
such amazing support and love from San Diegans who reject the
politics of personal destruction. They don’t want smears, they want
solutions.”

Unfortunately, should he win, DeMaio will not be joined by
Richard Tisei of Massachusetts in the House of Representatives.
Tisei, also an openly gay, libertarian-leaning Republican, lost to
Democrat newcomer Seth Moulton. Moulton was one of the few
challengers to
toss out an incumbent in the primaries, as voters handed
scandal-tainted John Tierney his walking papers. Moulton ended up
trouncing Tisei 54 percent to 41 percent, despite late
polls showing Tisei ahead. Looks like earlier polls in
September proved more accurate. He conceded
last night, saying he has “no regrets.”