Potential Filner Successor Also Faces Sexual Allegations

The sexual harassment allegations against soon-to-be-ex San Diego Mayor Bob Filner are pretty well documented now. But less well-known are those against his 2012 mayoral opponent, Carl DeMaio. When both men were serving on the San Diego City Council, the council's then-president Ben Hueso says DeMaio would often leave meetings to masturbate in the men's room, according to the Voice of OC. Hueso, now a Democratic state senator, says he personally walked in on DeMaio, a Republican, twice. "He jumped, caught by surprise. He jumped to the sink ... saying 'I’m sorry, I’m sorry' about six times. Then washed his hands, darted out," says Hueso.

Hueso didn't file a complaint at the time, and though others claim they suspected something was going on, they had not witnessed anything. DeMaio, who is openly gay, is planning on running for a US Congress seat in 2014, but there is speculation he might instead run for mayor again, now that Filner is going. A spokesperson for DeMaio denies the allegations. "There is no other way to respond to this than to call it what it is: a lie," he says, per the Daily Caller. "Ben Hueso and his union allies ignored Bob Filner’s serial sexual harassment to keep Carl from winning the mayor’s race and now he’s manufacturing a lie to stop Carl’s momentum." DeMaio is expected to announce whether he will run for mayor sometime this week, reports CBS 8. (More Carl DeMaio stories.)