Main | Monday, May 12, 2014

Homocon House Candidate Carl DeMaio Confesses To Plagiarizing Magazine

Homocon US House candidate Carl DeMaio says he is "mortified" after being busted for plagiarizing a political magazine's cover story for an "exposé" on Congress that he claimed to have authored. Via the National Journal:
DeMaio has claimed to have authored a "report" finding that 102 members of Congress are drawing a government pension atop their congressional salaries. He leaked an advanced copy to The Wall Street Journal on Monday and is following up with an event in San Diego this morning to induct some lawmakers, most notably his opponent, Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., into a "Hall of Shame." But his "report" looks like little more than a copied-and-pasted version of a National Journal database that accompanied a cover story last June on congressional double-dipping. National Journal reviewed the financial disclosure forms of every member of the House and Senate to create the database and reveal that nearly one in five members of Congress are collecting taxpayer-funded retirements atop their $174,000 salaries. The data in DeMaio's version, which is touted as a "Report by Carl DeMaio" on its first page, matches the National Journal database, down to the text, colors, and abbreviations.
Americablog points out that DeMaio even copied the magazine's typos.  In an update posted tonight, the National Journal published DeMaio's apology.
Carl DeMaio called late Monday to say he was "mortified" by the situation and that National Journal should have been credited as the original source of his report on congressional pensions. "I'm terribly sorry," he said. DeMaio said his staff had produced the pensions report at his direction but he did not know the full extent to which its contents had been lifted from National Journal until Monday morning. Still, he took full responsibility. "I don't throw my staff under the bus," he said. He said he still hoped to change the system of members of Congress receiving public pensions, citing past success at the local level when "we've been able to shame" unwilling politicians into such reforms.
(Tipped by JMG readers Joel, David, and DM)

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Last week a San Diego paper called DeMaio "a hideous opportunist." Also last week the Log Cabin Republicans demanded an apology from DeMaio's opponent for linking to an Americablog post that referred to him as "Mary." Last year DeMaio angrily denied a claim that he'd been seen masturbating in the men's room of the San Diego City Council. Another news story alleges that DeMaio was secretly behind the drive to recall disgraced former Mayor Bob Filner, presumably with the intent to position DeMaio to replace him. Filner resigned before the recall campaign officially launched. Last July the Log Cabin Republicans endorsed DeMaio's bid for the US House. In 2012 local LGBT activists organized a campaign to boo DeMaio during that year's pride parade, noting that he'd been reluctant to endorse marriage equality and had accepted donations from backers of Proposition 8. DeMaio, a wealthy political consultant, is vehemently anti-union and has vowed that LGBT rights will never affect his political decisions.

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