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Mike Duvall deposed as Vice Chair of the Utility
Committee after bragging about having sex with
a 34-year-old lobbyist
See official state of California mug shots of Heidi DeJong Barsuglia, and other documents
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"Hot Mike" Duvall, Orange County Assemblyman, and former
Vice Chair, California Utilities and Commerce Committee.
At 12 P.M. today, the Sacramento Bee reported that Assemblyman Mike Duvall has resigned from the California Assembly just one day after Mr. Duvall was stripped of his position as Vice Chair of the powerful Utilities and Commerce Committee by Speaker Karen Bass.
The resignation follows a report aired by Orange County's K-Cal 9 News. Apparently, Mr. Duvall was unaware that his intimate confessions of adulterous sexual escapades were being recorded by a live microphone, or "hot mike."
The video suggests that at least one of the lobbyists worked for the same firm that represents SDG&E and its holding company, Sempra Energy. The OC Weekly reports that one of the lobbyists is Heidi DeJong Barsuglia. It reports witnesses who have verified that they have seen Duvall with Barsuglia in restaurants, "arm-in-arm" at political fund-raising events and even shopping together for groceries just blocks from the Capitol building.
In April -- two months after Duvall became vice chairman of the Utilities & Commerce Committee -- the privately owned California utility giant, Sempra Energy, hired Barsuglia as one of its top lobbyists. According to Secretary of State records Barsuglia is employed by "Sempra Energy and its affiliates: San Diego Gas & Electric,Southern California Gas Co., and Sempra Energy Global Enterprises (see attached copy of the lobbyist report in PDF format).
Barsuglia, who has a law degree and once worked as a speechwriter for Governor Pete Wilson, had previously worked at CRA, the California Retailers Association. According to her resume, she has four years of experience in legislative "relations". During 25 months of work at CRA, she reported that she incurred no reportable lobbying expenses. She joined Sempra after the departure of another lobbyist: David Hayes, who was named deputy director of the Interior Department by President Barack Obama.
The OC Weekly also reports that Sempra isn't shy about lobbying lawmakers for favorable treatment. In this session, Sempra gave Duvall $1,500 in campaign contributions. In May, the assemblyman officially adopted the company's negative view of Assembly Bill 64, which proposes increasing the percentage of electricity the utilities must procure from environmentally sensitive sources.
According to news reports, Mr. Duvall's language is so vulgar that it cannot be broadcast.
The video shows Duvall discussing his sexual relations with lobbyists. Duvall, aged 54, mentions that he is having sex with two lobbyists from the same firm, and that one of them is 19 years younger. He mentions that he enjoys spanking the Sempra/SDG&E lobbyist.
Ironically, Mr. Duvall is known as a "staunch family values Republican." He has received numerous accolades from the Capital Resource Institute, a family values think tank dedicated to protecting marriage and California families. Notably, Mr. Duvall, is married, as are the women with whom he allegedly had sexual affairs.
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Sex drugs and money: confessions of a former lobbyist
Editor's Note: The author of the following post is a woman in her 50's who grew up in D.C. and completed her undergrad work in Boston (B.A. in Political Science, and a B.S. in Journalism). We thought her observations (even though they are unconfirmed) merit publication here.
I heard an interview during which you asserted your opinion that it is
possible that lobbyists fraternize with elected officials more frequently
than we might think. As a former lobbyist, I concur with your assertion and
would like to carry it one step further by informing you that in some cases,
it is considered part of the lobbyist's job to keep the elected officials
happy, regardless of what that might entail.
Immediately following my graduation, I was offered a position with a
lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. My duties were to go through the
Congressional Record and trade papers for articles regarding pending
legislation and/or potential problems for our client and put them into a
folder for my supervisor. He then prioritized them in the order of
importance and made suggestions about which elected officials I should
concentrate my efforts on. I would then make appointments to take these
people to lunch and/or dinner and pitch our case. I often had to attend
functions during the evening, catering to whichever elected officials who
could best assist our client.
At the time, I was young and attractive, and for the most part, was rather
put off by the constant, unwanted sexual attention from men whom I
considered to be old and, often, gross and/or perverted. One Friday
evening, about seven months into my job, I was on a party boat on the
Potomac. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, of Texas, approached me to "discuss the
desires of my client" and suggested that we get cozy with "a little head in
the head". I refused his kind offer, but he was most insistent. I gave him
a good, hard push to get him off me and he ended up going over the railing
of the boat and landing in the river. In those days, the Potomac was quite
polluted and the Senator had to get a number of shots to combat the various
pathogens in the water. I was pretty pleased with myself, but apologized to
the Senator, then left and went home for the weekend.
Monday morning, as I was getting dressed for work, I got a telephone call
from my supervisor. He informed me that I need not come in to work that day
or ever again, due to the incident on the party boat. I pled self defense,
stating that the Senator was becoming aggressive. My supervisor asked if I
knew why I had been hired, to which I responded that it was because I
graduated Magna with degrees in journalism and political science, not to
mention that I came from a political family and knew my way around the
capitol. He disagreed, stating that I had been hired for my "tits and ass".
There were no laws against sexual harassment in the early 70's, so I took my
lumps and accepted being fired. I got a job as a cocktail waitress in D.C.,
where I was certain that I was being hired for the very same attributes, but
at least it was up front and honest.
My point is that I suspect that a great many lobbyists use sex, drugs and/or
money to entice legislators to vote in a particular way. The system seems
to do much to encourage such behavior and little to discourage it.
He also tried to cheat disabled veterans on behalf of Sempra...
See Assembly Bill 569 at the California Assembly website. It was changed on 9/4, before Duvall knew he was exposed. Doing his masters bidding. These people work for you people! Not Sempra.
This man is a horrible, horrible person. Sempra is even worse, and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) which oversees Sempra and allows them year over year to ignore their obligation to contract with service disabled veterans has to be investigated. CPUC will hold a GO 156 meeting next week, make your voice heard, end this corruption, and help a vet in the process.
What's funny..
What's funny about the Lobbyist's information is that she just completed her "ethics" course in April of 09. LMAO..at "this broken system we have"
But Duvall's fighting for our family values....damm this jus keeps getting better.
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