In August 2008 Senator John Edwards (D - N.C.) admitted on an ABC News interview to having a long-term sexual affair with campaign employee Rielle Hunter. Although he denied that he had fathered her child. This affair inspired popular ire particularly because it took place during wife Elizabeth Edward's very public battle with breast cancer.
- In August 2008 Senator John Edwards (D - N.C.) admitted on an ABC News interview to having a long-term sexual affair with campaign employee Rielle Hunter. Although he denied that he had fathered her child. This affair inspired popular ire particularly because it took place during wife Elizabeth Edward's very public battle with breast cancer.
- In March 2008 New York Governer Eliot Spitzer's career crashed and burned when his involvement with a high-priced prostitution ring was uncovered. The New York Times reported that he was spending time with a $1,000/hour call girl named Ashley Dupre. Further investigations showed that he had spent over $80,000 for sex over the course of several years. The public decried his actions as llegal, immoral, and devastating to wife Silda Spitzer. Eliot Spitzer resigned from office on March 17th 2008 avoiding impeachment.
- In October 2008 U.S. Representative Tim Mahoney admitted to having numerous affairs. The woman who got him in trouble was congressional office employee Patricia Allen. He ended up firing Allen after their affair ended and then paying her $121,000 to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit. In a much publicized phone conversation with Allen, Mahoney was recorded as saying to her "you work at my pleasure whenever I dont feel like youre doing your job, then you lose your job. And guess what: the only person that matters is guess who? Me." Mahoney lost re-election on November 4th and his wife Terry has filed for divorce.
- Although Reverend Jeremiah Wright isn't a politician per se, he makes the list because of his controversial role in Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Opponents tried to ruin Obama's image by connecting him to the purportedly racist and anti-American reverend. In September 2008 Elizabeth Payne came forward to admit to an interracial affair with the reverend. Although Wright still stands at the pulpit, Payne's husband filed for divorce and she lost her job at Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, TX.
- Representative Vito Fosella (R- NY), admitted in May 2008 to an affair with retired Air Force lieutenant colonel Laura Fay. He also admitted to fathering her three-year old child. This wasn't the only trouble Fosella got into this year; the Representative was arrested for a DUI in May and turned to Fay, not his wife, to bail him out. Fosella did not seek re-election in November. He served a 5-day stint in jail for his DUI conviction in early December 2008.
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