Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Caught Another One

A candidate for the U.S. Senate in Ohio has been busted on sex charges.

DAYTON, Ohio — A New Lebanon man, running for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, has been indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury on sex charges.

Eric Deaton was indicted on one count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old girl between March 2006 and March 2007.

Perry Township police said Deaton met the victim at a church where Deaton served as an elder.

Chief Bob Bowman said, “He would tutor some classes and allowed her to come to his residences to do some work and earn some money.”

Investigators said they have recordings and hotel records proving the inappropriate relationship. They don’t know if there are more victims.

Bowman said, “There are additional hotel dates that don’t correspond with information from our victim. We also have information from early on that there may be other girls from the church.”

A campaign spokesperson said Deaton is still running for Senate.

Mr. Deaton is running on the Constitution Party ticket. Josh Marshall has a bit more on his background.

Deaton, who has the support of major Tea Party groups in Ohio, is not backing down. He plans to remain in the race and says he believes the charges are “politically motivated.” According to Deaton, the “powers that be don’t like” his decision to enter the Senate race.

One of the unintended consequences of this Tea Party insurgency is that we get to find out all about the background of the people running, including some of their more unsavory aspects. For instance, who knew that Rand Paul, the Kentucky Senate candidate, was a charter member of the Baylor chapter of the Midnight Tokers? Or that Sharron Angle, running for the Senate in Nevada, had such interesting views on life and politics posted on her own website that she threatened to sue Harry Reid’s campaign for re-printing them. And if your real past isn’t good enough, you just make stuff up, like Mark Kirk, the senate candidate in Illinois.

This certainly is a colorful crowd and we won’t be lacking for entertainment and creativity if they’re elected. More’s the pity.