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Letter warned of ‘Filthy Filner’

Anonymous writers called mayoral candidate ‘relentless and disgusting’

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An anonymous letter from two women saying they worked for or around Rep. Bob Filner’s congressional office sought to warn San Diegans about Filner’s unwanted sexual advances in correspondence sent to a rival mayoral campaign in September.

“A champion of women he is not,” it said.

The campaign of Councilman Carl DeMaio shared the letter at the time with U-T San Diego and other media, which attempted in vain to determine whether there was truth to the claims before Filner was elected mayor.

The allegations in the letter have taken on more credence with the news conference of three former Filner allies on Monday, describing similar behavior — and saying they have heard first-hand of unwelcome kissing and groping and other incidents unbecoming of a mayor.

The letter in September made similar allegations.

“More than one of us transferred out of his ‘territory’ to avoid his ‘advances,’” the letter said. “Any claim he makes to holding the ‘high moral ground’ is simply ridiculous, if not self-delusional.”

The letter writers added, “Because we choose to remain anonymous, this letter may just be tossed into the round file. We’ll take that risk because even though our purpose is to ‘expose’ him, we know not to trust him, his methods, or his tendency towards revenge.”

According to the letter, “Many women in D.C. refer to (Filner) as ‘Bobo,’ ‘Mr. Misogynist,’ ‘Nasty Narcissist,’ or simply ‘Filthy Filner.’”

On Monday, former Councilwoman Donna Frye and attorneys Marco Gonzalez and Cory Briggs shared lurid details of the mayor’s unwanted sexual advances. The three women whose accounts were described in detail have yet to come forward for fear of stepping into the media circus. One was described as a city staffer, another as a constituent and a third as a campaign volunteer.

Earlier in the day, Filner’s ex-fiancée called on him to step aside after sharing information about his infidelities and sexually explicit text messages to other women.

Filner reiterated that he has no plans to resign.

At the news conference Monday, Frye said she suspected that several people – current and former supporters and detractors, as well as members of the news media – had heard earlier rumors of unwanted sexual advances involving Filner.

“I just want to say one thing to everybody standing here today. I just want to ask you all, every single person standing here today, have you ever personally heard from anybody about this behavior?” she asked. “Have any of you, any of you, heard rumors? Have any of you had women come up to you and tell you their stories and tell you they are too afraid to speak? And if that has happened to you, you know the answers to why we’re doing this the way we’re doing this.”

In the letter to DeMaio, the women described watching in disbelief Filner’s rise to potential power as mayor of the nation’s eighth-largest city.

“With the same disbelief, we have waited for at least one of your local women to ‘come out of the closet’ as to the true character of Mr. Filner. Perhaps she/they have the same fear of Filner as we do,” they wrote.

The pair went on to note that it was well established Filner craved being acknowledged as a champion for racial minorities, veterans, teachers, kids, and society’s forgotten.

“Unless he could gain press or access to power, expecting him to follow through was like spitting in the wind. But, God forbid, if you were a single woman he found the least bit attractive. He was relentless and disgusting, and sometimes unforgiving.”

They concluded if the measure of a man or woman matters for San Diego’s mayor, “the best we can hope for is that this letter prompts some investigation. If not, warn the women, and good luck San Diego.”

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