Bob Filner, a progressive Democrat who served in Congress for 20 years and then ran for mayor of San Diego, has promised to shake up city hall, but his career collapsed within months amid a storm of sexual harassment charges, died on April 20th.
His family announced their death. The announcement did not give any cause or statement about where he died, but the San Diego Union Union Tribune reported that he had died in an aided home in Costa Mesa, California.
Known for his rude and combative style, Filner resigned as mayor in August 2013 under pressure.
The women included a retired rear navy admiral, university dean and former communications director for Mr. Filner.
He took office in denying fraud. But two months later, he pleaded guilty to felony charges of battery false imprisonment and misdemeanor charges involving two other women. He was sentenced to three months of home lockdown and three years of probation.
“I wasn’t planning on becoming a mayor who went out like this,” he said.
His humiliating downfall overshadowed a long record of liberal activities that he represented a progressive champion career that he represented largely low-income, racially diverse districts in San Diego and Southern California, and pursued his incarceration in Mississippi in 1961.
He was San Diego’s first Democratic mayor in 20 years and took office with planning the liberal agenda for California’s second largest city. He fought against the city’s business facilities, including a conservative editorial page for the Union Tribune.
Filner, a former university history professor at San Diego State University, entered electoral politics in 1979 when he won a seat on the San Diego Board of Education, and in 1987 he won a seat on the city council.
He was elected to Congress in 1992 from California’s newly painted District 50. This included a large Hispanic population, with most of the state’s border with Mexico.
Within the house, Filner helped establish the Council’s progressive caucus. In his ten terms he rose to chair the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. He defended issues of labor, the environment and civil rights.
As a sophomore at Cornell, he volunteered for a free ride in the summer of 1961, protesting the deep south bus terminal.
Filner, who arrived by bus in Jackson, Michigan, was arrested on charges of disturbing peace and inciting riots. Rather than posting bonds, he followed the protesters’ agreed tactics and accepted a two-month prison sentence in Mississippi’s infamous state prison.
“Riding freely has personally and politically changed my entire life,” Filner later said. I said.
Robert Earl Filner was born in Pittsburgh on September 4, 1942 to Sarah and Joseph Filner. His father was the organizer of workers who continued to run a series of metals trade businesses.
After serving in prison in Mississippi, Filner returned to Cornell, where he earned a degree in chemistry and a Ph.D. In the history of science in 1969.
He then moved to San Diego, where he taught university history for 20 years.
His two marriages divorced Barbara Christie in 1966 and Jane Merrill in 1985.
He survived from his first marriage with his son Adam and daughter Erin. Two grandchildren. and his brother, Bernard.
In July 2013, just seven months after Filner’s four-year term as mayor, he was engulfed in a blizzard of sexual harassment. A former city council member who once worked for Filner’s Donna Frye held a press conference declaring several women that they had denounced the mayor for unnecessary progress, including groping and kissing.
“Bob Filner is tragically unsafe for every woman to approach,” Frye said.
Filner apologised for the misconduct he may have committed, calling himself a “very empirical person” and a “male and female hugger.” However, he refused to resign.
Within days, his former communications director, Irene McCormack Jackson, filed the lawsuit, saying at a press conference the mayor would wrap his arm around his neck and pull her “like a rag doll whispering sexual comments.”
More accusers came, including military veterans who said Mr Filner used his authority position to pressure them on dates and intimate contacts.
The elected Democrats and former political allies demanded that the mayor resign. The chorus included Senator Barbara Boxer of California. He did so on August 23, but remains rebellious and suggests he is being pushed out by the “lynching mentality.”
He later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of felony detaining a woman and two misdemeanor charges of kissing a woman against her will and touching another woman’s butt club. The plea agreement was reached by Kamala Harris, who indicted the case as state attorney general.
“The act was not just criminals, but also extreme power abuse,” said Harris, who later became the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate facing Donald J. Trump. “No one is beyond the law.”
