Ken Calvert R-Riverside , who barely made it to Congress two years ago. The reason: After months of denying it, Calvert, 40, has admitted having sex in his car one night last November with a woman who police say is a known prostitute. Initially, Calvert--a member of a prominent Riverside County family--said he was doing nothing wrong with the woman when police saw them together on a Corona street. Corona police said simply that the congressman was spotted sitting in his car with a female, that there was no criminal activity and that after a few words the congressman drove off.
But the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper went to court to press Corona for release of confidential police reports that had been prepared by officers who were sensitive to the fact that they had a street-level encounter with their local congressman. The city was ordered to release the report, which indicated that there had been evidence of a sex act under way, and an embarrassed Calvert responded with a prepared statement.
He said he did not pay for the sex. Corona Police Capt. Dalzell said Calvert did not try to exert influence to avoid arrest. His opponent in the primary, conservative Joe Khoury, 47, a professor of finance at UC Riverside, ran second behind Calvert in the primary two years ago but thinks he can prevail this time.
It plays differently here than it would in, say, Los Angeles. If Calvert wins the primary, his Democratic challenger is expected to be Mark Takano, a high school history and English teacher and trustee of the Riverside Community College District. Takano scolded Calvert for not coming clean earlier about the Corona incident. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond.
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