[Moxley Confidential] Assemblyman Michael Duvall Resigns In Wake of Sex and Ethics Scandal

Comments (0) By R. SCOTT MOXLEY Wednesday, Sep 9 2009

...continued from page 1

Barsuglia did not respond to an interview request made Sept. 8 at Sempra’s offices, located across the street from the capitol.

Things between Duvall and Barsuglia may soon cool. At that fateful July 8 committee hearing, Duvall wasn’t content to just share one adulterous tale. He referenced a second, simultaneous affair with another woman. He seemed amused that he was cheating on both his wife and a mistress.

From Michael D. Duvall's website, before he resigned

More About

“Oh, yeah, Sher, Shar, Shar,” Duvall said. “Oh, she is hot! I talked to her yesterday. She goes, ‘So are we finished?’ I go, ‘No, we’re not finished.’ I go, ‘You know about the other one [Barsuglia], but she doesn’t know about you!’”

The assemblyman punctuated his observation with laughter.

During his political career, Duvall unabashedly espoused conservative principles and is known as a partisan Republican with a knack for theatrics: He has noisily driven his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to functions. In 2008, Duvall blasted efforts to legalize gay marriage. Legislatively, he proposed bills to aid the insurance industry and government contractors feeding off the state’s massive transportation kitty. He offered a law to alter the First Amendment rights of Americans by banning anti-war activists from putting the names of fallen soldiers on T-shirts with messages such as “Bush lied” on the front and “They died” on the back.

Such thinking impressed certain constituencies. Earlier this year, the man who never graduated from high school received “100 percent” approval scores by the California Republican Assembly, the state’s leading conservative outfit, and the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI), a fierce guardian of traditional family values.

“Assemblyman Duvall has been a consistent trooper for the conservative cause,” CRI president Karen England announced in March. “For the last two years, he has voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California. We are grateful for his support of California families.”

Acknowledging the CRI award, Duvall observed in a press release that as long as he was in office, he would work to protect “California families” from “constant assault in Sacramento.”

rscottmoxley@ocweekly.com

Check our Navel Gazing blog for further developments.