Comments (1) Best Political Coup - 2009

Mike Duvall's Takedown of Mike Duvall

Until sources provided the Weekly with evidence of now-former Assemblyman Mike Duvall's hypocrisy, the self-styled "traditional values" state Assembly Republican sat as vice chairman of the powerful Utilities and Commerce committee. Along with our reporting partner, KCAL-TV in Los Angeles, we disclosed a sensational tape that recorded Duvall graphically bragging during a committee meeting that he was having a sexual affair with a female lobbyist from Sempra Energy, the giant California utility, as well as another woman. Unaware that his committee microphone in the capitol building was live, he was captured recounting, among other things, his lobbying paramour as saying, "'I am going up and down the stairs, and you're dripping out of me! So messy!'" At first, he claimed his relationships were private matters. Then Assembly Speaker Karen Bass stripped him of his committee assignments, and the Republicans booted him from their leadership. Just 13 hours after our revelations, the former mayor of Yorba Linda resigned his seat. Though the 54-year-old politician announced that his resignation wasn't an admission of guilt, that he fabricated his sex tales, it was too late. It was a political execution, and in this case, the sleazy pol decapitated himself.