Former President Barack Obama will hold a rally in Southern California Saturday for Democrats contesting seven key U.S. House districts — including Gil Cisneros, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by a fellow Democrat.
Cisneros is running against Young Kim — a female Republican who formerly served in the state legislature — for the 39th congressional district seat being vacated by retiring House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA).
Fox News reports:
Democratic activist and documentary filmmaker Melissa Fazli, who ran an unsuccessful primary ampaign for a state Assembly seat in California, accused Cisneros of propositioning to her during the California Democratic Party Convention in San Diego in February.
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Fazli accused Cisneros of seeming intoxicated during a conversation in an elevator about donations to her campaign, then asking her, “Should we go back to your room?”
Fazli claims she spoke with Cisneros over the phone again regarding the donations. Cisneros allegedly asked her, “What are you going to do for me?” in a suggestive manner.
Fazil posted her account of the encounter on social media in a two-page document:
Here’s my press release of the inappropriate behavior by Candidate Gil Cisneros for Congressional District 39. pic.twitter.com/xdDaMfY3hP
— Melissa Fazli (@MelissaFazli) May 3, 2018
She concluded: “I know there will be skeptics and people who will publicly flog me for coming forward, but I thought it was necessary to let people know what kind of man is Gil Cisneros, an unethical creepy man who is using inappropriate and bullying tactics to intimate others in order win a seat in Congress.”
Cisneros denies the allegations, citing an eyewitness — who happens to work for him, Fox News notes.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has called on Democrats to drop their support for Cisneros’s campaign. The NRCC had earlier highlighted another “bizarre” incident in which Cisneros had left a voice mail with a Democratic rival’s wife, threatening to “go negative.”
Some Democrats have sided with Fazli against Cisneros. One left-wing group, UltraViolet Action, called on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to “immediately withdraw its support of Cisneros and remove him from the party’s ‘Red to Blue’ program” in May.
The 39th district — which takes in portions of Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino counties — is one of seven currently represented by Republicans where Hillary Clinton won more votes in the 2016 presidential election than President Donald Trump.
Kim finished first among 17 candidates in the June 5 “jungle” primary, in which the top two vote-winners were guaranteed to advance, regardless of party. She won 21.2%, while Cisneros was second with 19.4% of the vote.
The total Republican share of the vote in the district was over 53%. The total Democratic share was less than 45%.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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