Mary Jo Pitzl reported recently on allegations about recently appointed Arizona State Representative Jevin Hodge. The question is now posed: what are Democrats going to do about it?
The Democratic Caucus thus far has been prudently (overly?) cautious about the next steps.
I think Mr. Hodge owes his party, and the people of his district, his resignation.
I disagree with any who might think that we Democrats should power through such allegations simply because it has often worked for those in the GOP, or even for our own in the past. We must have a single standard for personal behavior by our leaders: sexual assault is, and ought to be, absolutely disqualifying for leadership in any public capacity, but especially within a Democratic Party that aspires to champion the legal and cultural equality of women, who are overwhelmingly the victims in sexual assaults.
We frequently demand the disqualification of leaders for similar allegations on the other side of the aisle, so if we hold our own to any lesser standard we cede the moral high ground and can rightly be dismissed as hypocrites. There is no shortage of potential brilliant leaders and we should not hesitate to discard those who have fallen short of this very reasonable and basic requirement. We ask only that leaders respect others enough to not try to force sexual activity upon others – it’s a matter of simply human dignity, and it is certainly a reasonable minimum level of interpersonal behavior to ask of people aspiring to have legal and social power over others.
By enforcing such a requirement we stand behind our core values and reinforce a culture of respect for the rights of others – such a standard is merely a bare minimum for leadership in a democratic society. Nor does it matter what age one was when a transgression occurred. We must teach our future leaders – especially, but not exclusively, the male ones – that youth is not an excuse, and there will be consequences for reprehensible sexual behavior.
I have admired Mr. Hodge as a person and leader (though this allegation throws some serious doubt upon my prior judgment), and supported his election in his Congressional race, but he should resign immediately. And the leaders and electeds of the Democratic Party in Arizona should also call for his immediate resignation. As a State Committee Member, I call upon all Democratic leaders to step up and lead by example in this matter.
We ought, at the very least, to insist that only voters can decide such matters despositively. If Mr. Hodge wants to serve the public in the future, he should run for office and face the electorate with any justifications or excuses for his past alleged behavior, and let the voters decide if he’s worthy of their trust. The Democratic Party should certainly not try to ignore this matter by remaining silent and hoping it goes away. We Democratic Party members and electeds alone – not the voters of his district – put Jevin in this position of public trust, and now it is up to us to rectify the situation.
Resign, Jevin.
He resigned. What more can he do?
Good to hear. I wasn’t aware of his resignation until after I posted.