An admission that he had an affair with a patient back in 2000 and encouraged her to have an abortion may have dealt a deathblow to the campaign of Tennessee Tea Party Republican Congressman Scott DesJarlais.
Based on the revelations, the House Majority PAC which backs Democrats announced Friday that it was spending $100,000 on television ads criticizing DesJarlais. One of the ads has the tagline, "Scott DesJarlais: He shouldn't be representing us."
Voters have also said 2-to-1 that they are now less likely to back the anti-abortion DesJarlais, according to a poll taken by his rival, Democratic State Senator Eric Stewart.
Actress/activist Ashley Judd, who represented Tennessee as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention in early September, has also commented unflatteringly about him, as reported by The Huffington Post.
“For as far back as I remember, politicians have gotten a bad reputation for saying one thing and doing another. And this past week Congressman Scott DesJarlais proved why," Judd said by e-mail.
DesJarlais, a doctor doesn’t deny any of the allegations but claims the woman was never pregnant, that he was only trying to get her to admit that, and there was never an abortion. He is also facing an ethics complaint from the Board of Tennessee Medical Examiners, the Huffington Post reported.
Judd is currently shooting a film in Nashville, “The Identical,” also starring Ray Liotta, and Seth Green.
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