A sheriff seeking the Republican nomination for an Arizona congressional seat was forced to confirm he is gay Saturday. He also resigned from presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's Arizona committee amid allegations of misconduct made by a man with whom he previously had a relationship.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu denied claims he tried to threaten the man, a Mexican immigrant and a former campaign volunteer, with deportation if their past relationship was made public.
The man's allegations were first published Friday in The New Times, a Phoenix alternative weekly magazine.
Babeu, a first-term sheriff who has risen to national prominence with his strong opposition to illegal immigration and smuggling, said the accusations were an attempt to hurt his political career.
He vowed to continue his campaign in Arizona's rural western 4th Congressional District seat, but he said he had called Romney's staff to say he would step down from his post as state campaign co-chairman.
"This whole rumor, this whole of idea of who I am in my private life has been shopped around," Babeu told reporters during a news conference Saturday in front of the sheriff's office.
"This was a way, the hook, of how this could be brought out, and to malign and attack a sheriff who does stand for conservative principals, who does enforce the law," he said.
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