Wesson to help Huizar kick off his reelection campaign

City Council President Herb Wesson is billed as the "special guest" at a fundraiser on Tuesday kick off Councilman Jose Huizar's reelection campaign. Awkward timing, eh? Huizar was just named last week in a lawsuit by a former top deputy, Francine Godoy, who alleged that he retaliated against her and made her job untenable when she refused his blatant sexual demands. She included some rich detail, including Huizar requesting sex by cellphone while parked in his car outside her home. Huizar's defense made the story a lot more interesting: he said that he was having sex with his young $100,000-a-year deputy consensually and that there was no harassment — and of course he was publicly sorry for the pain it caused his wife et cetera.

Wesson's role as the featured draw for Huizar's $700 per person funder is interesting in a couple of ways. If he shows, I guess we have to read it that he's behind Huizar all the way. (And if he doesn't show? Sure suggests Huizar's political rise is at least stalled.) Remember when the allegations of sexual harassment first surfaced in a state job claim against Huizar last summer? Wesson took it upon himself at the time to quietly form a Special Committee on Investigative Oversight -- two law professors, two retired judges and an arbitator member of the American Arbitration -- to look into some unspecified accusation of misconduct by an unidentified council member. That secretive group has apparently met at least once.

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