Rep. Rohrabacher a filthy tenant, ex-landlord says

When Orange County congressman Dana Rohrabacher and his family moved out of their rented Costa Mesa home last year, they reportedly left behind "a shockingly horrific pigsty, a dump worse than a college fraternity house of unhygienic slobs unfamiliar with the most basic tools of cleaning....Massive black stains and muck covered the carpet throughout the home. Sticky grime encased damaged, rusted appliances....Every toilet seat in the house was broken. The ceilings showed smoke damage. Light switches had been cracked. Clumps of hair and remnants of what may have been balloons or some other rubbery material clogged sinks." This all according to a story in the OC Weekly which quotes the $1 million home's owner, who is locked in a legal battle over the damage with Rohrabacher. The congressman and his lawyer do not respond in the story.

And, no joke, white maggots squirmed underneath a kitchen stove that may not have ever been cleaned during Rohrabacher's $3,350-per-month occupancy, which was secured, in part, with character references from fellow OC congressmen Ed Royce, John Campbell and Ken Calvert.

Paid invoices show the widespread damage totaled more than $25,800, according to records reviewed by the Weekly. Polyniak deducted the $6,700 security deposit and sent the congressman a bill for the remainder. But Rohrabacher—66 years old and known even in friendly Republican circles for miserly inclinations even though his family's known income easily tops $250,000 annually before counting lucrative congressional benefits—steadfastly ignored seven of his ex-landlord's polite communications.

In August, a year after he, his wife and their triplets left the disaster and stiffed Polyniak out of a week of due rent, the congressman hired a lawyer, Devon R. Lucas, to file a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court.

The story also suggests that Rohrabacher's lawyer has tried to intimidate the landlord. Says his girlfriend: "When Rohrabacher moved in, we thought, 'Wow, a congressman. This is great. What could go wrong?'"

Before his election to Congress, Rohrabacher was a political aide and journalist in Los Angeles.