His GOP colleagues in the state Senate don't seem publicly bothered, but since Sen. Roy Ashburn admitted Monday that he was gay he's catching flak from one of the state's most ardent arch-conservative activists.
Randy Thommason, president of SaveCalifornia.com, is calling on the Bakersfield senator to resign, declaring in a press release that: "His lying, cheating ways have boiled over and the public's trust has been shattered."
Sen. Dave Cox, the Fair Oaks Republican, said, "Everybody has an opinion. There's no one in our caucus asking for him to resign."
Thommason also lashed out at Ashburn for breaking the law -- the senator was arrested on a DUI last week and apologized -- and for voting in the Senate last year for a tax increase as part of a way to fill a budget deficit.
Ashburn was divorced in 2003, but Thommason criticized him anyway for straying from marriage and said that "no one is truly gay."
"He vowed to be faithful to his wife, then broke his vows when he chose homosexuality over his marriage," Thommason said. "Now that he has openly identified with the 'LGBT' lifestyle, Ashburn is dramatically out of step with his constituents, has lost their trust, and is in danger of voting against their conservative family values."
Ashburn said in a radio interview Monday he has consistently voted against gay-rights measures while in the Legislature for 14 years because he believes that's what constituents wanted.
Cox said he thinks sexual orientation is a "private matter," and that it's an open question how Ashburn will choose to vote in the future on measures that have to do with sexual orientation.
"He's very good at the legislative process," Cox said of Ashburn. Until Ashburn is termed out later this year, Cox said, "he can still be an effective legislator for his district."
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