VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.-
Democratic congressional candidate Phil Kellam said Friday he regrets his actions in an incident that led to him pleading guilty to assaulting a woman 28 years ago, when he was a 21-year-old college student in North Carolina.
Kellam, who is challenging first-term Republican Rep. Thelma Drake, said he never touched the woman but lost his temper after almost getting into a traffic accident with her.
“I didn’t conduct myself as a gentleman, and I regret that,” Kellam told reporters while briefly taking questions after attending a fundraiser. He said he’s conducted his life since in a way that “shows that I am a person that is reliable, honest and honors personal responsibility.”
Kellam didn’t give details about the case, which came to light Thursday on a local conservative Web blog, BearingDrift.com. Kellam questioned why “somebody goes and dredges up something that is a non-issue from 28 years ago.”
Kellam campaign spokesman Drew Lankford accused the Drake campaign of being involved in spreading word of the case. He said Drake should fire her campaign manager, Tim Murtaugh, who acknowledged traveling to North Carolina to look into the case but said he did not give the information to the blog.
Murtaugh responded that “Phil Kellam has no room to talk, since he has spent $13,000 looking into Thelma Drake’s background.”
Lankford said the campaign has researched voting records but not the personal record of Drake, who represents the Republican-leaning 2nd District, which includes Virginia Beach, the Eastern Shore and parts of Norfolk and Hampton.
Lankford said Kellam was driving with his then-girlfriend when a woman who had been tailgating him cut in front of him to go to a convenience store. Kellam, then a student at Elon University, slammed on his brakes, and his girlfriend hit her head on the windshield and her shoulder on the dashboard, Lankford said.
Angered, Kellam walked over to the woman’s car, smacked the hood and yelled at the woman to watch where she was going, Lankford said.
He said Kellam pleaded guilty to simple assault, a misdemeanor, at the advice of his lawyer and paid court costs but no fine.
Murtaugh said he went to North Carolina to check out the case after someone anonymously sent the Drake campaign a court document.
Murtaugh said Kellam, the Virginia Beach commissioner of the revenue, should have told voters about this himself a long time ago.
A profile on the blog identifies the blogger as Jim Hoeft of Chesapeake, who has been involved in Republican politics for nearly a decade. Hoeft did not return a telephone call and an e-mail request for comment.
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