Colleagues Ask Lawmaker to Quit

It seemed like a minor misdeed at the time, at least in the eyes of many San Joaquin Valley voters reeling from the affairs of then-Rep. Gary A. Condit (D-Ceres).

Two years ago, in the buildup to a race for state Assembly, Republican candidate Steve Samuelian admitted to a rather embarrassing fall from grace. He acknowledged having been cited by police in 1998 -- just months into his marriage -- for soliciting sex on Parkway Drive, a row of cheap motels that passes for a red light district in Fresno.

For voters numbed by the sordid mess of Condit’s double life, Samuelian’s sin seemed rather old-fashioned. He told them he was a new man, posed for warm photographs with his apparently forgiving wife and went on to win a seat in the California Legislature.

But it seems, police say, that Samuelian never forgot about his constituents on Parkway Drive.

Two weeks ago, late on a Saturday night, police reportedly caught him cruising the same area of town. Officers said he told them he was lost. He said he was trying to deliver fliers to the Fresno County Farm Bureau and somehow got turned around. The cops thought it sounded odd, since the farm bureau is a regular stop for politicians here. It is on the far side of California 99 -- a good distance from where the hookers were standing as Samuelian drove back and forth.

This time, Samuelian’s Republican brethren, including Rep. George P. Radanovich (R-Mariposa), appear not to be so forgiving. They say the first-term legislator’s personal promise to them to mend his ways has turned out to be a lie. They are calling on him to resign his 29th District seat.

“Assemblyman Samuelian’s recent indiscretion is reprehensible and establishes a pattern of behavior that is unbecoming of an elected official,” read a joint statement by five prominent valley Republicans. “While unfortunate, we feel it incumbent upon us to call for Assemblyman Samuelian’s resignation from the California State Assembly.”

Samuelian, who campaigned as a “conservative’s conservative,” is keeping mum. His staff and core supporters say it would be premature for him to comment before the police investigation is finished.

Samuelian “has great respect for congressman Radanovich and the other Republican leaders mentioned in the statement,” his press spokesman said in a statement. “Unfortunately, they’ve acted prematurely.”

Once again, the 33-year-old Samuelian finds himself as fodder for the tongue-in-cheek. Fresno Bee columnist Bill McEwen, for one, praised the assemblyman for having the courage to tell police he was lost.

“It’s not every day, not even every century, a red-blooded American male -- especially one behind the wheel of an honest-to-goodness, testosterone-breathing SUV -- admits he doesn’t have a clue where he is,” McEwen wrote.

“Talk about courage, Samuelian has it in spades. Never in the annals of valley politics has a conservative Republican -- or even a liberal Democrat -- representing the food basket of America gotten lost en route to the Farm Bureau, much less admitted it in public.”

At least one Republican bigwig, state chairman of the Republican Party Shawn Steel, has come to Samuelian’s defense, cautioning constituents to “give him the benefit of doubt.” Another supporter, Saundra Duffy-Hawkins, the Senate district director for the California Republican Assembly, called the treatment of Samuelian by the media un-American.

Samuelian was working as a district director for Rep. Radanovich in September 1998 when he visited Parkway Drive around midnight and stopped to make contact with an undercover officer posing as a prostitute. According to the police report, he solicited oral sex and then remarked that prostitutes he had dealt with in the past had been willing to prove that they weren’t cops. “How do I know you’re not a cop? Prove it to me,” the report quotes him as saying.

The undercover officer declined, and Samuelian refused to go in a motel room. He was later cited for loitering for the purpose of soliciting an act of prostitution, a misdemeanor punishable by as much as six months in jail or a $500 fine. Samuelian paid the fine and attended a one-day program.

In the fall of 2001, as rumors began to circulate in the early phase of the Assembly race, Samuelian decided to make the incident public. “I was tempted -- no question,” he explained to the Fresno Bee. “I made a mistake and exhibited very poor judgment. But in retrospect, I’m gratified that I came to my senses and drove away without going through with it.”

His supporters, including powerful developer Ed Kashian and GOP activist Michael Der Manouel Jr., stuck by him and he ended up winning the seat with nearly 61% of the vote.

In his short time in Sacramento, the small, dark-haired assemblyman with the gap-toothed smile has built a reputation for answering even the smallest needs of his constituents. He seemed on his way to putting the past to rest.

Then on Feb. 1, police reportedly saw his SUV driving up and down Parkway Drive at 9:50 p.m. After he told officers he had gotten lost on his way to the farm bureau office, they pointed him in the right direction without issuing a citation.

A farm bureau executive said Samuelian had visited the office several times before. The executive said the bureau was closed that day and that Samuelian had yet to deliver any fliers.

After police discovered Samuelian’s statements from his 1998 citation -- statements that contradicted some of what he told them two weeks ago -- they wrote a follow-up report. It recommends that Samuelian be cited again on a loitering complaint, even though he never actually stopped to talk to any of the women lining the boulevard. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said the report would be forwarded this week to the city attorney’s office for action.