SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Los Angeles state senator reprimanded four years ago for unwanted hugging and other touching is under renewed scrutiny for making light of his behavior at a July campaign event.
In a letter released Wednesday, dozens of prominent women in California politics accused outgoing state Sen. Bob Hertzberg of failing to take years of sexual harassment allegations seriously despite being investigated and sanctioned.
Hertzberg, a former Senate Majority Leader, is now in a tight race for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors with another Democrat, West Hollywood City Councilwoman Lindsey Horvath, in next month’s midterm election.
The letter accused Hertzberg, 67, of minimizing the seriousness of the hugging and touching despite a “pattern” of behavior that is “aggressive, sexual in nature, and most of all, intimidating” to his women colleagues in Sacramento and Los Angeles.
His behavior in the senate earned him the nickname “Huggy Bear Hertzberg.”
The women cite a 2017 Sacramento Bee story detailing allegations from former Fresno Republican Assemblywoman Linda Halderman that Hertzberg repeatedly embraced her in an uncomfortable manner without her consent.
His actions resulted in an investigation by the Senate Rules Committee, led by then-Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, now a Los Angeles City Council member at the center of a political firestorm over a recording of him and others making racist remarks.
The committee reprimanded Hertzberg but took no further action against him.
The letter points to comments made by Hertzberg at a July Democratic campaign forum held in Malibu as evidence the he has not learned from his misdeeds.
A video recording shows Hertzberg alluding to his misconduct accusations and claiming he began hugging people in political settings after spending time in communities of color in South and East Los Angeles. At one point, he uses the Spanish phrase for hug, “un abrazo,” and makes a hugging gesture.
“What I liked about politics was the human connection,” Hertzberg said. “Really important to me. You go to South LA — I got in trouble for hugging people. Those church ladies grab ahold of you, and they don’t let go. And I loved it, and I’m sorry. In East LA, ‘un abrazo.’ That’s what you do in the community.”
Dozens of women in top political roles signed the letter, including former Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick and Women’s March Action CEO Emiliana Guereca.
“You have never taken your sexual harassment seriously, nor recognized the lasting impact that it has had on women who have had the courage to come forward,” the letter reads in part. “You have even gone so far as to cast off your behavior as ‘hugging,’ when we know that it was always more.”
State Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, who has endorsed Hertzberg’s opponent, said the senator abruptly hugged her from behind on her first day as his colleague in 2014. Leyva told him at the time to never touch her again, and she said hearing about his July comments prompted her to sign the letter.
“I was just completely incensed by that,” she said. “Rather than just taking some responsibility and saying, ‘You know what, I used to hug women and they didn’t like it, and I finally figured out to stop doing it,’ he’s trying to justify his bad behavior.”
Hertzberg, Horvath react to letter
For his part, Hertzberg wrote a letter in March 2018 that said he “deeply apologize(s) to anyone who felt my hugs were unwelcome” and accused critics of sensationalizing claims made against him.
In a statement Wednesday, Hertzberg said: “I apologized then and I continue to take responsibility for anyone who felt uncomfortable by those hugs. As I said at the time, I understand that I cannot control how a hug is received, and that not everyone has the ability to speak up if they are uncomfortable. I learned from this experience and have taken those lessons to heart.”
Hertzberg, who took first place in the June primary for Los Angeles County Supervisor District 3 with 31.1% of the vote, is in a close race with Horvath, who won 27.7% of the vote.
Horvath issued a statement after the letter came out, saying that she stands with the women who have shared their stories.
“When women come forward and speak their truth, we must hear them and believe them,” Horvath said. “Powerful men, with influence and connections, have escaped accountability for too long; unwanted touching and harassment are completely inappropriate, intimidating and — quite frankly — inexcusable.”
Horvath said she has spoken with many women who have either experienced or witnessed Hertzberg engaging in unwanted behavior, including former Assemblywoman Halderman.
“I believe her,” Horvath said. “We must believe her. Bob Hertzberg engaged in sexually aggressive groping of the assemblywoman, and we need to seriously ask why the investigation into his behavior found little wrongdoing.”
Several of the signatories on the letter have endorsed Horvath in her race for supervisor.
Letter politically motivated?
Katie Hanzlik, former communications director for Hertzberg, said the timing of this letter — the week that California voters are due to receive their mail ballots and less than three weeks to Election Day — appeared politically motivated. The investigation was conducted four years ago, after which he was “reprimanded” and asked to improve his behavior.
“I haven’t seen any evidence of him having done anything since he was asked to correct his behavior that shows he hasn’t corrected his behavior, which is what they’re insinuating,” she said.
Marissa Roy, president of the California Women’s List PAC, which has endorsed Horvath, said the “pattern of harassment and abuse hasn’t been taken seriously.”
“We’re in a moment, hopefully a positive moment, where people are starting to hold leaders accountable for how they treat people, realizing that how they treat people really reflects their values,” Roy said. “So I think this is part of that larger moment.”
Roy declined to go into specifics about incidents that may have occurred since the investigation, saying she doesn’t want to share other people’s stories.
“I think we haven’t seen this behavior stop, is how I might phrase it,” she said.
Roy said allegations that the letter is politically motivated are “really insulting.”
“Sexual harassment is a real issue,” Roy said. “It’s one that impacts way too many women in politics still today, and dismissing it or minimizing it just honestly perpetuates it.”
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