Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson’ chief of staff, who was placed on administrative leave last month over an email he wrote criticizing a gay staff member, is back on the job, The Dallas Morning News reports today.
Rep. Johnson, D-Dallas, placed her chief of staff, Murat Gokcigdem, on leave after the Washington Blade, an LGBT newspaper in the capital, obtained a copy of an email Gokcigdem wrote about Christopher Crowe in 2010. Crowe died last year from a staph infection, but at the time he was one of four finalists to become special assistant to the undersecretary of budget and tax in the Treasury Department.
Crowe, who worked in Johnson’s office and headed the LGBT Congressional Staff Association, sought a letter of recommendation from Gokcigdem for the Treasury Department post. In response to Crowe’s request, Gokcigdem drafted an email to Johnson that he mistakenly sent to Crowe, according to the Blade. Gokcigdem’s email said Crowe was underqualified for the Treasury Department and suggested he was only being considered by the White House post because he was gay.
“It is my personal belief that he has contacts there,” Gokcigdem wrote. “And they, as a group watching and supporting each other if you know what I mean.”
The Morning News reports that Johnson’s office won’t say for how long Gokcigdem was suspended, whether he was paid during that time, or what the findings of the investigation were. The newspaper suggests that the leak of Gokcigdem’s email to the Blade was designed to stir opposition to Johnson prior to the Democratic Primary, and Gokcigdem’s suspension was her effort to tamp down the issue until after the election. Johnson won a landslide victory over two challengers, Taj Clayton and Barbara Mallory Caraway.
The story quotes the deputy executive director of Log Cabin Republicans of Dallas, who suggests that Johnson’s office is sweeping the matter under the rug.
“Investigations tend to provide cover for a lot of facts that one doesn’t want to talk to,” Christian Berle told The Morning News. “It is unfortunately emblematic of a situation many staffers on the Hill are dealing with. … They’re not able to show up at work as themselves.”
Gokcigdem’s suspension led indirectly to the revelation that Rep. Johnson was running misleading advertisements in Dallas Voice, saying she had a perfect record on LGBT issues for 20 years when in fact she voted in favor of the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.
Johnson’s office declined repeated requests for an interview with the Voice, the only LGBT newspaper in her district, to discuss the ads and explain why she voted for DOMA but is now a sponsor of the bill to repeal it.
Just to correct a few errors in your article…..
The Dallas Voice office is now in Congressman Session’s district (and we all know what a staunch champion go Gay rights he is) not Congresswoman Johnson’s.
Another point is that Congresswoman Johnson has had a 100% score from HRC on LGBT issues for 18 of her 20 years and has a 98.9% lifetime score from HRC. (a pretty great record by any standard).
And the Dallas Voice is not the ‘only gay newspaper’ there is also EDGE, DFW Proud, and several others to choose from.
Actually the new lines don’t take effect until the next election. After Jan. 1, Dallas Voice will be in Sessions’ district. Now, the office is in Johnson’s. And Dallas Voice is not the only LGBT newspaper, but the only one based in her district. Edge is based in Boston and DFWProud is in Kansas City.
@Phillip: The Edge is not a newspaper. I don’t know about DFW Proud. Furthermore, I said “in her district,” not “based in her district.” Obviously we are the only serious LGBT newspaper SERVING her district, whether our offices are physically in her district or not. Also, it’s not true that she’s had a perfect score for 18 of her 20 years. The HRC scorecard comes out only once every two years, and she’s fallen short of a perfect score on two occasions (covering four years), once for DOMA and once for AIDS funding. Therefore, I believe her average is actually lower than what you’ve stated. But obviously that’s not your point. You would undoubtedly support EBJ and defend her with no questions asked and NO MATTER WHAT, and that’s kind of my point.
I live in Eddie Bernice Johnson’s district… now and after the lines change. I read the Dallas Voice. It’s the hometown LGBT paper of the congresswoman, her constituents read it, it’s distributed in her district and she places ads in it. It’s a newspaper and in her district. 🙂