California Assemblyman Phil Ting publicly admitted to a relationship outside of his marriage and apologized after being accused of having an affair by an alleged mistress. 

A woman named Carmel Foster spoke to Communities Digital News, saying she met Ting on a dating website and carried a relationship with him for several years, starting in 2016. 

When they first met, Ting allegedly used a photo of fellow Assemblyman Phillip Chen. Ting allegedly did not reveal his true identity for months, and the reason she found out his actual occupation came serendipitously as she saw him speaking on TV in support of Measure RR, which invested $3.5 billion to rebuild the BART district in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Part of the allegations she made in the article were that Ting’s affair affected his position as chairman of the California Assembly Budget Committee. Foster later told Politico that she felt Ting used her and her life story in his backing of AB 5 and AB 2314.

Ting publicly admitted to having a marital affair, and while did not mention Foster by name, he did deny that that his extramarital relationship affected his position on the committee, tweeting out:

 “To My Family, Constituents and Colleagues:

I am writing to offer each and every one of you a direct apology that my personal behavior has hurt you. Some of you might have seen a report in a right-wing online site alleging that my advocacy for workers was motivated by a relationship outside of my marriage. The allegation that my bills or votes were ever driven by any personal consideration is false. I have fought for the rights of working people my entire adult life. But I was not faithful to my marriage vows and for that, I am deeply, deeply sorry. I am making my apologies to my family directly and privately and ask, for their sake, the private space to do so. I violated my family’s trust and I must now work, to the extent that I am able, to heal the wounds I have caused them and all of you. I will continue to do my best to represent my district and to work with my colleagues to address the many challenges facing our state.”

After Ting’s admission, Senator Scott Wiener said within the Twitter thread, “Thank you for this sincere expression about a deeply painful situation. I wish you & your family the best in moving through this.” 

Ting continues to serve as chair of the Budget Committee.

L.A. Weekly reached out to both Assemblyman Chen and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. Chen had “no comment,” and as of press time the Weekly has received no reply from Rendon. Rendon did tweet out on June 20 that he accepted Ting’s public apology and that the allegations were “designed to undermine our efforts to bring greater economic justice to working people.”

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