NY GOP House hopeful: No nude photos

The Staten Island district attorney running to replace Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) is promising not to follow in the footsteps of former New York House members whose political careers were destroyed by Internet sex scandals.

“I think people go down there, they get Washington-ized; they forget that three-quarters of a million people sent them down there to represent them. That’s why they call it the House of Representatives: you are a representative of the people in your community, and I will make you proud,” Daniel Donovan (R) told the Brooklyn South Conservative Club, according to the New York Observer. 

“I will never embarrass you,” he continued. “I’ve run four times. I’ve been vetted up and down; there’s nothing in my background that’s going to embarrass you. And I am too old to know how to put a naked photograph of myself on the Internet.”

New York House members from both parties have been plagued by scandal in recent years.

Former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) famously resigned from Congress in 2011, after sexually explicit photos of the married congressman sent to several women became public.

Also in 2011, then-Rep. Chris Lee (R-N.Y.) resigned from Congress, after Gawker posted a shirtless picture of the married congressman soliciting a romantic encounter online.

And prior to that, former Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct with members of his staff.

Donovan is running in a special election to replace Grimm, who won reelection in 2014 by double digits, despite a 20-count indictment hanging over his head. Grimm resigned before the new Congress began, after he pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion.

The Republican is heavily favored to defeat Democrat Vincent Gentile, a city councilman, in the May 5 special election.