Amid some calls for his resignation, he has said he will respect the verdict of his constituents this fall. Residents interviewed here by The Associated Press expressed disappointment, but not surprise.
Noting the histories of President Bill Clinton and former Louisiana governor and current congressional candidate Edwin Edwards and sitting Sen. David Vitter, voters say they're accustomed to tawdry politician scandals. Many are as eager to speculate how a local newspaper got video of McAllister kissing Melissa Peacock as they are to opine on the dalliance itself. And they're sure there's more than enough hypocrisy and political intrigue to go around.
McAllister's "main thing now is to get straight with his family," said Jackie Coleman, a retired law enforcement officer from Olla, south of Monroe. "Then," Coleman said, "this should be over."
There's been little subtlety in the response from Republican powers.
Gov. Bobby Jindal called for his resignation; so did the state Republican chairman, who said McAllister had become an "embarrassment." House Speaker John Boehner said the freshman congressman has "decisions that he has to make." The closest thing to support McAllister has found among his colleagues are statements of concern for his wife and five children.
Many voters seem more inclined to forgiveness in this conservative district that comprises northeast Louisiana.
Wearing a T-shirt from her Baptist church in the community of Start, Pamela Nolan made it clear she abhors marital infidelity of any kind. But, the hospital pharmacist added, "what laws has he broken? What trust has he violated, other than his wife's? ... The next election should be the determinant of how we feel about it."
McAllister hasn't appeared publicly since the weekly Ouachita Citizen posted online a grainy security tape showing McAllister and Peacock kissing in the congressman's district headquarters. His Washington-based spokesman said that Peacock has since resigned voluntarily but that her former boss has no plans to follow suit.
A wealthy businessman without prior political experience, McAllister won a special election last fall to succeed Rodney Alexander, who resigned to take a spot in Jindal's Cabinet. McAllister spent his own money and got a boost from endorsements by his most famous constituents, the bearded Robertson men of the cable television hit "Duck Dynasty." He scored a runoff spot against Neil Riser, a state senator and Jindal ally with backing from GOP brokers.
While McAllister sought support from social conservatives - the Robertsons are outspoken Christians and McAllister appeared in ads with his family, promising to "defend our Christian way of life" - he defied Republican orthodoxy by calling for Medicaid expansion under President Barack Obama's health care law. That won him the endorsement and runoff campaign muscle of Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo, a Democrat who finished third in the initial open primary. McAllister routed Riser on Election Day.
Yet coming into office an outsider, McAllister turned to the establishment that he'd beaten. He took over the lease for Alexander's Monroe office, where the security tape was taken, and he retained top leaders from Alexander's staff. One of those aides, McAllister's district director, Leah Gordon, has figured prominently in speculation about how the tapes were leaked to the newspaper.
Voters say they're wise to all of those variables.
Terry Parker, who owns a painting company in Start, said he voted for McAllister because of his emphasis on biblical morals. "He did this to himself," Parker said. "But it's dirty, dirty politics being done to him, too."
The congressman's office floated the idea of an FBI investigation into the leaked tape, but then backed off. Bill Land, an architect who owns and shares the building with McAllister's office, said just two people had access to digital security archives: one of his staff members and Gordon, McAllister's district director.
Land's employee, Lance Hilton, told the AP that he's never accessed old footage. But he said Gordon reviewed tape on multiple occasions, including when she served as Alexander's district director. Hilton said she usually told him she suspected theft by an employee.
Gordon declined an interview through another McAllister aide.
For his part, Land said he supported Riser last year but now considers McAllister "a friend," enough so that he contributed the maximum $2,600 toward his re-election.
Mayo offered similar sentiments and a cautionary tale to any politician campaigning on personal uprightness: "It's a dangerous platform to run on for anyone. We all live in glass houses of some variety." Indeed, Heath Peacock, the husband of the woman in the video, told CNN that McAllister is "about the most nonreligious person I know" and "broke out the religious card" only for votes.
In a matter of days, Republican Vance McAllister has gone from being the unlikely congressman to the "kissing congressman," a faith-and-family politician caught on video embracing and repeatedly kissing an aide married to one of his friends.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2014/4/273687