‘It was like dirty dancing’: Colleagues say Sen. Bob Hertzberg hugged them inappropriately

Three current and former female lawmakers say Sen. Bob Hertzberg inappropriately hugged and touched them, including an incident that one woman says crossed the line into what she considered assault.

Hertzberg, a Los Angeles Democrat who served as Assembly speaker from 2000 to 2002 and was elected to the Senate in 2014 after a break from the Legislature, has long had a reputation for being physically affectionate. A pin he distributed at the 2000 California Democratic convention read, “I was hugged by Assemblymember Bob Hertzberg.” In political circles, he has the nickname “Huggy Bear.”

But the three women The Bee spoke to said the embraces were too long and overly intimate for their comfort. Two of them said they expressed their concerns to Hertzberg and he hugged them again anyway.

Former Assemblyman Linda Halderman, a Republican from Fresno who served one term from 2010 to 2012, shared her experience on the record because she felt she had “nothing to lose now except my privacy.” The other two women, both sitting lawmakers, asked not to be named because they did not want the issue to interfere with their legislative work or feared retaliation.

“All of my life I have greeted my friends and colleagues with a hug,” Hertzberg said in a statement. “My intentions have only been to foster a warm, human connection. I apologize to anyone who may have ever felt uncomfortable, and I will change how I greet people moving forward.”

He did not deny the allegations. Read more >>>