San Diego mayor leaving today

SAN DIEGO – It’s the last day former 10-term congressman Bob Filner can call himself mayor of San Diego, less than nine months into a four-year term.

He leaves office in disgrace amid sexual harassment allegations and many unanswered questions, including how someone who acknowledged mistreating women for many years could have survived for so long in politics.

Filner told the City Council last week he was the innocent victim of a “lynch mob.”

Thaddeus Hoffmeister, Filner’s legislative director from 2004 to 2007, said that while a congressman, Filner had a brusque manner and lacked personal skills, but he never saw or heard him behave inappropriately toward women.

Bronwyn Ingram, who ended her engagement to the twice-divorced mayor just before the scandal erupted, has said Filner turned more aggressive, sending sexually explicit text messages to other women and asking them on dates in her presence.