Roy Moore Accuser Switches Parties, Runs for Florida State House

A woman who says she dated Roy Moore when she was a teenager is running for the Florida House of Representatives.

Deborah Gibson, one of several women who said they had relationships with the failed U.S. Senate candidate when they were in his teens and he was in his 30s, is running as a Democrat in Florida's 89th District, located on the state's south Atlantic coast, reports AL.com, a website for several Alabama newspapers.

"Coming off the sidelines for the first time politically seems a natural response to realizing that too many of us, particularly women, have felt that some special mysterious qualification was needed to participate in our democratic process as a candidate," Gibson, a resident of Palm Beach County, said in a statement on CrowdPac, a fundraising website.

Unlike some women who said they were involved with Moore as teenagers, Gibson did not allege any inappropriate or nonconsensual conduct on his part, AL.com reports. She said their physical contact consisted only of consensual kissing. However, some women said Moore touched them in a sexual manner without their consent. One of them, Leigh Corfman, said Moore undressed her and groped her when she was only 14. Another, Beverly Young-Nelson, said he sexually assaulted her when she was 16.

The allegations helped defeat Moore, a Republican, in his campaign for a U.S. Senate seat from Alabama. Moore, the notoriously homophobic former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, lost to Democrat Doug Jones in a special election in December. Moore has denied all the allegations, leading Corfman to file a defamation suit against him for calling her a liar.

Gibson, in announcing her candidacy, said she was once a Republican but has switched parties. "The past 5 months have crystallized what's been coming to me for a decade more gradually -- the Republican Party is no longer the right fit for me; I am proudly running as a Democrat," she wrote on CrowdPac. The 89th District seat is currently held by a Republican, Bill Hager.

In other news related to Moore, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway has been accused of violating federal law by campaigning for him. In television interviews last year, she "impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates in the Alabama special election," Henry Kerner of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said in a report sent to Donald Trump, according to NPR. (The Office of Special Counsel is an independent federal agency, unrelated to the investigation being conducted by Robert Mueller, who also holds the title of special counsel, into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.)

Kerner found that Conway had violated the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits federal employees from using their positions for partisan purposes; they can express partisan views as private citizens, but not in their official capacity. Conway commented on the Moore-Jones race in interviews on Fox News and CNN, in which she appeared as a White House official. In the former, for instance, she said, "Doug Jones in Alabama, folks, don't be fooled. He will be a vote against tax cuts. He is weak on crime. Weak on borders. He's strong on raising your taxes. He is terrible for property owners."

Kerner referred the matter to Trump for "appropriate disciplinary action," NPR reports. "Because Conway is a high-ranking presidential appointee, it's up to Trump to decide what action is appropriate," the NPR story notes.

White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley issued a statement defending Conway. "She simply expressed the President's obvious position that he have people in the House and Senate who support his agenda," he said. "In fact, Kellyanne's statements actually show her intention and desire to comply with the Hatch Act -- as she twice declined to respond to the host's specific invitation to encourage Alabamans to vote for the Republican."