Joe Stagni must be wishing his affair had been uncovered before the Anthony Weiner scandal. The New Orleans-area city councilman is in the news across the US and even internationally for texting a photograph of himself in his underwear to a colleague in 2009. The woman forwarded the image to another city worker and it ended up on city servers, according to records released this week, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
Stagni, a married Republican with two children, has admitted sending the picture and having an "inappropriate but consensual" relationship which involved the exchange of "improper electronic communications." He has apologized. Unlike in the Weiner case, there have been few calls for his resignation. "My actions and bad judgment had nothing to do with my duties and responsibilities as a public official," Stagni said in a statement. "They were private acts, but I take full responsibility for my irresponsible behavior." (More Weinergate stories.)