Rep. LaTourette’s wife says he wants a divorce after admitting to D.C. affair
‘I think Washington corrupts people’
By Albert Eisele
The wife of Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) said Monday that her husband of 21 years has asked her for a divorce after admitting he is involved with another woman, a Washington lobbyist.
“He called me on Friday and said he wants a divorce,” Susan LaTourette said in a telephone call from her workplace near the Cleveland suburb of Madison Village, where she, her husband and their four children live.
Susan LaTourette, who said she doesn’t know where her husband lives when Congress is in session, blamed the Washington culture for the breakup.
Patrick G. Ryan
Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) has asked for a divorce, his wife says.
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“I think Washington corrupts people,” she said. “He was a wonderful husband and father, the best I ever saw, until he went there. I told him I was trying to get him out of the dark side, all that power and greed and people kissing up to them all time. Now he’s one of them. All they care about is getting reelected. I hate them all.”
Steve LaTourette, a lawyer who was Lake County district attorney for six years before winning a seat in Congress in 1994, declined to comment when informed of his wife’s assertions.
“He’s not going to be making any statements today,” his communications director, Deborah Setliff, said Monday. “He said it’s a private matter and he has no comment.”
Steve LaTourette, 49, carried his district in 2000 with 69 percent of the vote while Al Gore won it narrowly over George W. Bush. LaTourette has a centrist voting record and has criticized the conservative “true believers” of the GOP class of 1994.
He is a member of the Financial Services, Government Reform, Transportation and Infrastructure and Standards of Official Conduct Committees. When first elected, he said he would stay for four terms at most.
He recently told GOP leaders that he would serve no more than 10 years, but he has announced that he will run for a sixth two-year term in 2004.
Susan LaTourette, 49, said the congressman “called [her] a few weeks ago to tell [her] he had a girlfriend and wanted a divorce.” She named the woman, whom she said was a lobbyist.
She said she urged her husband to seek marriage counseling and he indicated he would consider it. But on Friday, “he called me again and said, ‘I want a divorce. It’s over. Goodbye.’”
Asked why she was going public with her marital problems, she replied: “Because I want to get him back. It’s very painful but I just wanted people to be aware of this. Most women who get treated like this can’t do anything about it, but I can.”
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