Democrats forgave Rep. Gerry Studds for preying on teen boys, hailed as gay rights pioneer

If Alabama voters choose Republican Roy Moore for the U.S. Senate in Tuesday’s special election, it won’t be the first time in the modern era that voters have sent to Congress a man dogged by a teen sex scandal.

Massachusetts voters stood by Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds even after he was censured by the House in 1983 for his sexual relationship at age 36 with a 17-year-old male congressional page, as well as making sexual advances toward two other teenage pages.

Far from dooming the Democratic Party, the episode barely registered at the ballot box. Democrats kept their House majority and gained Senate seats in 1984, while Studds was re-elected in his liberal Cape Cod district with 56 percent of the vote.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who heads the National Republican Senate Committee, has called for the Senate to expel Mr. Moore if he wins. He said Thursday that the NRSC will never endorse the Republican candidate.

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