Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) has a strong pro-homosexual voting record, and voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion, among other anti-life votes.

By Laurie Higgins

With all the recent bad press about Mark Kirk’s prevaricating about his military record and his weaselly responses when confronted by the media about his prevarications, multiple people have made the argument that as bad as he is, it’s better to have a Republican elected than a Democrat. In the past I shared that view.  I have never voted for a third-party candidate or refused to vote—until now.  I have always been firmly committed to voting for the Republican candidate even if I had to hold my nose while voting—until now. Is there a limit to how bad a Republican candidate can get before Republicans will stand on principle? I’m beginning to think that Republicans have a limitless capacity for capitulation.

This is my thinking:

I think that it will be easier for a good Republican candidate to unseat Alexi Giannoulias in six years than it will be for a good Republican to unseat a semi-skillful incumbent like Mark Kirk. If Kirk gets in office, I fear we’ll have him for decades. I don’t think that’s the case with Giannoulias. The loss of the Senate seat to Giannoulias would provide Illinois Republicans six years to find a truly worthy Republican candidate. No matter which position Republicans take, it’s a crapshoot. We’re all speculating. Giannoulias could be an effective senator and, therefore, very difficult to unseat. Or he could be incompetent and, therefore, easy to unseat. With Kirk, we know we’re getting a skillful and experienced legislator who will be difficult to unseat.

Marc Ambinder, political editor of The Atlantic, writes this about the prospect of a Kirk win:

If Kirk wins the seat, he’s instantaneously the biggest name in the GOP.  The seat, you’ll remember, was Barack Obama’s seat. Kirk would be bigger than Massachusetts’ lion killer Scott Brown, bigger than the presidential candidates for a while, and he can be a kingmaker.

He’ll have a huge donor list, he’ll own Obama’s seat, and then he’s faced with a choice. Does he moderate himself truly, work in a bipartisan way and be a leader in the Senate.  Or, does he go with immediate ego gratification and position himself to be on the vice presidential short list for 2012? If Kirk doesn’t want to run again in 2016, he can bank on the fact that he’ll either be on the veep short-list then, or he’ll be a bona fide presidential contender in his own right.(http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/05/mark-kirk-the-next-scott-brown/56598/)

There is too much at stake to risk letting Kirk get into the Senate. I’m willing to pay a relatively small price now by letting Giannoulias get elected rather than pay a huge price in a few years by letting Kirk get his nose in the Senate tent.

In addition to Kirk’s wholly indefensible embellishment of his military record, there is the significant matter of his sexual predilections, about which, thanks to homosexual activist, blogger, and “outer” extraordinaire Mike Rogers, there is less doubt. Behind the scenes, many people on both sides of the political aisle have long claimed that Kirk is homosexual, but it took Rogers to give wider exposure and greater credibility to those rumors.

Rogers, who “outed” Kirk last week, has the dubious honor of being reliable when it comes to “outing” politicians. For those unfamiliar with Rogers, click here to see him when he appeared on the View a year ago to promote the “outing” documentary Outrage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOJwVmFozs&feature=player_embedded .

Why did he “out” Kirk now? Rogers “outed” him now because Kirk did not vote with the “gay” lobby on the recent vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” As long as Kirk toed the “gay” line—which he has consistently done—his secret was safe with political lefties. A thrill goes up the legs of homosexualists whenever the “Republican” Kirk endorses yet one more assault on sexual norms and families. They will tolerate many things, including both open and secret sexual deviance, as long as they get the votes they need. According to that paradigm of virtue, Mike Rogers, there is one thing they will not, however, tolerate, and that is “hypocrisy.”

Here’s yet more skin-crawling information on Kirk’s voting record:

Kirk voted against the ban on the barbaric procedure euphemistically called “partial birth” abortion; he voted against restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions; he voted against making it a crime to harm a fetus during the commission of another a crime; but he voted in favor of embryonic stem cell research.

For those Republicans who foolishly dismiss the “social” issues and character, there’s always Kirks infamous defense and fiscal votes. Kirk stunned his constituents by first voting against the troop surge in Iraq and then voting for cap and trade, which Indiana Republican Congressman Mike Pence describes as “the largest tax increase in American history under the guise of climate change.”

Some Illinois Republicans have described my decision not to vote for Kirk as “misguided,” arguing that with Giannoulias’ youth, we risk having him in the Senate for decades. Well, Kirk too could serve for decades. While my Republican compatriots think even six years of Giannoulias is too high a price to pay, it’s a price I am willing to pay in the hope of preventing a two or three-decade reign by a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, and deceitful “Republican.” It’s a price I am willing to pay to prevent Kirk from getting a shot at the White House.

These same Republicans argue that the Republican Party desperately needs Kirk’s vote, but what are the crucial upcoming legislative issues for which we desperately need a win and for which we can rely on Kirk for the right vote? We know we won’t get the right votes on any legislation pertaining to the rights of the unborn or the family. Yes, Kirk threw conservatives a bone on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but as we all know that vote was an anomaly, perhaps motivated by his need to appease social conservatives. And as his vote for cap and trade and against the troop surge prove, we can’t rely on his votes on fiscal or defense issues.

These same Republicans reveal their own deformed moral sensibility when they express more moral outrage about my refusal to nose-hold than they do about Kirk’s support for the slaughter of the unborn. They argue that the battleground was the primary, and now it’s time to rally around the Republican candidate. Some say that in six years, we can try to field a better candidate to run against Kirk in the primary. Really? Do they actually believe that in six years any Republican challenger to an incumbent Senator Kirk would have a shot? Do they actually think the Republican Party would support a challenge to an incumbent Republican senator?

For years I’ve heard Republican strategists and party operatives tell voters that it’s imperative that we do what we’re told, that for the good of the party and the state and the nation, we must vote for the Republican candidate no matter how offensive his positions and no matter how unethical his personal life. And we do. Like obsequious little minions, shamed by being labeled “naïve” “ignorant” or “misguided,” we support with our money and our votes any lousy candidate the Republican establishment parades before us. What have we gotten in the bargain? Mark Kirk.

The IL Republican party and the national Republican Party keep telling us to be good little team players and go along. Not me—not any longer. It strikes me that there is an important difference between justifiable political compromises and wholesale selling out. Voting for Kirk represents the latter. I think that if all the disgruntled IL Republicans would band together and say with their votes “no more. We’re mad as h*** and we’re not gonna take it any more”—even if that means we’re stuck with Giannoulias for six years—the powers-that-be might finally get the message. They might then busy themselves with the important task of finding good candidates.

The right to vote is a precious right, and I’m not willing to squander it on someone who refuses to protect the unborn, who refuses to defend sexual morality, and who, in his desperate and unholy quest to advance those views, lies to Illinoisans. For once, I’m following my moral principles rather than the political dictates of those who have given us Mark Kirk.

Laurie Higgins is a writer based in Deerfield, Illinois.

Republican DuPage County Chairman aspirant Debra Olson canceled a scheduled appearance at a Wayne Township Republican Organization (WTRO) candidate forum last evening, as she continues to remain silent on the cheating sex scandal reported by RFFV that has rocked her candidacy.

Olson confirmed her participation in the WTRO debate a couple of weeks ago, said WTRO Chairman Ken Spitz, and again communicated early in the evening to Spitz that she was coming but would be late. But then she never showed. Olson’s husband Don was present at the forum, as was Republicans For Family Values editor Peter LaBarbera.

Two of Olson’s GOP opponents in the DuPage County Chairman primary, Carol Pankau and Gary Grasso, gave presentations at the forum, which also included talks by candidates for other local and statewide offices.

Olson (right), who runs on a pro-family values record, continues to avoid discussing the adultery charges against her. RFFV has reported that Olson had a year-and-a-half adulterous relationship with Wheaton attorney David Allen in 1998-99, and then a second affair with fellow DuPage County Board member Brien Sheahan in 2004. (Olson and Sheahan were each first elected to the Board in 2002.) Both of Olson’s adulterous affairs were acknowledged by her husband Don in phone conversations with RFFV.

David Allen’s wife Jean relayed the details of Debra Olson’s long-term affair, with Jean’s now-repentant husband, in an interview with RFFV. In March 2004, Mr. Allen confessed to his wife affairs with many women, including Debra Olson. He then repented publicly to his church and resigned immediately from the elder board of Wheaton Bible Church and from several local organizations’ Boards. In contrast, Olson’s adulterous past has remained largely hidden, even to close associates, although some had heard of “rumors” about her illicit sexual conduct.

After refusing a week’s worth of interview requests from Republicans For Family Values editor LaBarbera to get her side of the story, Olson promised a press release Tuesday to a GOP news service (and available to all media),  in response to the RFFV story, which was published Monday. But that press release never came. Local media and even conservative Republican media — with the exception of Dave Diersen’s GOP USA Illinois e-mail news service, which circulates to over a thousand Illinois Republicans statewide — have yet to pick up on the story. (A Daily Herald reporter showed up at the Wayne Township forum last night in anticipation of Olson speaking and possibly addressing the adultery issue; Herald reporters are aware of the RFFV exposé but the paper has not yet covered the scandal.)

Nevertheless, thanks to the internet and Diersen’s news service, the Olson cheating sex scandal story has circulated widely in Republican circles in Illinois, engendering various reactions. One GOP activist in DuPage wrote in a mass e-mail that the RFFV article only confirmed long-standing rumors circulating in the county about Olson’s promiscuous behavior. The e-mail revealed that some GOP activists feared her reckless behavior could one day emerge and damage the Party. Others said that since Olson’s husband forgave her, the story should not have been published, as the affairs happened years ago. Some women, in particular, seemed more upset at Jean Allen than Debra Olson. Still others in separate communications commended RFFV for exposing Olson as a “fraud” and a “hypocrite.”

Brien Sheahan’s campaign also has not commented on the accusation — confirmed by Don Olson – that he (as a then single man) had an affair in 2004 with the married Debra Olson. Sheahan is running in the GOP primary for State Representative of the 41st House District, which includes Elmhurst.

** RFFV EXCLUSIVE ** WARNING: Offensive Content  

Illinois politician Debra Olson, who vows to "protect families," had a one-and-a-half year adulterous affair with an attorney. On one occasion she had sex in the lawyer's Wheaton home while his wife was away on a women's church retreat.

CORRECTIONS: Jean Allen wrote us to clarify two errors in the original story:  

1. Debra Olson and David Allen (Jean’s husband) did not have an illicit meeting at the Allen’s vacation house in Michigan — as we initially reported — but rather at a hotel in Michigan.
2. In an early sexual encounter between Olson and David Allen in his law office, she did not tell him at that time, “I don’t want to be a girl like this.” Rather, she made that comment to him separately during a later phone call.

______________________

Editor’s Note:  This is NOT a politically-driven story but one inspired by the shocking account of an aggrieved woman, Jean Allen, who was deeply hurt by the adulterous double-life of a very public Christian and pro-family Republican politician, Debra Olson — and who relives the pain daily with Olson’s campaign for higher office. We at Republicans For Family Values believe:  

• that public servants — especially outwardly committed Christians running on a “pro-family” record — should be held to a higher standard of ethics and accountability than other politicians, or the average private citizen;
• that a candidate’s character should be an important factor in the decisions of voters weighing his or her candidacy and qualifications for office; 
• that sexual conduct is a deep reflection of a person’s character and the seriousness of their faith and professed morality;
• that the voting public’s right to know about a candidate’s character — including his or her “personal” morality — outweighs the privacy concerns of the candidate. A potential legislator’s character, morality and integrity are a guide to whether they can be trusted to keep their promises and to serve the public with integrity. Overtly Christian and religious candidates, especially, have a higher calling and ethical bar in this regard;
• lastly, that the liberal/secular campaign to disengage (private) morality — and indeed all religion — from public life is fatally flawed and dangerous to the Republic. (Publicly Christian) Bill Clinton’s perverted and treacherous ”private” life as president had far-reaching repercussions for America and for public policy – but beyond that it contributed greatly to the corruption of children and the degradation of American morals generally. 

We have encountered a few people who say that we should not tell this story. One Republican activist who has worked with Debra Olson wondered if it is proper to do so, from a Christian perspective, since Debra has asked Jean Allen for forgiveness. But when I asked this same person if he would react differently were we reporting about, say, a Democratic man running for office (as a pro-family Christian) who was discovered to have secretly engaged in a year-and-a-half-long sexual affair with another man’s wife — and then a second infidelity years later — he admitted that he wouldn’t have as much of a problem with our exposé. And that symbolizes why Republicans For Family Values (RFFV) is telling this tragic story. — Peter LaBarbera, www.rffv.org  

__________________________________  

By Peter LaBarbera, RepublicansForFamilyValues.com  

NAPERVILLE, Illinois (DuPage County) — Debra Olson, a DuPage County, Illinois, Board Member who is running as a pro-family conservative Republican for Chairman of the Board in the GOP-dominated county, was involved in at least two adulterous affairs — one lasting a year-and-a-half – Republicans For Family Values has learned.  

Olson — as a mother of four children– had sex with prominent Wheaton attorney David Allen in the guest bedroom of Allen’s home while his wife Jean was away on a Christian women’s retreat sponsored by their church, Jean Allen revealed in an interview. The aggrieved Mrs. Allen — barraged by campaign signs, ads and printed fliers for Mrs. Olson’s candidacy — is troubled that the truth about Olson has largely remained hidden, and that many Christian conservative voters who appreciate her status as an evangelical, pro-family legislator are completely unaware of the promiscuous double life Olson has led.  

Indeed, Olson’s extended adulterous relationship in 1998-99 with Allen has not become widely known nor apparently slowed down her political ambitions. Although rumors about Olson’s sexual affairs with other men exist, even her close associates, church acquaintances and active Republicans in DuPage first learned about the adulteries only through the pursuit of this story. 

In contrast, a repentant David Allen paid heavily for acknowledging his serial adulteries in March 2004. After confessing to decades of sexual affairs with multiple women – including Olson (pictured above; a campaign photo of Olson with her family can be found at www.debfordupage.com) – Allen resigned from the Board of Elders at Wheaton Bible Church and from several other well-known (mostly Christian) organization’s boards. He then publicly repented and asked for forgiveness in three separate church services at Wheaton Bible, a large evangelical church where he and his wife Jean are longtime members.  

There were no such wide public apologies by Olson. In fact, it was her high local visibility – made higher by Olson’s current campaign for Chairman of the DuPage County Board — that contributed to the desire of David Allen’s traumatized wife Jean to see the truth about Olson’s infidelities revealed. Debra Olson attends Wheaton Evangelical Free Church on Roosevelt Road, a few miles down the road from her home in Wheaton. She runs as a committed Christian on a strong pro-life and pro-family record. Olson’s church membership is listed prominently on the biography of her campaign website, and every year she participates in the Wheaton National Day of Prayer event.  

“I don’t want to hurt anyone, but the truth is very important to me, and honesty is very important to me,” said Jean Allen in an interview at her Wheaton condominium. “I see [Olson] putting herself out there specifically before Christian conservatives — as a faithful pro-family advocate – as very dishonest after all she has done.”  

Jean Allen said she is not motivated by revenge and has no special animus for Olson, whom she regards as ”just another person who was sexually involved with my husband.” However, Allen said what makes Olson different from her husband’s other illicit sexual partners is Olson’s very public position as a County Board member and candidate — and ostensibly as a wholesome, pro-family Christian leader. Olson was elected to the DuPage County Board in 2002 and has been reelected twice since. She is vying with three other Republicans in a primary race to be the GOP candidate for Board Chairman. The Illinois primary election for the six-figure Chairman position is Tuesday, February 2nd, and early voting has already begun. 

RFFV first learned of Olson’s infidelities from veteran Republican activists in DuPage County. We repeat that this is not a political story: this writer has not spoken with either of Olson’s three Republican opponents, Dan Cronin, Carol Pankau, or Gary Grasso, nor any staffers from these three opposition GOP campaigns. 

RFFV interviewed Jean Allen last week with the full knowledge of her husband, who did not wish to be interviewed for this story. Her account of the details of the Olson affair stems from Jean’s painful discussions with her repentant husband. Mrs. Allen considers lifting the “cloud of secrecy” surrounding the scandal and “getting things out in the open” to be part of her healing. Moreover, she is deeply troubled by the ubiquitous signage, printed ads and fliers for Olson’s campaign that serve as a constant reminder of the painful past of Olson cheating with Jean’s husband. 

RFFV has tried to confirm details of the affair with Debra Olson — and inquire as to other aspects of the story — but she has not responded to repeated phone and e-mail requests for an interview. Jean Allen provided this writer with written letters from Debra Olson and her husband Don dealing with the confessed infidelity and its aftermath. In two separate letters, Debra Olson asked for Jean Allen’s forgiveness for her illicit affair with David Allen.  

“Jean, I am so very, very sorry for the pain and anguish that I have caused you and your family as well as my own family. Words cannot express my profound remorse and regret. I had hoped that this day would never come because I knew that many people would experience terrible pain at my own hands,” Debra Olson wrote in a letter to Jean in December 2004. “I have anguished that many times … that my choices could bring others so much agony. … I am so sorry that you are a casualty of my stupidity, selfishness and willful disobedience.”  

Since David’s confession, the Allen’s have undergone years of counseling after Jean felt called by God to preserve the marriage. David Allen is involved in a ministry at Wheaton Bible Church called Compass for Men – “a support group for men striving for sexual integrity.” In partnership with Jean, he adheres to a strict accountability program whereby, for example, he does not meet alone with other women, even for a business lunch. 

It is unclear whether Debra Olson has adopted a similar accountability plan with her husband — but her subsequent adulterous affair with a fellow County Board Member (see below) years after the longer-term illicit relationship with Allen would indicate that if she has one, it is being flouted. 

Perhaps there is a cultural double standard for women caught in adultery as compared to men, but RFFV has received no indication that Debra Olson endured “public humiliation” or went through a church-wide public repentance at Wheaton Evangelical-Free Church in any way remotely close to resembling that experienced by her ex-lover, David Allen. 

One friend of the Allen’s who requested anonymity agreed that in contrast to Debra Olson, Dave Allen “paid a heavy price” for his full and public repentance.  

“Dave did a full turn and walked away from everything in order to focus on living a more godly life,” said the friend. “He was terrified of the evil and wanted to be clean. This is not a tack Deb has taken.”  

Jean Allen confirmed that her husband’s Christian faith and maturity have deepened in the process of repentance and overcoming what she refers to as his sexual addiction. The Allen’s three children were told of their father’s serial adultery. In contrast, Don Olson told this writer that his four children were not told of their mother’s sexual cheating. (In fact, Mr. Olson appealed to that fact in his earnest requests that RFFV not run this story. Two of the Olson’s children are now away at out-of-state colleges.) 

Olson’s husband confirms second affair, with Brien Sheahan  

Despite Debra Olson’s non-response to repeated requests for an interview, this writer has spoken with her husband, Don, who in three separate phone conversations urged RFFV not to run this story. In the first conversation, Don Olson acknowledged his wife’s infidelity with David Allen but said it was a long time ago and he has forgiven her. He supports her run for DuPage County.  

Republican DuPage County Board Member Brien Sheahan, then single, reportedly had a sexual affair with the married Debra Olson -- several years after Olson's long-term affair with Wheaton attorney David Allen.

Don Olson later confirmed that Debra Olson was involved in another adulterous affair, with (Republican) DuPage County Board Member Brien Sheahan (left) — although Sheahan also is not talking with RFFV. Like Olson, Sheahan has served on the County Board since 2002. Don Olson said he confronted his wife about being involved sexually with Sheahan – thus confirming the account of a source who said Don had broken up his wife’s affair with Sheahan. 

Olson’s admission also jibed with suspicions from some other local Republicans and acquaintance of the Olson’s who told RFFV that Debra Olson — as a married woman — had seemed inappropriately close to Sheahan.  

According to two Republican female acquaintances of Olson – Debra Olson was directly confronted about being involved with Sheahan. Both sources put the time frame of the alleged Olson-Sheahan affair around 2004-2005 — the same time frame in which Don Olson was dealing with the startling revelations of Debra’s previous long-term affair with Dave Allen several years earlier. (David Allen repented to Jean and resigned from his church elder board and other boards in March 2004.) 

An attorney in Elmhurst, Illinois. He is recently married but was single when involved with Olson. Sheahan runs as a conservative and is vying to fill the seat once held by Republican State Rep. Bob Biggins, a pro-life and pro-family stalwart. 

RFFV has tried repeatedly to contact Sheahan by phone and e-mail regarding his past relationship with Olson, but as of late Monday night neither he nor his campaign staff had returned our phone calls or e-mails.   

A Republican activist familiar with the workings of the DuPage County Board said that the interaction between Olson and Sheahan on the Board gave rise to widespread rumors that they were not just associates or even close friends. 

“You could tell by the eye contact between them that something out of the ordinary was going on,” said a source, who described the suspicions about Olson and Sheahan as being held by “more than a few” DuPage County Republicans at the time. According to another source, Debra Olson was directly confronted by a female friend, who pleaded with her to end her compromising involvement with Sheahan. 

Jean Allen’s ordeal  

In March 2004, Jean Allen’s life was turned completely upside down by her husband’s sudden confession —  ”downloading thirty years of infidelity in three-hours,” as she put it in the sit-down interview with RFFV. One of the many women on David’s list was Debra Olson, who had worked with Jean and another woman in organizing a fund-raiser — hosted by David and Jean Allen at their Wheaton home – for GOP U.S. Senate candidate Al Salvi, who ran as a strongly pro-life and pro-family conservative.  

Jean Allen said she is not sure if her husband was sexually involved with Debra Olson at the time of the Salvi fund-raiser, but is certain that the immoral relationship was cemented around that time. A Republican activist who attended the Salvi fund-raiser at the Allen’s home said Debra Olson’s behavior there was strange: “It was the weirdest thing. She acted like she owned the house, like she was the spouse.”  

Jean Allen would later learn that her husband and Olson had a sexual tryst in the guest bedroom of the same Allen home on Washington Street near Wheaton College — in 1999, while Jean was away at a Christian women’s retreat sponsored by their church, Wheaton Bible. (The Allen’s children were away from home at the time, with two in college.)  

Jean recalled her husband’s initial confession to her as “horrendous. That night, when he confessed half way through, I said to Dave, ‘Stop! I feel like this is a bad dream and I’m gonna wake up and it’s not true.’ And he said, ‘Jean, it’s true.’” 

Other details from the adulterous relationship with Olson are equally troubling and tawdry: David and his lover Debra (who was “hardly his first,” according to Jean) once had sex in the Olson’s family van – and once in the Olson’s house, according to Jean, relaying the detailed confessions of her husband. Jean said that David and Debra Olson got together weekly at hotels and other locations: ”It was pretty much a regular thing.” After his confession, David revealed the hotels where his liaisons with various partners, including Olson, occurred. She and he were also tested for sexually-transmitted diseases (none were discovered). 

“Dave was really, really good at covering his whole life as a ‘Christian’ — all as a cover for reality,” Jean told RFFV. “He had a double life — the ‘Christian’ life was his cover — that’s how I look at it.” 

She suspects that Debra Olson’s situation is similar, and said that out of concern for its effect on her “public life,” in the weeks following David’s 2004 confession he still ”wanted to protect Debbie” by not revealing details of their adulterous relationship. 

Consensual adultery 

Jean Allen describes her husband as a former “sexual predator” (and sex addict) who ”never pushed himself on a woman” but rather used his considerable skills as a highly successful attorney to “set things up” so that the woman with whom he wanted to be involved would take the sexual initiative. 

In Olson’s first encounter with Allen, she performed oral sex on him when they were alone together in his law office conference room on a Saturday, Jean recounted. Later, in a phone call, Olson reportedly told the married man: “I don’t want to be a girl like this.”  

As part of his confession, David revealed the hotels and other spots where he and Olson (and his other female paramours) would rendezvous. He also revealed that he and Olson took a romantic trip together to New York City. 

“[David] very much took advantage of business travel to be involved with [Olson and] other women,” Jean Allen said. “That was his M.O. [modus operandi].” Olson and Allen also hooked up in Virginia, where Olson was visiting a relative and David was travelling on business. And the two lovers met at a hotel in Michigan. 

Mr. Allen also encouraged Olson to complete her bachelor’s degree at Northern Illinois University and at various times gave her money (not more than $1,000 at a time, according to Jean) to help Olson with expenses. 

Jean said that Olson ultimately broke off the adulterous relationship after telling David Allen that it was “hurting my prayer life.”  

Jean Allen ends the secrecy 

Critics say Debra Olson appears prim and proper in public as a conservative Christian legislator -- as in this campaign flier photo of her meeting with elderly constituents -- but privately she engages in reckless and inappropriate conduct. (Olson is third from right.)

In letters sent to David Allen by the cuckolded Don Olson in 2004 after discovering his wife’s infidelity– letters that Jean Allen showed to RFFV  — Mr. Olson at first angrily lashed out at Mr. Allen for stealing his wife. 

“Vote Debra Olson, Your “[F-----g]” Family Concerns Candidate — [signed:] Dave (the [c--k]) Allen,” he mocked as part of one long, vulgar letter sent to David Allen in November 2004. (Emphasis his.) 

A subsequent, less angry, letter to Allen in March 2005 inadvertently reveals the sentiments underlying Jean Allen’s desire to expose the truth about the scandalous episode. 

In telling David Allen how hard it is to forgive him (“you took from me one of the most precious earthly things in life”) – but earnestly pledging to do so — Don Olson writes: “I do know that simply seeing your picture in the … scrapbook in the DR [dining room] just about sent me into an emotional roller-coaster mode that I couldn’t get off.” 

Such is the cause — multiplied a hundred-fold — of Jean Allen’s ongoing heartache — or perhaps nightmare is the better word: she not only has to bear the possibility of having a chance encounter with Debra Olson — but is bombarded by colorful, four-feet-by-four-feet reminders of her husband’s former partner-in-adultery every time she drives to the grocery store. Blue-and-yellow “Debra OLSON, Republican for County Board Chairman” yard signs are everywhere in Wheaton and throughout DuPage County. And the candidate’s glitzy campaign fliers — adorned with a photo of the attractive Olson and her family — arrive in the mail. 

Last September, Jean Allen cracked open the dark secret of Olson’s past by sending the following e-mail letter to DuPage County Chairman Bob Schillerstrom (whom Olson is currently running to replace) and to Olson herself: 

From: JeanWAllen
To:  [Schillerstrom e-mail address]
CC:  [Olson e-mail address]  

Sent: 9/24/2009 9:03:46 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: “WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU”  

Dear Mr. Schillerstrom,  

I received a piece in the mail this past Monday (from the DuPage County
Board) that said on the back (just above your picture) “WE WANT TO HEAR FROM
YOU.”   I know that what you had in mind was the survey, but I wanted to
contact you directly to make a request.  

Receiving that mailing brought great pain to me and my family … because of
the pictures in it.   Some years ago my husband had an affair with Debra
Olson.   Receiving her picture in my mail was extremely painful for me (I
don’t know if you can relate to that kind of pain, but perhaps asking your
wife how she would feel if that was her experience might help you to
understand).  

If there is a way that I could not receive any mail with Ms. Olson’s picture
in it in the future, I would be most appreciative of that kind
consideration. 

Olson responded to Jean Allen’s request with a respectful promise to do all she could to prevent the DuPage Country mailers containing her photo from being delivered to the Allen’s home, but once again Olson’s decidedly anti-family and anti-marriage past was catching up with her – a very inconvenient development for a socially conservative candidate in a tough GOP primary race. 

For her part, Jean told RFFV that she sent the letter to Schillerstrom and Olson because it was her sincere intent “to have no pictures of [Debra] in my home. This is disturbing to my peace and serenity.” She notes that while her husband David finally “got caught” and then faced deep public humiliation (including some severe consequences that Jean did not want revealed as part of this article), the same cannot be said of Debra Olson. The latter’s lack of public humiliation, Jean asserts, is demonstrated by Jean’s various conversations over the years with Christian friends who are stunned to hear of her firsthand experience as a spouse victimized by Debra’s adulterous conduct. 

“My prayer for her is that she would get into honest recovery like my husband has,” Jean said. 

Need to know basis? Spreading “gossip”? 

In one of his phone conversations with this writer, Don Olson — when asked if voters in general and Christian and moral-minded DuPage voters in particular have a right to know about his wife’s adulterous conduct – said that Debra had revealed the illicit relationship with Dave Allen to all those who “need to know.” The picture is one of a Debra Olson being open, repentant and transparent. However, a more critical portrait of Olson emerges from other acquaintances who know and work with her — one in which she tightly guards her past infidelit(ies), ostensibly to protect her political career. 

When Olson learned that one Republican very active in DuPage County politics (who knew and respected Jean Allen) had discovered Debra’s lengthy adulterous relationship with David Allen, Olson became upset and scolded the GOP activist for “gossiping,” even quoting from the Bible to make her point. The activist told RFFV that she was stunned at Olson’s reaction and chutzpah — and regarded it as a manipulative attempt to squelch the truth. 

“This wasn’t gossip. Gossip is about spreading untruths. This was NOT untruth. These were facts!” said the conservative Christian GOP activist. 

Another acquaintance of Allen’s who was once active in GOP politics said that Debra Olson excelled at conveying a “don’t hurt me” posture that somehow suggested that she was the victim of unfounded attacks, rumors and “unChristian” gossip, even though Olson herself was engaging in highly inappropriate behavior for a pro-family leader and Christian woman. 

Perhaps this helps explain why at least three people approached for this story who know Olson well or work closely with her had no inkling of her seriously compromised past until informed of the evidence through this story. One GOP activist who is a volunteer working with Olson’s current campaign cavalierly described her as “pure as snow” when this writer first mentioned accusations of Debra’s past infidelities. Later, in pursuit of the story, when she was asked again about the adulteries — this time not as mere conjecture but noting the existence of documentable and corroborating evidence to back up the charge – she offered that she would check with Debra and set up a quick meeting “so we can get this all cleared up.” 

That was Sunday afternoon and the GOP volunteer with Olson’s campaign never phoned back to set up a meeting or returned calls and e-mails about our query. 

Another close associate of Olson’s — also a Republican activist — was surprised to learn details of her lengthy adulterous affair, having previously mentioned the commonly heard assertion that the infidelity charges against Olson were only “rumors.” Evidently, in the world of hard-fought political campaigns, it is easy to dismiss potentially explosive charges based on fact as the mean-spirited dirty tricks of an opponent. That gambit is made easier by the significant number of Republican (and Democratic) politicians whose lives have been scarred — and who have scarred others’ lives – through adultery. 

Clearly, as the party of “family values” and “defending marriage,” Republicans should not seek to sweep adultery under the rug as a non-issue, nor highlight only the hypocrisies of Democrats in this area. 

But politics and dirty tricks have nothing to do with Jean Allen’s struggle. She just wants the truth to be told, and fears it is being hidden amidst all those blue-and-yellow “Debra Olson – Republican for County Board Chairman” yard signs. 

Who can blame Jean Allen for resenting seeing campaign signs like this advertising the candidacy of the woman who committed adultery with her husband -- for a year and a half? Mrs. Allen feels that most voters are ignorant of this other side to Olson -- and that it would influence their vote if they knew.