Family Values Candidate Eric Bodenweiser Arrested In Delaware For Allegedly Repeatedly Raping Young Boy

This is Eric Bodenweiser, Republican candidate for the Delaware State Senate and anti-gay member of the Delaware Family Policy Council. Bodenweiser, 53, was viewed as unbeatable in the race against his Democratic challenger right up to the time the family values candidate was arrested for allegedly having unlawful sex acts with a 13-year-old boy.

Bodenweiser is facing 113 felony sex charges, including 39 counts of unlawful sexual intercourse — first-degree and 74 counts of unlawful sexual contact — second-degree. The boy who allegedly was sexually abused by Bodenweiser between Oct. 1, 1987 and Aug. 31, 1990 when he was between the ages of 10 and 13. The victim is now in his 30s.

Bodenweiser was endorsed in his State Senate race by Christine O’Donnell, the 2010 Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Delaware. O’Donnell, who was ridiculed for once saying that she dabbled in witchcraft, now has found someone more controversial than herself. O’Donnell came to the defense of Bodenweiser:

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL: That’s why these sort of, charges are so, are so, potent as political weapons because they put a seed of doubt in someone’s mind. If you do it as an October surprise there’s not enough time between when they throw the bomb on election day for the truth to really emerge and, um, it’s just, it’s tacky and it’s what happened to our political system.

Bodenweiser had won an upset against the incumbent Republican with the help of the Tea Party. O’Donnell cites his victory as an encouragement for her to run again with the resurgence of conservative values and agreed to campaign for him. In what could be a much repeated statement by Bodenweiser at the time, the candidate stated “I asked Christine to speak at my fundraiser because I consider her a friend and we hold the same principles and values. She has been the top vote getter in Sussex County over the past four years. Her record in Sussex County proves it. Hopefully, some of her ability to win votes will rub off on me.”

Bodenweiser pledged that, when he took office, he would “weed out the liberals” and expose them by introducing ultraconservative legislation.

Bodenweiser helped run his family’s business Bodie’s Dairy Markets, a chain of six local convenience stores and Laundromats. The chain was sold in 2001. His campaign website touted how he was an active middle school mentor. According to news reports, Bodenweiser was a mentor for children at Georgetown Middle School and North Georgetown Elementary School.

If convicted, such access to children could be cited to increase sentencing for Bodenweister. Given the repeated alleged abuse over a long period of time, he would be looking at a considerable sentence — enough to put him behind bars for the rest of his life on the upper end of the scale — though O’Donnell might view that as a bit “tacky.”

Source: Washington Blade