The embattled Alameda County supervisor, whose sex and addiction scandal has supplied a stream of lurid headlines in the Bay Area for two months, tells the Mercury News’ Julia Prodis Sulek that she will step aside. She says she will tell her colleagues in a letter (which she submitted later in the day; see below ) that she wants to focus on being a mother to her 8-year-old son as well as care for her personal health. The wife of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer broke the news during an interview in the living room of her home in the Hayward hills.Add: The news comes barely a week after Lockyer’s suicidal-sounding email to the same reporter prompted the newspaper to call police out of concern for her well-being. The supervisor later claimed the email had been hacked by her ex-lover. Her troubles became public after word leaked of a February 3 incident in a Newark hotel room in which Lockyer, who is 40, claims to have been beaten by the man with whom she acknowledged having an extramarital affair. No charges have been filed. Here's an excerpt from what she told the newspaper today:
"Today is a significant day for me personally and professionally. I think the public deserves and wants some answers and is tired of hearing about me and all this drama. I am resigning today as a mother. ... I need to resign and focus on the recovery of the assault and the abusive relationship, healing my heart and my psyche."[Update] In a painfully candid resignation letter, Lockyer apologized to her family, constituents, staff and colleagues, and alluded to her continued stresses as the mother of an 8-year-old, while saying that she's been sober for 77 days. An excerpt:
"While I can boast 77 days of sobriety to this day, I can barely count to ten in the latter category. For this, I owe my family, constituents, staff, and colleagues a huge apology. Reality is, I set my personal goals in recovery too high, and too quickly. I got myself in a place called addiction all by myself. A decade of non-stop trauma, pain, and loss are my personal excuse. But this time, this recent trauma is just too much and something I can't ignore...and so...
"Today, for my child, and in the spirit of Mothers' Day and National Victims Rights' Week, I hereby announce my resignation from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, in order that I may focus on the well-being of my child, recovery from chemical dependency and interpersonal violence, and transitioning to work in the private sector."
