State Sen. Roy Ashburn said he was feeling "numb" mid-morning Monday after announcing to his constituents that he is gay.
Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, came out Monday morning in an interview with talk radio host Inga Barks of KERN Newstalk 1180.
In an interview afterward with The Californian, Ashburn wouldn't reveal much more about his personal life than that. When did he know he was gay? If and when did he come out to his family?
Ashburn wouldn't go there.
"That's my private life and that's personal," Ashburn said. "I don't think it's relevant to how I do my job."
The veteran Kern County lawmaker was similarly tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding his drunken driving arrest early last Wednesday morning in Sacramento.
Ashburn wouldn't answer where he'd been that night, whom he was with and how much he'd had to drink.
A Sacramento television station quoted unnamed sources last week as saying Ashburn had been at a gay night club. The California Highway Patrol reported a man it didn't identify was in the state-owned, black Chevrolet Tahoe Ashburn was driving when he was pulled over.
The Sacramento County District Attorney's office said he had a blood alcohol level of .14 percent.
"I had too much to drink and I drove after having had too much alcohol," is basically all Ashburn would say. "I've been arrested and I expect to pay the consequences for my actions and be treated as anyone would under similar circumstances. I'm sorry for drinking and driving.
"My personal life is my personal life," Ashburn said. "I've already said that I'm gay. The facts are what they are. I acknowledge what I did and I'll pay the consequences for that.
"But what happened last week -- my private life became public and so now I acknowledge that I am gay. I think that's what people want to know."
Ashburn has taken heat in the last week for having been both closeted and a consistent vote against gay-rights related legislation. In the interview, Ashburn repeatedly argued he voted the will of his constituents in his conservative 18th Senate District, which includes much of Bakersfield.
"I took a position based on what I believed was the will of my constituents, not mine, necessarily," Ashburn said. "We have a representative form of government ... where citizens select people to cast votes on their behalf."
Did he cast any votes he personally disagreed with? Ashburn couldn't cite any. Were any of those votes difficult to make? Ashburn said he takes all votes seriously.