Top Rhode Island Democrat Joseph DeLorenzo quit the party Thursday after making dismissive comments about a Democrat state representative’s sexual harassment claims against a fellow lawmaker.
“No longer does the Democratic Party welcome all Democrats,” DeLorenzo, 75, told the Providence Journal, overlooking the sexual harassment remarks controversy. “Instead, it has become a party where members of its far left wing actively work to exclude anyone who does not, without question or dissent, follow and further their agenda.”
“While I fully intend to remain active in the affairs of my state, I will no longer do so under the banner of the Democratic Party,” he continued.
DeLorenzo, who served as second vice chairman of the Democratic State Committee, was under pressure to resign after he shrugged off sexual harassment allegations by Rep. Teresa Tanzi leveled against an unnamed senior-ranked colleague in the State House.
However, he had also shared a tenuous relationship with the liberal bloc of the party after he called them “left-wing whack jobs” earlier in October.
“Everything is sexual harassment today,” DeLorenzo told local radio station WADK. “If a woman walks into my office and I say to her, ‘Boy, you look nice in that dress’ — sexual harassment. A woman walks in — and I know I do this all the time — put my arm around her and give her a kiss on the cheek — sexual harassment.”
His announcement follows the state legislature’s women’s caucus collecting 60 signatures to force a special meeting, presumably to deal with DeLorenzo.
