A Republican candidate for a seat on an Arizona college district's governing board was taken into custody earlier this month on a rather disturbing allegation and has now suspended his campaign.
Randy Kaufman was running for a seat at the table of Arizona's GOP Legislative District 25 and was out on the campaign trail earlier this week. But those plans were abruptly halted on Tuesday due to an incident from just a few weeks ago.
A police report shows Kaufman was arrested for masturbating in his truck just a few feet away from a preschool.
"I’m sorry. I fu**ed up. I’m really stressed," Kaufman reportedly told the arresting officer and claimed he did not realize the preschool was nearby.
Police say Kaufman did not see the officer approaching because he was staring at his phone in the moments before he was discovered engaged in the lewd act.mus
In May, Kaufman published a Facebook post that decried children must be "protected [from] the progressive left."
Kaufman has been charged with public sexual indecency. He has yet to enter an official plea. Though his campaign has been suspended, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office said it is too late to remove him from the official ballot.