Source: Politics<\/p>\n
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. \u2014 Alexandra Datig, the former fiancee and longtime radio producer for California GOP gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder, says she broke off an 18-month engagement with the conservative talk show host in 2015 after he waved a gun at her while high on marijuana.<\/p>\n
Datig\u2019s claim, which she regards as the culmination of a series of humiliating disputes that made her fearful for her safety and her ability to maintain her sobriety, comes as Elder has gained momentum in the recall to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, with many observers counting him as the likeliest GOP alternative should voters decide to replace the incumbent.<\/p>\n
But little is known about Elder\u2019s personal life. Datig portrayed him as a marijuana user who would often become threatening or insistent with her, including in his repeated demands that she get a \u201cLarry\u2019s Girl\u201d tattoo to show her devotion to him. <\/p>\n
The alleged incident occurred in the midst of a heated conversation as their relationship was unraveling, according to Datig. \u201cHe was in the bedroom, and I was standing by the door,\u201d she said. \u201cWe talked to each other.\u2019\u2019 He became silent, she said, and then slowly \u201cwalked over to the nightstand, opened the door, took out the gun,\u2019\u2019 a .45 pistol. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he checked if it was loaded \u2014 while I was talking,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cHe wanted to make sure I saw that he had it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an act of silent scorn \u2014 and anger,\u2019\u2019 she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor a minute there … I thought it was a Phil Spector moment,\u2019\u2019 Datig said, referencing the famed Hollywood record producer who shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson in his Hollywood mansion in 2003. \u201cMy fear was great, and I understood I needed to de-escalate.\u201d<\/p>\n
At that point, \u201che was threatening to throw me out on the street … and rather than answer back or throw something, I tried to use every tool I had in recovery… I just walked out,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cI locked myself into the bedroom downstairs.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n
Elder and his spokesperson Ying Ma did not respond to requests for comment on their personal email and campaign email. <\/p>\n
Elder\u2019s attitude toward women has been a major issue in the campaign, with both Newsom and GOP rivals flagging a two-decade-old column in which he wrote, \u201cWomen know less than men about political issues, economics, and current events.\u201d<\/p>\n
Datig, 51, became well known in Los Angeles in the 1990s as a leading witness and informant in the prosecution of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.<\/a> Datig described being paid $10,000 per day and getting First Class air travel as one of the women who worked in Fleiss\u2019s network. She has subsequently spoken out strongly against human trafficking.<\/p>\n Datig said she first met Elder, who is now 69, at a party at the Playboy Mansion in the early 2000s, though their relationship did not begin until long after. The two became engaged in 2013 before Datig broke off the relationship in 2015, fearing for her safety. She said he pressured her to sign a non-disclosure agreement after being informed by Elder\u2019s assistant that \u201call Larry\u2019s girlfriends did,\u2019\u2019 she said, in an interview with POLITICO. She complied, saying she was \u201cterrified \u2026 and I ran for my life.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n POLITICO has obtained copies of the NDA and separation agreement between Elder and Datig.<\/p>\n Despite the NDA agreement, Datig chose to speak to POLITICO, saying there is \u201ctoo much at stake\u201d in the California recall election. A conservative blogger and political commentator who writes and edits the Front Page Index<\/a> political website, Datig has endorsed one of Elder\u2019s GOP rivals, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. <\/p>\n Datig\u2019s official bio notes that her work with Elder has included \u201cproducing over 100 shows of the now nationally syndicated Larry Elder Show,\u2019\u2019 helping to boost his show to the top spot on a major global webcasting platform.<\/p>\n Datig says she also created The Elder Statement blog, helping it boost its circulation to more than 3 million views in its first year, while also mounting a successful campaign on Elder\u2019s behalf which helped him secure a coveted nomination star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.<\/p>\n Datig described meeting the ambitious talk show host in the early 2000s at bacchanalian parties populated by Hollywood celebrities like rapper Snoop Dogg and hosted by publisher Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. <\/p>\n Elder, who has since taken to broadcasting in a robe a la Hefner in YouTube segments called \u201cRobe Rage,\u201d<\/a> was \u201can A-lister\u2019\u2019 at the gatherings, Datig said. In one home video she provided to POLITICO, Elder brags about his relationship with Snoop Dogg, saying, \u201cI introduced him to the evil weed\u2026 I taught him everything he knows…I\u2019m the one who made him what he is, I can\u2019t believe he turned his back on me, motherfucker.\u201d <\/p>\n Datig said she moved in with him in 2013, entering what she describes as a wild and ultimately destructive relationship that she broke it off after 18 months. She was still producing his shows and assisting with efforts to get him a coveted Walk of Fame star because \u201cI didn\u2019t want to take a wrecking ball to his career,\u201d she said. But \u201cmy sobriety was at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up in Switzerland around guns with a conservative father, Datig said that she has always been a strong Second Amendment supporter. But she shudders remembering her encounter with a gun-wielding Elder in early 2015 during their ugly breakup. <\/p>\n \u201cI was raised that you never use a gun in anger, and you don\u2019t use it when you\u2019re drunk or you\u2019re high to make a point in frustration \u2014 which is what he did,\u2019\u2019 said Datig, who says Elder was a heavy consumer of marijuana and was under the influence.<\/p>\n Earlier in the relationship, Datig said, she was pressured repeatedly by Elder to get a tattoo declaring her to be \u201cLarry\u2019s Girl\u2019\u2019 \u2014 and even urged her to design one which included the Superman logo. <\/p>\n She agreed to get it \u2014 after he said he would get an accompanying tattoo declaring his love for her, she said. \u201cHe never did,\u2019\u2019 she said. <\/p>\n And she didn\u2019t speak up when a large nude portrait of her with the tattoo on her lower back was displayed in their home for visitors to see, Datig said.<\/p>\n Datig provided that photo to POLITICO, and today, said she deeply regrets the decision to give in to his demand and has tried to get the tattoo removed. <\/p>\n As a former victim of human trafficking and the sex trade, she said, she now realizes it was a kind of \u201cbranding,\u2019\u2019 not unlike the same marks that traffickers often demand. <\/p>\n She said some of Elder\u2019s past public comments on women have revealed his true attitude toward them. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re a celebrity, you have women throwing themselves at you all the time and you have a different experience \u2026 you develop a sense of disrespect,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Datig, a longtime Los Angeles political activist, is no stranger to the rough and tumble Southern California politics \u2014 or even to human trafficking. She served as a longtime executive assistant to former L.A. Councilmember and state legislator Nate Holden\u2014 and also mounted an unsuccessful recall attempt aimed at Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2019. <\/a><\/p>\n She told POLITICO she is reluctant to take the spotlight again and be tagged as \u201cthe woman who turned in Heidi Fleiss,\u2019\u2019 as \u201can ex-hooker,\u2019\u2019 when her troubles and personal struggles of decades ago have long been put behind her. <\/p>\n But she also took to Twitter to declare: \u201cI am calling on the voters of California to tell Larry Elder to let me out of my NDA! There are no secrets in politics! Voters have the right to know the truth! @LarryElder is unfit to serve in an official capacity! Tell him you want to know why!\u201d<\/p>\n As California voters consider their vote in the consequential recall candidate, she said she was moved to give Faulconer her endorsement and her web followers some guidance regarding in the current recall election because \u201cthe state of California is on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Faulconer\u2019s campaign and Datig said she had no role in his campaign. The Newsom campaign also said that it has no link to Datig.<\/p>\n \u201cNo. I am not being paid by anyone,\u201d she said. \u201cI am doing this because I care about California.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about ability and capacity \u2014 and I don\u2019t think Larry has the ability or capacity,\u2019\u2019 she added. She backs the recall but warns \u201cGavin Newsom is the devil you know. Larry Elder is the devil you think you know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLarry Elder is a brand,\u2019\u2019 she said, \u201cbut If Larry Elder becomes the governor of the state of California, it will be a disaster.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n