John
Paul Mitchell, 30, teaches yoga and is studying for his doctorate at
the University of Sedona. He is not your typical Republican candidate,
particularly since he is running against a newly-ascended state leader,
Jan Brewer, who took over for Democrat Janet Napolitano when Napolitano
accepted a cabinet post. He also isn't your typical politician-- he
maintains a Flickr account, which he updates with campaign and personal
photos on the same page.
Normally, this would be no big deal... until a photo of a topless woman appeared on the page.
Mitchell
claims that the photo, which was deleted before we could at least see
it and tell you what it looked like, is of Mitchell's female roommate.
The candidate, who has a girlfriend, says the flatmates share an
account on the site and that she posted it and meant to make it
private, but forgot to. Or something. It all sounds a bit suspicious--
too many lapses in judgment for that to happen. Obviously, it sounds
like he took an illicit picture of his roommate, a woman he admits to
sleeping with in the past, and posted it to what he thought was a
private, blocked-off area of his Flickr account. Not saying she didn't
consent, but that's possible.
In any case, he had to play damage control in the news media all day yesterday:
Why would she post topless photos to the Flickr account?
Because she has hundreds of
photographs on there. She uploads pictures from family gatherings, to
vacations, to self-taken pictures. What she does in the privacy of our
home or elsewhere is her personal business.
Again, the picture was meant to be flagged as private and not viewable by the public.
Why do you have a shared account?
Because I initially set it up
for my use, but later allowed her to use the Flickr account to have an
online storage space for her photography.
Did you and the woman ever date or have a romantic relationship?
Yes, at one point, we were
involved romantically. However, we made a mutual agreement that it was
best we remain only friends. Our friendship is going on its sixth year
and we consider each other best friends.
At this point, the woman has yet to speak out. One has to wonder
what her take on all this is-- is she embarrassed into silence or being
asked by the candidate not to comment, for fear of keeping the story
going? Or is she secretly furious about the photo ending up on his
Flickr account? His account, by the way, can be seen here.
