44 Facts About Bob Filner

Bob Filner later pleaded guilty to state charges of false imprisonment and battery.

Bob Filner was previously the US representative for, and the 50th, serving from 1993 to 2012.

Bob Filner was chair of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs from 2007 to 2011.

Bob Filner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

Bob Filner is Jewish, the son of Sarah F and Joseph H Filner.

Bob Filner's father was a labor union organizer, US Army veteran and later international metal trader.

Bob Filner attended Cornell University, where he worked on The Cornell Daily Sun, a student newspaper, and took part in civil rights demonstrations.

Bob Filner graduated from Cornell in 1963 with a degree in chemistry, and earned his doctorate in history of science from Cornell six years later.

Bob Filner worked for US Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota in 1975 and for Minnesota congressman Don Fraser in 1976.

Bob Filner worked for Congressman Jim Bates from the San Diego area in 1984.

Bob Filner was elected to the San Diego City Council in 1987 and was reelected in 1991; his colleagues elected him deputy mayor of San Diego.

In 1992, Bob Filner ran in a five-way Democratic primary for the seat and won a narrow victory.

Bob Filner defeated Deddeh by a narrow margin, with Bates finishing third place in the primary.

Bob Filner was reelected nine times with no substantive Republican opposition.

Bob Filner chose not to run for re-election to Congress in 2012, opting instead to run for mayor of San Diego.

Bob Filner resigned from the House of Representatives on December 3,2012, in order to take office as Mayor of San Diego.

Bob Filner had a bitter rivalry with Juan Vargas, another Democratic politician who ran against Bob Filner in the Democratic primary three times.

Bob Filner was a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Bob Filner was a member of the Congressional Motorcycle Safety Caucus and International Conservation Caucus.

Bob Filner was one of the 31 House Democrats who voted to not count the 20 electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election, despite Republican President George Bush winning the state by 118,457 votes.

In 2008, Bob Filner sponsored a resolution, passed by the House of Representatives, in support of National Aviation Maintenance Technician Day.

Bob Filner served on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and ascended to the chairmanship when the Democrats took over the House of Representatives after the 2006 election.

Bob Filner stayed on as ranking Democrat on the committee after the Republicans retook the House in the 2010 election.

Bob Filner's accomplishments included legislation allowing Filipino veterans to maintain a small stipend from the government if they moved back to the Philippines, burial benefits, and access to VA clinics.

In 2009 Bob Filner brokered a deal securing $198 million in pension benefits for Filipino veterans who had served for the United States in World War II in the form of a $15,000 lump sum payment as part of the 2009 stimulus bill.

Bob Filner entered the baggage claim office and became irritated when the employee was busy helping another customer and asked the congressman to wait his turn.

Bob Filner was asked to leave the area several times by airline employees but refused to do so until airport police were called in.

Bob Filner was on his way to visit troops in Iraq at the time of the incident.

Bob Filner released a statement saying "suffice it to say now, that the story that has appeared in the press is factually incorrect and the charges are ridiculous".

Bob Filner pleaded guilty in an Alford plea to reduced charges of trespassing.

Bob Filner considered the MEK, a major member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an ally against the current Iranian regime.

Bob Filner announced on June 8,2011, that he would be a candidate for mayor of San Diego in the 2012 election and would not run for re-election to Congress.

Bob Filner faced city councilmember Carl DeMaio in the November 2012 runoff election.

In February 2013, Bob Filner raised controversy by not authorizing funding of the Tourism Marketing District, a hotelier-run organization charged with promoting San Diego as a tourist destination that is funded by a 2 percent surcharge on hotel rooms.

Bob Filner publicly withheld his signature on the agreement, wanting a series of concessions that would raise hotel worker salaries, protect the City from liability, and direct more of the funds collected to be used by the City of San Diego.

However, in late May 2013 Bob Filner temporarily withheld payments to the District until it agreed to provide upfront funding for a centennial celebration for Balboa Park.

Later that day Bob Filner issued a video statement apologizing and saying that he was seeking professional help to change his behavior.

Bob Filner repeated that he had done nothing wrong and would not resign.

Less than a week after the signature drive began, Bob Filner agreed to resign.

On October 15,2013, Bob Filner pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court to three criminal counts filed against him by the California state attorney general, who took over the case after the San Diego County district attorney recused herself.

Bob Filner served a three-month term of house arrest which ended on April 6,2014.

Bob Filner is divorced from his first wife, Barbara Bob Filner, a retired mediation specialist whom he met when they both taught in a summer program in the early 1960s at Tuskegee University.

Bob Filner was later married to Jane Merrill, but they divorced in 2011.

At his first news conference after his election as mayor in 2012, Bob Filner introduced his fiancee, Bronwyn Ingram, a disability analyst who worked for the Social Security Administration.