Is Heidi DeJong Barsuglia, the energy lobbyist named in press reports as being the subject of Mike Duvall's filthy sexual boasting, denying that she was involved with the married Republican lawmaker, who resigned this afternoon? [SEE LATE UPDATE BELOW]
Sempra Energy, where Barsuglia works, just released the following statement:
Sempra Energy takes very seriously any reports involving the conduct of our employees. We are investigating this matter and the recent media reports that named one of our employees. The employee has denied the speculative media reports. Our investigation will be conducted to ensure not only that our policies on employee conduct are strictly adhered to, but also that our employee is treated fairly.
It's unclear exactly what Barsuglia has denied to her employers. And we've yet to hear directly from Barsuglia herself -- she didn't respond to TPMmuckraker's call for comment earlier today. So we'd better wait for more information.
But this story could be about to get even more interesting.
Late Update: A Sempra spokesman has clarified to TPMmuckraker that Barsuglia explicitly denied a sexual relationship with Duvall.

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davemartin7777
September 9, 2009 6:08 PM
Heidi Dejong Barsuglia
SEMPRA ENERGY AND ITS AFFILIATES, SAN DIEGO GAS & ELECTRIC, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS COMPANY & SEMPRA ENERGY GLOBAL ENTERPRISES
http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Lobbying/Lobbyists/Detail.aspx?id=1268268&session=2009
Give her a call, if you're in government she may service you.
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Snarky
September 9, 2009 6:19 PM in reply to davemartin7777
Thanks for that link...I'm going to keep checking to see when her termination date will be. Probably soon.
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Snarky
September 9, 2009 6:17 PM
I can just see her now, frantically denying everything. Wonder how much that job of hers paid.
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ctal
September 9, 2009 7:33 PM in reply to Snarky
haha you are joking, right? termination date?
She is one very successful lobbyist, my friend. There will be 10 groups calling her tonight for her services, and I do not mean sexual.
That IS what lobbying is all about. Money, sex and other perks for our bought and paid for Congress.
Ah, isn't democracy great?
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CVille Dem
September 9, 2009 6:23 PM
Well, she'll probably do okay. I hear she is a pirate -- or at least wears a "pirate patch."
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subliminalkid
September 9, 2009 6:54 PM
I think she is denying either his "messy" or "eyepatch" involvement claim. Maybe she was at his condo on a business lunch after an eye test and he spilt his in/out burger on her midriff while she was walking down the stairs. Otherwise, that live audio feed came from a pretty "hot mike!"
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FlownOver
September 9, 2009 6:59 PM
There was no "relationship." It was just a drippy one-off.
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Stormwatcher
September 9, 2009 7:01 PM
Would be funny if she wasn't the actual lobbyist mentioned, but knowing she had done Duvall too, pre-emptively issued a denial. When only know of two names because thats all Duvall mentioned. There could easily be more.
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Bushie
September 9, 2009 7:08 PM
Ah, nothing like negotiable virtue, on both sides.
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barryashe
September 9, 2009 7:38 PM
Divine Intervention Pt. III
God Got Involved Again
The Lord promised me that He would continue to reveal Satan's tools in all their glorious deceit and hypocrisy as He did earlier first with the "C" Street coven of Sanford, Ensign, Coburn, and Pickering, then following up with His recent round of disclosures about the GOP's two main "Great White Hopes" in this year's elections, Christie and McDonnell, but I didn't realize that He was going to pick up the pace and ratchet up the intensity of His Divine Intervention.
Even the greatest skeptic must now understand that God got involved, as Jules Winfield of Inglewood put it, because this latest revelation could not have been so perfectly engineered by mere mortals to shine the brightest possible clean light of day into the black heart of darkness, the squalid rat's nest that is today's Republican Party. (As in "Party Hearty" as Mike Duvall might put it.) The Lord said He meant to make the GOP's utter depravity undeniable to even the dimmest bulb, the most closed mind in the fetid pool of Republican dupes, but I did not fully comprehend the intensity of His wrath at the GOP's continual taking of His Name in vain until now.
The Lord told me He would not relent until He uncovered every one of Satan's minions as the dissolute demon he is if they dared enter the public arena, but now He has revealed to me that He will not stop until the Republican Party has been banished from this earth forever. It has been more than forty years now since the GOP made its last great contribution to the public life of our great nation when Dirksen and Halleck delivered the large majority of their Republican votes in Congress to combine with the Northern Democrats to overcome the Dixiecrats' filibusters of LBJ's Civil Rights Bills of the 1960's. Since that time, the GOP has been relentlessly negative with not one redeeming moment of public virtue or democratic resolve to its credit.
As The Lord revealed to me, He allowed Satan to use the Republican Party and the fundamentalist churches to try to destroy the American experiment of trusting the divine gifts of compassion and rationality in every human being. God imposed this sore trial upon His New Chosen People to test their faith, but He now is satisfied that sufficient of His New Chosen People have held steadfast in their faith in the Divine Spirit in every human being. He sees that they have confirmed His faith in them by resisting every temptation in Satan's evil Republican repetoire of racism, sexism, nativism, homophobia, greed, selfishness, and control for lo these forty years. Now the day of deliverance is upon us.
Oh, ye of little faith, Behold the Work of The Lord!
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Donald from Hawaii
September 10, 2009 4:21 AM in reply to barryashe
I agree with Lily Tomlin. If you talk to God, that's called prayer. If God talks to you, that's called schizophrenia.
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writergal
September 9, 2009 7:43 PM
Actually, that this guy is lying is something I believe.
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witty1
September 9, 2009 7:46 PM
I'm thinking she gets a bonus for turning the quid pro quo tricks AND getting some free press for the lobbying firm.
All press is good press.
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dwelchnz
September 9, 2009 7:59 PM in reply to witty1
That would be quim pro quo in this case
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Nowukkers
September 10, 2009 10:23 AM in reply to dwelchnz
Touche! dwelchnz. Wouldn't be a kiwi would you?
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lousgirl84
September 9, 2009 7:53 PM
Here;s a picture of Ms. Heidi Barsuglia
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=gmail&q=Heidi%20DeJong%20Barsuglia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
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Dave Bowman
September 9, 2009 8:51 PM
Her denial is that her panties are, in fact, bigger than an eyepatch.
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OceanDog
September 9, 2009 8:51 PM
Sempra should just pay for all those employed as lobbyists to get HIV/STD testing...
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tiowally
September 9, 2009 9:04 PM
Sempra Energy: We move our tail for you.™
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Garfield
September 9, 2009 9:42 PM
Depends on what the definition of "is" is.
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AnacherForester
September 9, 2009 10:16 PM
I think it's telling this yob felt compelled to boast about his exploits.
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steve3443
September 9, 2009 11:53 PM
So she explicitly denied a sexual relation with this guy to someone at the company. As if that means anything. Like everyone working there, especially the upper management doesn't know that sex gets results. Please...it's probably implicit policy. Hire attractive young women to work as lobbyists, have them flirt with the nasty old men who have some way in policies, regulations, subsidies and government allocations in a particular area, get them thinking with their d*** and start working for you. Or, then again, maybe it was just love at first sight.
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rynato
September 10, 2009 1:07 AM
Perhaps she is denying a 'sexual relationship' (explicitly, even!) because she faked all her orgasms with the old, fat dude?
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arias
September 10, 2009 1:43 AM in reply to rynato
Orgasms oh so fake on her part?!? Hah!!! You appear rather impartial to Duvall as if he really had something to brag about. That dwad would have felt like the luckiest man alive if he lasted more than three seconds. And that's BEFORE he even managed to get his pants down.
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Donald from Hawaii
September 10, 2009 4:31 AM in reply to rynato
Hey, buddy! Watch you mouth! That trashy whore could be somebody's daughter, grandaughter, sister or niece!
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PoliSciJunkie
September 10, 2009 1:48 AM
Instead of not having a leg to stand on, maybe she will not have a bottom to sit on.. I think she is going to get another spanking, probably in a court of law.
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wisconsin
September 10, 2009 8:08 AM
Barsuglia was unavailable for comment because she was busy getting herself cleaned up. Ha!. Duvall quit, but why? Ensign, Sanford, et al born again -"I speak to god and he forgave me" rightwingers haven't quit and they're doing the same thing. All Duvall has to do is dial up god and get the ok that what he did was actually forgiven, since they all speak to god directly. I wonder if there are any conflict of interest charges here. After all, Duvall was a bigwig on the energy committee and Barsuglia (allegedly) ho's -I mean works-for an energy company.
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KilgoreTrout XL
September 10, 2009 8:26 AM
Well I guess I lose the office pool- I bet that she'd say "I don't recall."
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johnb
September 10, 2009 8:33 AM
Well, this would be the first time that a FAT, OLD Republican had ever lied about having sex with an attractive woman.
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JohnW1141
September 10, 2009 10:09 AM
I did not have sex with that man!
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drinal
September 10, 2009 10:41 AM
Interesting developments.
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