The brief, perplexing gubernatorial campaign of Rep. Eric Swalwell ended in a Me Too Movement fireball this past weekend. 

The Chronicle’s Alexei Koseff and Sophia Bollag broke the story Friday that a former staffer accused him sexual assault. CNN followed up more accusations made by other women that accused Swalwell, who is a married father, of sexual impropriety. Like so many powerful men, Swalwell’s initial reaction was outright denial. The stories told by the women were “lies” and “false.”

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“For nearly 20 years, I have served the public — as a prosecutor and a congressman and have always protected women,” he asserted in an initial statement that failed to convince anyone that his campaign for governor could survive the revelations. 

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By Sunday night, virtually every politician or union who had endorsed Swalwell had bailed, and he finally got the message that the jig was up. He announced in a statement that he was suspending his campaign and that he was “deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in the past,” as if he was apologizing for crank phone calls made when he was a teenager rather than responding to the allegation he raped a former staffer in 2024. 

The six term congressman from Dublin added that he would “fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s.”

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Speaking of Swalwell’s fight, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is investigating the........

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