Paul Stanley, Tennessee State Senator, Champion of Family Values, When Caught in Affair With 22-Year-Old Intern and Sex-and-Blackmail Scandal, Quits.

By Jeff Woods; NASHVILLE, Tenn. Tuesday July 28th 2009 — A Tennessee lawmaker resigned from the state Senate on Tuesday after his extramarital affair with a 22-year-old intern was revealed by an investigation into an extortion case. "Due to recent events, I have decided to focus my full attention on my family and resign my Senate seat effective August 10," Republican Sen. Paul Stanley wrote in his resignation letter.

Court records show that Stanley, 47, told agents investigating a blackmail case that he had a sexual relationship with intern McKensie Morrison. Her boyfriend, Joel Watts, is charged with trying to extort $10,000 from Stanley in April. Investigators say Watts demanded the money in exchange for not releasing to the media explicit photos of Morrison that Stanley had taken in what appears to be Stanley's apartment.

The senator, a married father of two who represents suburban Memphis, had signaled he would remain in the legislature, but he said Tuesday that he decided to step down about an hour before submitting his resignation letter. Stanley, who was elected to the Senate in 2006 after serving six years in the state House, had resigned last week as chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee.

A special election will be held to fill the seat in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Stanley's legislative proposals were largely focused on pro-business issues, but he also sponsored failed measures to ban gay couples from adopting children. He also spoke out against funding for Planned Parenthood because he said unmarried people should not have sex.

"Whatever I stood for and advocated, I still believe to be true," he said during an interview Tuesday with Memphis radio station WREC-AM. "And just because I fell far short of what God's standard was for me and my wife, doesn't mean that that standard is reduced in the least bit."

Morrison's phone numbers are redacted from her legislative internship application, and efforts to reach her were unsuccessful Tuesday. Her father said he didn't want to talk about the situation.

"It's a family matter, and I'm going to approach it that way," Will Morrison said.

According to court records, Morrison is married to a man who is serving a seven-year prison sentence in Florida but that he has filed for divorce.

While political world awaited word on Stanley's resignation, sources confirm affairs and other suspect behavior By Ken Whitehouse

Embattled State Sen. Paul Stanley (R-Germantown) has seen his political star implode since it was revealed that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with an intern in his office. The revelation came to light when the boyfriend of intern McKensie Morrison — Joel Watts — attempted to blackmail the senator.

Now, according to several sources, Stanley's affair with Morrison was not the first time the "family values" Republican had strayed from his public persona as a conservative lawmaker.

Sources have confirmed that Stanley has had a number of improper relationships with women connected to the state legislature.

They say the first relationship occurred in 2007 with a legislative secretary. The secretary, reportedly in her late 30s or early 40s, is no longer employed by the state General Assembly.

Those sources also say that they have direct knowledge that Stanley had an affair with two women lobbying Capitol Hill over the past two legislative sessions. NashvillePost.com is choosing not to publish the names of the women at this time out of respect for their families.

Another Capitol Hill source states that in 2003 that they witnessed Stanley “making out” with a legislative intern at the Beer Sellar on Second Avenue downtown during a party thrown by the interns celebrating the end of that year’s legislative session.

According to the source, Stanley “had his tongue down her throat and was groping her in front of the whole bar.”

Stanley’s fall from grace has been rapid. His resignation has been called for by the Shelby County Republican Party and GOP Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris of Collierville and sources say now that it is just a matter of time.

Also, just days before news of the alleged blackmail scheme broke, Stanley was attending a legislative conference in Atlanta and sources say his behavior created controversy at the event.

On July 15, more than 2,000 conservative lawmakers from all over the country descended on Atlanta to attend the American Legislative Exchange Council's annual meeting. The group is known as ALEC and describes itself as a “nonpartisan individual membership organization of state legislators which favors federalism and conservative public policy solutions.”

According to sources at the event, Stanley while was attending a dinner that was being paid for by lobbyists, he ordered three to five $150 bottles of wine and became intoxicated. (State law allows for groups of lobbyists to pay for the dinners of legislators while at such events.)

Individuals at the event state that Stanley was confronted about the bill by State Rep. Charles Sargent (R-Franklin) and told that he needed to pay for it himself as opposed to making the lobbyists pay for it. Stanley became belligerent and was asked to leave the restaurant.

Stanley eventually did leave, only to have a heated argument with Sargent just outside the door of the establishment.

Sen. Paul Stanley

Well, it was only a matter of time, wasn't it? According to authorities, one of our own social conservative Republicans has been caught cheating on his wife, and he was doing it with a young legislative intern. At this juncture, we're going to resist the temptation to make a joke about family values. That's getting so old it's not funny anymore.

Suffice it to say that like John Ensign, Mark Sanford and all the rest on the national stage lately, this one is really rich--with a little homemade porn and a bumbling blackmailer tossed into the story to make it even spicier. Ensnared in Tennessee's own sex scandal tonight is Sen. Paul Stanley, the wingnut from Germantown who has crusaded to ban gay adoption of children and who once made the really stupid mistake of saying: "When you're married, there's a commitment there."

According to court documents, here's what happened: Stanley, who is married with two children, was accused of having an affair with a 22-year-old legislative intern, McKensie Morrison, by the woman's boyfriend. The boyfriend, Joel Palmer Watts. 28, discovered a computer memory disc with sexually explicit photographs of Morrison that appeared to have been taken in Stanley's apartment. Watts then blackmailed Stanley, demanding $10,000 in return for keeping quiet.

"Releasing the photographs to individuals or the media would cause embarrassment, both professionally and personally, to Stanley," according to the court affidavit, as if we needed an explanation for why this might pose a small problem for our family values champion. (Notably, as a House member, Stanley introduced a bill prohibiting the showing of pornographic materials in a moving vehicle. Don't ask us to explain why.)

Now a blackmail victim, Stanley went to the TBI, and they set up Watts. Stanley met his blackmailer behind the El Rey Azteca Mexican restaurant in Whites Creek. Where else? According to court documents:

"When Watts arrived, he and Stanley exchanged the memory disc for the $10,000.00. Watts was taken into custody at that time. During a subsequent interview, Watts admitted to demanding the money from Stanley."

All this happened in April and, amazingly, Stanley managed to keep it quiet until now. Watts has been charged with extortion. Stanley isn't talking to reporters. At the Nashville Post, Ken Whitehouse reported the senator would resign. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, who is running for governor, will not have much appetite for publicly defending Stanley,