Paul Babeu

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu was already one of the most despicable human beings running for Congress this year, but now he's cemented his hold on the very bottom spot. Before moving to Arizona, Babeu served as headmaster of the DeSisto School, a private school for troubled youth in his home state of Massachusetts. The school, known for treating students with an "intense discipline regimen," was a nightmarish disaster that shut down in 2004, after state investigators found massive violations of basic dignity like these:

The probe resulted in a court order to stop specific activities, including punishments that put students in chairs facing corners for hours at a time, withholding food from students and strip-searching. The court also ordered the school to stop group showers and allow students to use the bathroom in private.

That was all well-known when Babeu first sought the Republican nomination in Arizona's 4th Congressional district back in 2012—a bid that was derailed when a former lover of Babeu's, an unauthorized immigrant, alleged that Babeu had threatened him with deportation if he did not remain quiet about their relationship. Babeu denied the allegations but acknowledged he was gay and quit the race a few months later.

Babeu's now waging a second congressional bid (in a different district), and his DeSisto history has re-emerged thanks to a home video obtained by a local TV station, ABC15, in which Babeu spoke highly of the harsh punishment of the children under his care. ABC15 had investigated Babeu's tenure back in 2012, after which Babeu denied knowing anything about the school's abusive practices and had his lawyers send a threatening letter to the station.

But in this newly emerged video, taken at a family Christmas gathering in 1999, Babeu goes into great detail about what went on at DeSisto. He calls his students "bonkers" and explained, among other things, that they could be made to sit in a chair facing the corner of a room "for weeks." He also indicates that food might be withheld, saying students "have to be free of anything, any distraction, like food to TV, radio." To get better, he insists, "They need to feel hopeless and feel depression and complete failure." Babeu's claims to have known nothing about what was going on under him wouldn't have absolved him of responsibility even if true, but in any event, they are now rendered indisputably false.