‘Skulking’ Enemies Started Flap Over Maid, Wilson Says

Gov. Pete Wilson struck out Friday at enemies “skulking in the shadows,” saying his ex-wife’s hiring of an illegal immigrant maid would not derail his presidential campaign.

The Republican governor acknowledged that a woman who worked as a maid in his home in the late 1970s has said she was an illegal immigrant. But he said he could not confirm her claim.

Wilson, who plans to announce this month that he will seek the GOP nomination for president, ran for reelection last year on a platform of denying education, welfare and other benefits to illegal immigrants.

Wilson said the maid controversy, which came to light Wednesday, would not halt his efforts to deny government benefits to illegal immigrants.

At a news conference Friday, Wilson referred to people “skulking in the shadows.”

“Somebody, obviously, has been feeding this to reporters. I can’t prove who it is, so I won’t publicly speculate,” said Wilson, his voice croaking from recent surgery on his vocal chords.

“If the opponents of immigration reform think this will in some way silence the debate on illegal immigration, they are woefully mistaken,” he said.

Wilson has said his first wife, Betty Hosie, hired the maid, Josefina Klag, in 1978 to work one day a week, starting at $25 a day and eventually making $50 a day. He and Hosie divorced in 1981.

Wilson said Friday he wasn’t sure that Klag really was in this country illegally when she was hired.

Wilson’s lawyer, John Davies, said Klag told his accountant that she achieved legal status in 1979. However, he said Klag, currently in Tijuana, Mexico, refused to show them an immigration green card or a Social Security number.

Wilson also has said that he failed to pay Social Security taxes on the maid’s income but that he and his wife would do so as soon as the Internal Revenue Service determines the total.