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...The woman is 29-year-old Cynthia Ore, of Rockville, Md. In today's Times Leader, she claims that she and the married Pennsylvania congressman had been lovers since they met in 1999 at a Young Republicans event.

Ore claims that Sherwood told her that he would be getting a divorce from his wife of 33 years, the mother of his three daughters.

“I loved him." she said. "He always told me he loved me and I believed him.”

Republican Sherwood, who narrowly beat Pat Casey of the Scranton political family in 2000 and has won re-election twice since then in the 10th Congressional District, didn't explicitly acknowledge an affair but this week apologized for "the pain and embarassment" that he had caused his family.

Ore had initially told police last year that the congressman was choking her -- although the claim seems to have been withdrawn and the D.C. police have said, in so many words, that they have no idea what the heck was going on.

We do know this, that Sherwood was a solid supporter of the GOP's "family values" agenda, that he had an 84 percent rating from the Christian Coaltion and was a supporter of "the sanctity of marriage."...