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A two-day prostitution sting in St. Paul netted 35 men, including a longtime Republican operator in Minnesota politics.
Peter Hong, 41, of Minneapolis, was one of 19 men picked up Wednesday afternoon after police say he responded to an ad for sex put out in newspapers and online by the St. Paul Police Department’s vice squad.
He was booked into the Ramsey County Jail at about 5 p.m. the same day on suspicion of engaging in prostitution.
The Carleton grad was a campaign spokesman for Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2002 and congressional press secretary to Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., for much of the 1990s. He also served as the Bush-Cheney Minnesota campaign spokesman in 2004. His most recent political stint was as presidential campaign spokesman for Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Hong is currently self-employed and “Always Searching for the Next Big Thing!” according to his profile on the business-networking Web site LinkedIn.
Sixteen more men were picked up Thursday. All 35 were arrested on suspicion of engaging in prostitution.
“That’s like huge for us,” said Peter Panos, police spokesman. “That’s a great two day’s work.”
The department runs this type of sting once every six weeks, Panos said, and the arrests send out a message to potential johns:
“You want to do prostitution, look, go somewhere else, you’re not going to do it in St. Paul,” Panos said.
Several calls to phone numbers listed for Hong were not immediately returned today.
Nathan
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