Mike Franken is the Democrat's nominee in the long-shot bid to unseat senior U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Despite the formidable challenge before him, Franken outraised Grassley in the most recent fundraising period, igniting speculation that the race may be more competitive than observers thought.
Franken, a retired Navy vice admiral, is one of the few Democrats who could conceivably prevail in the culturally conservative Hawkeye State.
However, the Navy man's former campaign manager, Kimberley Strope-Boggus, may have dropped a grenade on his political ambitions when she accused him of sexual misconduct.
Politico further reports:
Then the conservative Iowa Field Report published anย April report his former campaign manager filed with Des Moines police, alleging that Franken kissed her without consent. The woman who filed the report told police that Franken has kissed other women and had what she called โ1950s interactionsโ with them, but did not describe the behavior as sexual or aggressive.
Franken denies the incident, which did not result in charges, and says he had never before been accused of unwanted advances on women. The retired Navy vice admiral said in an interview that people in his state have already moved on.
Yet he's not letting the timing go unnoticed. While describing himself as an advocate for accountability, Franken pointed a finger at Republicans for the โdesperate moveโ of publishing the report in โa Republican paper funded byย Chuck Grassley, funded by the Republicans.โ
โI am an active supporter of any effort to uncover and disclose assaults of any matter. But this one didn't happen,โ Franken said. โI'm just so disappointed that anything negative has come up about this. Because we're on all eight cylinders. We're cruising along โฆ that was just an oddity. That's no longer part of the picture.โ
Per the police report, Franken was attempting to entice his ex-campaign manager, Strope-Boggus, to rejoin his team when they met for drinks.
At a certain point, the Democratic Senate nominee allegedly โgrabbed the collar of the vest she was wearing and kissed her on her mouthโ before she could โpull away.โ
But it gets worse, according to Hot Air's John Sexton, who explained that Strope-Boggus is a lesbian and married to a woman, as one would expect. Franken would have undoubtedly known this, having spent time with the Strope-Boggus family, Sexton notes.
Other details in the report were later corroborated in a Twitter thread by Strope-Boggus' wife, Becky. However, her tweets were later deleted after Franken's lawyers contacted Ms. Strope-Boggus' lawyers.
FiveThirtyEight's weighted polling average currently shows Grassley with a 7.3% lead over Franken.
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7 Comments
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There’s just something about that name Franken and sexual misconduct that I Can’t put my finger on it. hmmm
Dems just can’t help themselves. They believe all women have the hots for them, even Lesbians. “Fingers” Biden is a firm believer in his special attraction, even with the 12-year-olds.
Keep your hands to your self.
Grassley has NO understanding of the Constitution and needs to be retired. Why the surprise that he is being outraised in the current fundraising period. Is there a reason for investing in a cadaver??
Says he who is in the tank for Joe!
Well of course he’ll get by with it, slow Joe the pedo has got by with it for years and it’s little kids he attacks. Hell he did it on live TV the other day and the whole democratic party just laughed about it. You can’t tell me ther is not something evil going on in this whole screwed up party