Washington, Nov 1: Conservatives rallied around businessman Herman Cain as he battled sexual harassment allegations that threatened to knock him out of the top tier of Republican presidential contenders seeking to challenge President Barack Obama next year.

Cain, who is best known for his management of a pizza restaurant chain, stunned the political establishment with his rise from national obscurity to place at or near the top of national surveys and polls in early presidential nominating states, competitive with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, long considered the front-runner for the nomination.

Cain has been pointing to his long record in business to argue that he has the credentials to be president during a time of economic hardship. At the same time, he has sought support from social conservatives.

But Cain now finds himself on the defensive after a report on the Politico website that said the National Restaurant Association gave financial settlements to at least two female employees who had accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior when he was its chairman.

Meanwhile the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper reported that Cain allowed a tax-exempt charity to illegally provide money to help his presidential campaign get started. Cain's chief of staff, Mark Block, says the campaign has asked a lawyer to review the transactions.

On Monday, the candidate declared he had been falsely accused of sexual harassment in the 1990s while he was head of the restaurant trade group. He said the allegations that are surfacing now are part of a “witch hunt.”

The Politico report was based on anonymous sources and, in one case, what the publication said was a review of documentation that described the allegations and the resolution. Politico said Cain refused to comment when asked specifically about one of the woman's claims.

Some key conservatives backed Cain as he battled the sexual harassment allegations, likening the attacks on the Republican presidential contender to what they describe as the “high-tech lynching” of another prominent black conservative, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who also faced allegations of sexual abuse at his Senate confirmation hearing.

The forceful early reaction to the Cain firestorm—fueled by racially charged rhetoric—suggests the Georgia businessman's attempt to cast himself as a victim of the media and liberals is, so far, paying dividends among his conservative Republican base who will hold considerable sway in selecting the party's nominee.

But the accusations against Cain—an untested newcomer on the political scene—may give more moderate Republican voters pause and could cause would-be donors to shy away even as Cain works to capitalize on his rising poll numbers.

With the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus less than three months away, the harassment allegations—and Cain's response to them—have the potential to reshuffle the Republican race.

“I think the left is totally and completely terrified of a conservative black man coming to power and prominence,” said Debbie Dooley, a leader of Atlanta Tea Party Patriots. “They are trying to do the same thing to him that they did with Clarence Thomas.”

It was a view that echoed loudly across talk radio and the Internet as conservative pundits weighed in. Radio show host Rush Limbaugh lashed out at the mainstream media for pursuing “the ugliest, racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative.”

The head of the conservative Media Research Center, Brent Bozell, labeled the Politico story a “high-tech lynching,” evoking Thomas' divisive Supreme Court confirmation hearings two decades ago where he was confronted with sexual harassment allegations from a onetime employee, Anita Hill.

Cain said he was aware of the allegations made against him in the 1990s but called them “baseless” and denied he sexually harassed anyone. He said he had no knowledge of whether the association provided any such settlements, and he declined to address specifics of the accusations or the resolution.

While Cain seemed to benefit from an early burst of support in key quarters the full impact of the charges is not yet known. Women's rights groups expressed frustration that 20 years after the Thomas hearings sexual harassment complaints had again been reduced to a partisan fight.

Erin Matson, a vice president for the National Organization for Women, said the women in question should be given the benefit of the doubt.

“It is deeply insulting that this is being called political,” Matson said. “Sexual harassment allegations are always about a woman who is simply trying to go to work.”

Cain acknowledged the charges could harm his campaign at a critical juncture.

“Obviously, some people are going to be turned off by this cloud that someone wanted to put over my campaign,” he said. “But a lot of people aren't going to be turned off. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.”

The new allegations could hurt Cain's efforts to reassure the Republican establishment that someone with so little political experience—and who hasn't been fully vetted on a national stage—is prepared to go up against Obama next fall.

But first Cain must establish himself as the main conservative alternative to Romney who is viewed warily by the party's hard-core base for shifting positions on issues such as abortion and gay rights and implementing a health care reform plan in Massachusetts that served as a model for Obama's health plan that Republicans despise.

Cain and Romney are both skipping a forum in Pella, Iowa, hosted by Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, that will offer many of the presidential contenders an opportunity to outline their criticisms of Obama's economic policy and explain to voters in this early nominating state their plans to bring back the nation's crumbling manufacturing core and rebuild the struggling U.S. economy.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, looking to Iowa to steady his campaign after stumbling in recent weeks, planned to tout his role in keeping jobs growing in his state during the recession.

Also attending the event are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Ron Paul of Texas.