Shreveport, Louisiana, Nov 15: Presidential contender Herman Cain's attempts to put a sexual harassment scandal to rest were set back Monday as a witness disputed the candidate's claim that he had never met one of his accusers.
The account of Victor Jay Zuckerman, a former boyfriend of the accuser, challenged the credibility of Cain, a former pizza executive who has been unexpectedly running at the top of the polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Cain has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney, Lin Wood, said Cain stood by his earlier statement that he does not remember Sharon Bialek, Zuckerman's former girlfriend and one of four women who claim Cain had sexually harassed them when he headed a restaurant trade group in the 1990s.
He has been running neck-and-neck with former Massachusetts Governor and venture capitalist Mitt Romney.
Romney remains the favorite of the Republican establishment and has seen challengers to his pre-eminence rapidly rise and fade over the past few months.
Cain denies the allegations and claims donations to his campaign are rising because of what he claims is a smear campaign.
Polls of Republican primary voters, however, show some of his support among women is fading. As that has happened, former congressman Newt Gingrich has gained ground.
Zuckerman's account of an evening he, Sharon Bialek and Cain spent together in 1997 directly contradicts the candidate's assertions that he had never met his accuser and did not recognize her name.
“During the National Restaurant Association convention in Chicago, Sharon indeed did meet and spend time with Mr. Cain,” Zuckerman said at a news conference, describing an after party Cain had invited them to in a hotel suite after a National Restaurant Association event in Chicago.
Cain was chief executive of the Washington lobbying group at the time.
“At that party, Mr. Cain engaged both of us in conversation,” Zuckerman said.
Zuckerman said he did not witness alleged sexual advances. He could only confirm that they and Cain had met.
“When she returned, she was upset,” Zuckerman said. “She said that something had happened and that Mr. Cain had touched her in an inappropriate manner. She said she handled it and didn't want to talk about it any further.”
Zuckerman said Bialek told him that Cain inappropriately touched her later that year when she met him in Washington to seek employment help after being fired from the association.
Cain on Monday stood by his earlier statement that he does not remember Bialek, said his attorney, Lin Wood.
“He doesn't recall Ms. Bialek,” Wood told The Associated Press, reiterating that Cain has denied making untoward sexual advances toward anyone.
Wood said Cain met with a large number of people as head of the restaurant group. If someone remembers meeting Cain, Wood said it is possible Cain would not remember them.
There is fresh evidence that accusations are causing Cain to lose public support. Some surveys show him dropping from the top of the polls, where he had been in the weeks before the first of the decade-old accusations surfaced.
Cain has defiantly denied any wrongdoing but he also has been unable to put the questions behind him with less than two months until Iowa's leadoff caucuses.
Cain has vowed to stay in the race for the Republican nomination and has deployed his wife of 43 years to defend him.
Hours after Zuckerman stepped forward to give his account, an interview with Gloria Cain aired on Fox News Channel.
Mrs. Cain defended her husband as turmoil over allegations of sexual impropriety while he led the National Restaurant Association stretched into a third week.
“I know the person that he is, and I know that the person that they were talking about, I don't know who that person is. We've been married for 43 years,” Mrs. Cain told Fox News' “On the Record” in an interview taped over the weekend before Zuckerman came forward.
In another possible setback for the candidate on Monday, a video released by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper shows him struggling to answer basic policy questions, including a request for his assessment of U.S. policy in Libya.
Several candidates visited Iowa on Monday. The central U.S. state holds a key January caucus that helps set the field for the state-by-state primary elections that follow.
Gingrich said during a visit there voters are drawn to his policy acumen and background as a leader in Congress during tough times in the 1990s. But he still has a long way to go to cap a turnaround, with the support of just 7 percent of those likely to attend the state's caucuses.
Meanwhile Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in an effort to turn around his poor performance in recent polls, told Iowa Republican activists that he is proposing a fundamental overhaul over all three branches of government.
