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Herman Cain’s campaign run imploding
Herman Cain
Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain’s Iowa campaign chairman said Tuesday the candidate was reassessing his bid for his party’s nomination a day after an Atlanta businesswoman alleged she and Cain had a long extramarital affair.
Should he leave the race, the already topsy-turvy contest for the Republican nomination could become even more chaotic as the seven other candidates battle for Cain supporters with just over a month remaining before the first state-by-state contest to choose next year’s challenger to President Barack Obama.
Cain shot to the top of the Republican field in late September and early October with his folksy style and catchy “9-9-9” tax reform program. But he was never seen as the likely nominee, and his support began to crumble after publicity about alleged sexual harassment surfaced a month ago. He has also stumbled badly on important questions about U.S. foreign policy and had voiced ambiguous responses to questions about his stand on abortion, always a divisive issue in American politics.
Cain has fiercely denied the affair as well as several other accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior that have surfaced over the past month, and he has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race. He told senior staff in a midmorning conference call lasting roughly 10 minutes that all public events will go forward this week but he will review the campaign’s strategy over the next several days.
One participant on the call, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the conversation, said that as part of that assessment, Cain’s campaign is examining the impact of the newest allegations. This person described the tone as positive but also said there was some uncertainty coming from Cain.
“He said obviously it’s taken an emotional toll on his family, but he’s moving ahead with the campaign,” said Steve Grubbs, Cain’s campaign chairman in the Midwestern state of Iowa. “He said that they will be reassessing the campaign.”
Grubbs added: “He said this lady was a friend, someone he thought was a friend, that he was trying to help out financially and had been a friend for some period of time. But that nothing inappropriate occurred.”
“Yes,” said J.D. Gordon, Cain’s spokesman, when asked early Tuesday whether Cain is definitely staying in the race.
