Kansas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis insists he was doing nothing wrong when he was rounded up in a police raid of a strip club back in 1998, and accused Republicans of waging "a desperate smear campaign."
Davis is polling ahead of incumbent Gov. Sam Brownback by about four percentage points, according to
Real Clear Politics, a lead that reflects voters' questions about how Brownback has handed the state's budget, reports
The New York Times.
Davis' acknowledgement that he was in the "wrong place at the wrong time" back in 1998 could cause him problems in Kansas, a conservative state that has been trying to put strip clubs out of business.
But Davis said he has never been accused of wrongdoing, after the report came out in the twice-weekly Coffeyville Journal in southeast Kansas and was widely publicized through
Politico.
While Davis was not arrested, a police chief wrote later that he had been drinking and was found alone with a woman in a g-string "in a somewhat compromising position . . . in a back room of the club," reports Politico.
Davis told Politico in a statement Saturday that he was unmarried and 26 years old when his boss took him to the club.
"The club owner was one of our legal clients,' said Davis, who is now 42 and a state representative, serving as House minority leader. "While we were in the building, the police showed up. I was never accused of having done anything wrong, but rather I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Brownback has not commented on the matter, The Times reports, but Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Clayton Barker said the incident shows Davis' character and raises questions over whether he is "fit to govern."
Independence, Kan. Police Chief Harry Smith, in a statement released by the Davis campaign, said he was on the drug task force that conducted the 1998 raid in search of methamphetamines, and that Davis fully cooperated and was not the investigation's focus.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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