The Huffington Post is reporting that Herman Cain's 2012 Campaign for the GOP presidential nomination is being met by controversy. Former Iowa Straw Poll coordinator Kevin Hall has alleged that he left Cain's campaign after concerns were raised about the sexual orientation of Scott Toomey, the treasurer of Cain's political action committee. Toomey also served as Cain's senior political adviser thorugh May.
Hall made the allegations in a letter applying for unemployment benefits and in testimony during a hearing last week. The Associated Press obtained the letter, supporting documents he submitted and audio of the hearing from Iowa Workforce Development. A Cain campaign lawyer did not dispute Hall's allegations during the hearing, and Administrative Law Judge Bonny Hendricksmeyer awarded benefits, ruling that he resigned only after the campaign tried to get him involved in the alleged cover-up and changed the conditions of his job.
Hall said he also left the campaign June 30 after it became clear that promises made by Cain staffers that the candidate would spend much of July and August campaigning in Iowa to place strongly in the straw poll would be broken. Cain's Iowa director, Tina Goff, has also said she quit at the same time because of Cain's lack of commitment to Iowa.
Cain spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael said Tuesday that Hall was "a disgruntled former staffer" who only worked for the campaign 22 days, and his claims should be viewed with skepticism.
When asked by journalists, Cain was very clear that he opposed gay marriage, and yet he would hire an openly gay person. Perhaps they needed to ask one more question: Would his campaign push a gay person out or cover up that a person is gay in order to assuage the perceived homophobia of Iowa Republicans?
We're assuming that Cain's campaign knew about Toomey's sexual orientation and allegations of misconduct in his role as treasurer of the Madison Pride Board prior to hiring him, so why would it then be an issue in Iowa? They did vet Toomey, right? Cain's astute business acumen is not visible in this case; sadly enough, bias against gays is quite visible.
Read more at the Huffington Post.
In other news: Candorville: Behavioral Interpretations.