Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.) will not seek reelection next year amid allegations that he sexually harassed women, making him the seventh — and youngest — member of Congress felled by reports of misconduct since October.
Once considered a rising star in Democratic politics, Kihuen announced Saturday that he will leave Congress at the end of his first term.
“I want to state clearly again that I deny the allegations in question,” Kihuen, 37, said in a statement. “However, the allegations that have surfaced would be a distraction from a fair and thorough discussion of the issues in a reelection campaign. Therefore, it is in the best interests of my family and my constituents to complete my term in Congress and not seek reelection.”
The announcement, first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, came the day after the House Ethics Committee said it had launched an investigation into Kihuen’s behavior. He plans to cooperate with the probe and looks forward to “clearing my name,” according to his statement.
Kihuen’s plan to not seek reelection is the latest sign of the reckoning over sexual harassment allegations on Capitol Hill. Leaders are grappling with how to address an increasing number of accusations against members and staff, as well as how to improve the system for reporting workplace violations in congressional offices.
Kihuen has been accused of making unwanted advances toward multiple women, including an employee on his 2016 congressional campaign and a lobbyist during his time as a state legislator.
After the first set of allegations, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called for him to step aside.
“I’ve asked for him to resign. I’ve asked for him to resign right from the start,” Pelosi said Thursday at a news conference.
Kihuen has faced growing pressure from leaders to step down as allegations continued to mount in recent days. Democrats hope to use sexual harassment as a cudgel against President Trump and Republicans in the 2018 election cycle, and are working to enforce a zero-tolerance policy within their ranks.
On Friday, BuzzFeed reported that a woman who worked at Kihuen’s condo building in Las Vegas said he made inappropriate comments toward her and sent flirtatious text messages. And just after news of Kihuen’s plans broke Saturday, the Nevada Independent published allegations from a woman who works for a firm that did business with Kihuen’s campaign. She said he made unwanted advances, including rubbing her lower back and kissing her face several times at a fundraiser.
BuzzFeed previously had reported that Kihuen’s former campaign finance director, identified only as “Samantha,” said he propositioned her for dates and twice touched her thighs without consent. When that story came out, Kihuen apologized for any behavior that made the woman feel uncomfortable.
The second set of allegations came from an unnamed lobbyist, who told the Nevada Independent that Kihuen touched her thighs and buttocks without consent and sent her hundreds of suggestive text messages, which the Independent reviewed. The lobbyist said the two never dated.
Kihuen, at that time, told the news outlet that he would not comment on his dating “relationships” as a state legislator.
In his decision, Kihuen joins Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.), who announced Thursday that he won’t seek reelection amid allegations of sexual harassment. Farenthold has denied engaging in improper conduct, but faced mounting reports of misbehavior from former staff members. He settled a sexual harassment complaint with his former communications director in 2014.
Other members to recently step aside over harassment allegations include Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), who resigned after multiple former aides accused him of unwanted advances and mistreatment, and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who said this month he would leave Capitol Hill in the “coming weeks” after several women said he touched them inappropriately. Both have denied wrongdoing.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) announced he would resign effective Jan. 31, after House officials learned that he had asked two female employees to bear his child as a surrogate.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) last month announced that he will not seek another term after news reports revealed the longtime congressman had carried on extramarital relationships with multiple women before his 2015 divorce.
Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) in October resigned after a news report claimed that the married Republican had asked a woman with whom he had an extramarital affair to get an abortion.
The Trump administration has informed multiple divisions within the Department of Health and Human Services that they should avoid using certain words or phrases in official documents being drafted for next year’s budget.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is part of HHS, were given a list of seven prohibited words or phrases during a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget. The words to avoid: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
A second HHS agency received similar guidance to avoid using “entitlement,” “diversity” and “vulnerable,” according to an official who took part in a briefing earlier in the week. Participants at that agency were also told to use “Obamacare” instead of ACA, or the Affordable Care Act, and to use “exchanges” instead of “marketplaces” to describe the venues where people can purchase health insurance.
At the State Department, meanwhile, certain documents now refer to sex education as “sexual risk avoidance.”
The colleague who provided the briefing at the second HHS agency relied on a document from the Office of Management and Budget detailing guidance for the fiscal 2019 budget, said the official in an interview Saturday. No explanations were given for the language changes. The HHS official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the language change information was supposed to be “close hold.” The person did not want to name the agency to protect the identity of officials involved in the talks.
It’s not clear whether other federal agencies have been instructed to avoid certain words, and if so, to what extent, in preparing their budget documents for next year. Officials interviewed at the two HHS agencies said the language restriction was unusual and a departure from previous years.
The OMB oversees the process that culminates in the president’s annual budget proposal to Congress. That budget document, usually several volumes, is generally shaped to reflect an administration’s priorities. An OMB spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
News of the directives to stop using these words and phrases drew outcry from scientific groups, researchers and advocacy organizations who took to Twitter and other social media.
Rush Holt, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said: “Among the words forbidden to be used in CDC budget documents are ‘evidence-based’ and ‘science-based.’ I suppose one must not think those things either. Here’s a word that’s still allowed: ridiculous.”
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, noted that CDC’s own research suggests that transgender people face a higher risk of being infected with HIV.
A CDC study published in August, which analyzed 9 million agency-funded HIV tests, determined that transgender women “had the highest percentage of confirmed positive results (2.7%) of any gender category.”
“To pretend and insist that transgender people do not exist, and to allow this lie to infect public health research and prevention is irrational and very dangerous, and not just to transgender people,” Keisling said in an email.
While HHS staffers were directly notified about how they must change the language they use when preparing budget documents, a shift is happening in other departments as well.
At the State Department, for example, employees received a guidance document on Wednesday that outlined how they should develop country operating plans under the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for 2018. This document repeatedly uses the phrase “sexual risk avoidance,” which has been defined in recent congressional funding bills as abstinence-only practices until marriage, as the primary form of sex education.
Jen Kates, vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said in an interview Saturday that while the document does not specifically change how much money should be spent on abstinence-only programs under PEPFAR, the heavy emphasis on it could shift priorities on how money is spent overseas.
“It’s a change, and the language in these documents does matter, because that’s what’s communicated to the teams in the field,” Kates said, adding that it’s “too early to tell” how this might translate into funding changes.
According to a database compiled by the Foundation for AIDS Research, or Amfar, the amount of money that has been allotted for “Abstinence/Be Faithful” programs under PEPFAR fell from a high of $258.3 million in 2008 to $20.1 million in 2017. As a share of overall PEPFAR funding, this represented a decline from 7 percent to 1 percent.
The same guidance document includes a line touting the efficacy of abstinence-only programs, referring to “abstinence as a highly effective form of prevention.”
Several public health experts questioned that assertion, noting that multiple studies have shown that there is little evidence this form of education either delays sexual activity or reduces the number of sexual partners a person has. A nine-year congressionally mandated study concluded in 2007 that teenagers enrolled in abstinence-only programs were no more likely to refrain from having sex than those who did not enroll. Among those who did have sex, the study found, there was no difference in when they began to engage in this activity or how many partners teens in each group had.
Jesse Boyer, senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, said in an interview Saturday that the “rebranding” of abstinence programs with the term “sexual risk avoidance” would not make them more effective.
“It’s the continual promotion of a coercive and ideological agenda over what the science and research tells us what young people need to lead healthy lives,” she said.
A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment Saturday.
The HHS official who received the briefing on language changes said the reaction among participants was similar to that at the CDC when budget analysts were informed they couldn’t use the seven words or phrases in drafting budget materials.
“People were surprised, people were not thrilled,” the HHS official said. “We all kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Oh God.’ ”
At the CDC, budget analysts were told they could use an alternative phrase instead of “evidence-based” or “science-based” in budget documents. That phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” said a budget analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing.No alternatives were suggested for the other words.
At the CDC, the briefing was led by a senior career civil servant in the office that oversees formulation of the agency’s budget. She opened the meeting by telling participants not to use the words “vulnerable,” “entitlement” and “diversity” because documents containing those words were being “flagged” by others higher up the chain in the budget process, and documents were being sent back to CDC for corrections.
The civil servant then announced the additional words — “fetus,” “transgender,” “evidence-based” and “science-based” — that were not to be used. Another senior CDC budget person told the group that agency budget officials conducted a search across the agency’s budget documents and found that “evidence-based” and “science-based” were used so frequently that they were essentially meaningless, the analyst recalled.
In a statement, HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd said: “The assertion that HHS has ‘banned words’ is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process. HHS will continue to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans. HHS also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and budget decisions.”
Lloyd declined to identify any specific inaccuracies in The Washington Post’s report about words that are prohibited in CDC budget documents. The CDC analyst said it was clear to participants that they were to avoid those words.
“What would you call it when you’re told not to use those words?” the person said. “If that’s not a ban, maybe I need to improve my vocabulary.”
New evacuation orders were issued in Santa Barbara County on Saturday as the Thomas fire took aim at the hills above Montecito, with some wind gusts reported up to 65 mph.
The so-called sundowner winds are pushing south from the mountains down to the coast — removing moisture along the way — and are expected to present firefighters in Santa Barbara County with their biggest challenge since the Thomas fire roared back to life a week ago, officials said.
“When the sundowners surface in that area and the fire starts running down slopes, you are not going to stop it,” Mark Brown, an operations section chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told reporters at a Saturday morning news briefing. “And we are not going to stand in front of it and put firefighters in untenable situations.”
A significant boost in the humidity overnight Friday did virtually nothing to help, fire behavior analyst Tim Chavez told firefighters.
“One of the other characteristics of the strong downslope winds is it rapidly and abruptly scours the marine layer out of the coastal plane,” Chavez said.
One fire commander told crews to “plan on getting your … kicked” Saturday.
A portion of the northbound 101 Freeway into Santa Barbara was closed to traffic as evacuation orders were expanded in areas in and around Montecito and Summerland. About 1,600 Santa Barbara County residents are under mandatory evacuation orders, while 34,000 residents in the fire zone remain under voluntary evacuation.
Small platoons of fire trucks awaited orders with their engines running in the parking lots of public schools, churches and other designated safety zones. Several fire engines were also sent up to the historic San Ysidro Ranch to protect structures.
National Weather Service. The wind event should last until about 6 p.m. Saturday and then gradually subside in Santa Barbara County, he said.
Late Saturday afternoon, firefighters in Montecito took advantage when winds died to stop the flames from advancing closer to multimillion dollar homes along East Mountain Drive. Firefighters were spread out along the narrow streets and sprayed water over brush and trees considered “hot spots,” as rocks and boulders tumbled down the mountain.
David Silva, a firefighter with the San Bernardino Fire Department, pointed to the green brush behind him that hadn’t yet burned as members of his crew sprayed water onto burning embers. He said he is worried about the winds picking up Saturday night.
“The crazy weather makes it difficult to predict where the fire is going,” he said. “We will be here all night.”
He said helicopters and airplanes didn’t have a chance Saturday to dump fire retardant or water in the area because of low visibility and unpredictable wind.
“We were hoping it’d be over by Christmas,” he said of the fire, “but now it looks like we will be here a while.”
On Saturday evening fire crews are expected to shift their focus to Ventura County, where the northern edge of the fire is moving east and red flag conditions are expected to remain in place until Sunday night, officials said. Winds could gust up to 55 mph.
The Thomas fire is now the third largest fire in California’s history since accurate recording began in 1932. The wildfire, which started in Ventura County on Dec. 4, had scorched 259,000 acres as of Saturday morning.
The westernmost edge of the giant Thomas fire was in the north-south canyon drained by San Ysidro Creek. An army of firefighters was trying to keep the fire away from homes.
While containment was at 40%, officials said the northwestern edge of the massive inferno was still very dangerous.
Firefighters have smothered the hills with hundreds of thousands of gallons of fire retardant in an attempt to keep embers from igniting spot fires and to keep flames at bay, Brown said. Some hillsides have been intentionally denuded above Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria, including in Romero and Toro canyons, to limit the potential damage.
Authorities were most concerned about flames around San Ysidro Creek, he said. There was a limit to how much flammable vegetation could be burned in a controlled manner before the fire arrived at the canyon.
It would have been too risky to attempt a controlled burn there during days of stubborn winds because that fire would sprinkle dangerous embers throughout the communities to the south and west, Brown said.
There are hundreds of homes in the fire’s potential path, and with winds that strong, it’s too dangerous to put firefighters in front of it to stop it. They would have to watch the fire pass by from designated “safety zones” then attack it from behind.
Friday was the 12th consecutive day of red flag fire warnings — the longest sustained period of fire weather warnings on record.
“We put out plenty of red flag warnings, but we haven’t seen them out 12 days in a row. That’s unusual,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Curt Kaplan. “This has been the longest duration event that we have had a red flag warning out without any breaks.”
Red flag warnings were instituted by the weather service in 2004 and are intended to alert fire agencies to hot, dry and windy conditions that foster wildfires.
To be sure, there are programs that consumers may like. ATT already offers its customers free streaming of DirecTV, which it owns. Other carriers like T-Mobile offer free streaming of apps like YouTube and Netflix, a practice known as “zero-rating,” which at one time was viewed as a potential net neutrality violation. More programs like that could come along.
But it’s hard to see prices going down for internet service because of the end of net neutrality. Many economists say the only way prices could fall is through more competition in the broadband industry, which is now dominated by a handful of companies.
What protections do consumers have?
The net neutrality rules, passed in 2015 during the Obama administration, were intended to be a protective measure for consumers as more Americans migrated to the internet for communications. The regulations were also meant to make sure new and small companies, as well as media companies, could sell their goods and distribute information without restrictions from broadband companies.
Ajit Pai, the current chairman of the F.C.C., said transparency would act as the primary measure against wrongdoing. The agency will require broadband companies to disclose if they are blocking or throttling or setting up fast lanes for certain traffic. Mr. Pai, a Republican nominated to the chairmanship by President Trump, said that the disclosure would give consumers full knowledge of what they would be getting into and that if they didn’t like the practices, they could switch providers.
As part of the changes approved on Thursday, the F.C.C. handed oversight duties for the broadband carriers to the Federal Trade Commission. The F.C.C. said the F.T.C.’s broad antitrust and consumer protection laws were best suited to stop any harmful business practices. The F.T.C. has to monitor nearly every sector of the economy and is most likely to go after alleged bad actors when they are brought forward in a complaint, a costly and time-consuming process.
What have the internet service providers said?
Comcast, ATT and the major trade groups for broadband and cable providers say they don’t and will not block or throttle sites. They say they won’t engage in most forms of paid prioritization, the practice of charging sites more for faster delivery of streams and downloads.
With legal challenges against the F.C.C. expected, many telecom experts say that the companies will largely to stick to those promises for at least the next year and that any changes to service will be subtle.
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Is there any chance the 2015 rules will come back?
The net neutrality debate has flared up multiple times over the last decade or so, ending in different places depending on the political party in power.
Many Democrats on Capitol Hill have called for passing the Obama-era rules through legislation, instead of leaving the rule making in the hands of the F.C.C. Numerous Republicans have also suggested passing a law, though they generally argue for much lighter restrictions than the 2015 rules. Some Democratic lawmakers have also said they would overturn the F.C.C. action through a congressional review act, which would require a majority vote to abolish new agency rules. Given the Republican control in Washington, and the general gridlock in Washington, any sort of legislative resolution appears unlikely.
Most certainly, there will be lawsuits, including by public interest groups such as Public Knowledge and the National Hispanic Media Coalition and by several state attorneys general, including those from New York and Pennsylvania. The suits are expected to be filed after the rules become official, which could be well into January or later.
What are the potential legal arguments?
Lawsuits will most likely claim, perhaps among other things, that the F.C.C. acted hastily and capriciously by abandoning the rules just two years after they were created. For instance, Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, has said the F.C.C. should have delayed its vote on the ground that the law enforcement office found many public comments on net neutrality were fraudulent.
And what about the F.C.C.? What is its main legal defense?
It will probably argue that rolling back rules essentially returns the regulatory environment to the way it was before 2015, when there was little evidence of consumer harm.
The agency is also likely to argue that it followed all the necessary procedures for making a regulatory change. The plan to overturn net neutrality was first announced in April by Mr. Pai.
In a news conference on Thursday, after he had won the vote to overturn the rules, Mr. Pai said he was prepared for the legal challenges, using a tone of defiance and some sarcasm.
“I’m shocked, shocked, that people are going to challenge this decision in court,” he said.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday urged North Korea to carry out a “sustained cessation” of weapons testing to allow the two countries to hold talks about Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.
“North Korea must earn its way back to the table. The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved,” Tillerson told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on North Korea’s weapons programs. He did not specify how long the lull should last.
He told reporters after the meeting that the United States would not accept any preconditions for talks with North Korea.
Tillerson had raised hopes this week that the United States and North Korea could negotiate to resolve their standoff when he said that the United States was “ready to talk any time North Korea would like to talk.”
But the White House distanced itself from those remarks by Tillerson and said that now is not the time for negotiations.
North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations on Friday made no mention of Tillerson’s call for a halt to testing when he addressed the same U.N. meeting.
Ambassador Ja Song Nam said his country would not pose a threat to any state, as long as its interests were not infringed upon.
He described the Security Council session as “a desperate measure plotted by the U.S. being terrified by the incredible might of our Republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.”
LITTLE INTEREST
North Korea has made clear it has little interest in negotiations with the United States until it has developed the ability to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile, something most experts say it has yet to prove.
North Korea conducted missile tests at a steady pace since April, then paused in September after firing a rocket that passed over Japan’s Hokkaido island.
But it renewed tests in November when it fired a new type of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the Hwasong-15, which flew higher and further than previous tests.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono told the Security Council that North Korea was “nowhere near ready” to abandon its nuclear and missile programs and was not interested in a meaningful dialogue. He said any lull in missile tests did not mean that North Korea was sitting idly.
“The latest launch was conducted 75 days after North Korea’s provocations in September. Some optimistic views labeled 75 days of silence as a positive signal. However, the missile launch in November made it clear that North Korea was continuing to relentlessly develop its nuclear and missile programs even while they were seemingly silent,” Kono said.
Tillerson also urged China and Russia on Friday to increase pressure on North Korea by going beyond the implementation of U.N. sanctions but the two countries were wary of the idea.
China’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Wu Haitao said all parties must implement U.N. sanctions, but added that unilateral sanctions undermine the unity of the Security Council and “hurt the legitimate right and interests of other countries and should therefore be abandoned.”
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow was committed to implementing U.N. sanctions on North Korea and echoed China’s concerns about unilateral sanctions.
U.S. President Donald Trump wants China, North Korea’s main ally and trading partner, to impose an oil embargo on Pyongyang, over and above Beijing’s adherence to U.N. sanctions.
The Security Council has ratcheted up sanctions on North Korea over its weapons programs since 2006.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Friday it was time to immediately re-establish and strengthen communication channels with North Korea, including inter-Korean and military-to-military channels, to reduce the risk of a misunderstanding escalating into conflict.
Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Bernadette Baum and James Dalgleish
LOUISVILLE — Kentucky lawmaker Dan Johnson fatally shot himself Wednesday, two days after allegations surfaced that he had molested a member of his church when she was 17 years old, officials said.
Bullitt County Coroner Dave Billings said Johnson — a Republican state representative and self-proclaimed “Pope” of his Louisville church — died of “a penetrating gunshot wound to the head.”
The authorities found Johnson’s body Wednesday night after responding to a report about a concerning statement on his Facebook page. Officials had tracked the lawmaker’s phone to his location, near a bridge in Mount Washington, Ky., in a spot called the River Bottoms.
Johnson had suffered a single gunshot wound to his head, said Billings, the coroner. The Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office said a gun was recovered at the scene.
Billings officially ruled the 57-year-old’s death a suicide. Johnson’s body will now be released to his family for a funeral, the coroner told The Washington Post on Thursday morning. “I’m going to talk to his wife right now,” Billings said.
At his church Tuesday, Johnson had denied the molestation allegations and rejected calls to resign from Kentucky’s House of Representatives.
The following afternoon, he posted a message on Facebook again denying the accusations, saying they were “false . . . and only GOD knows the truth, nothing is the way they make it out to be.”
In the chilling, since-deleted post, Johnson added: “I cannot handle it any longer . . . BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME.”
Hours later, he was found dead.
On Thursday, a sign outside Johnson’s Heart of Fire Church in Louisville read: “Satan accuses. God says youre not guilty.” It’s unclear how long the message has been on the sign.
A sign outside the Heart of Fire Church in Louisville. (James Higdon/The Washington Post)
State leaders from both parties had called for Johnson’s immediate resignation after the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting published a report Monday detailing allegations that Johnson woke his daughter’s friend during a sleepover in 2013 and forced himself on her, slipping his hands up her shirt and bra and putting his fingers in her vagina.
“What you did was beyond mean; it was evil,” the victim said shewrote in a Facebook message to Johnson shortly after the alleged assault, according to KyCIR.
Johnson said that the incident never happened. “This allegation concerning this lady, this young girl, absolutely has no merit, these are unfounded accusations, totally,” he said on Tuesday, according to the Courier-Journal.
The young woman, now 21, told KyCIR that for years she had considered Johnson to be a “second dad.” She became close with his daughter, Sarah, and familiar with the boozy weekend parties Johnson would throw at the “Pope’s House” — the fellowship hall next to the Heart of Fire Church. Those parties, KyCIR reported, featured scantily clad women, body shots and costumes.
In the first hours of 2013, as a New Year’s Eve party came to an end, the woman said, she was spending the night with Johnson’s daughter in the apartment under the fellowship hall, according to the report. The Washington Post does not identify victims of sexual assault without their consent.
Johnson entered the apartment, drunk and stumbling, so the then-teenager helped him navigate the stairs, she said. She thought he was putting his arm around her for balance, until his hand allegedly slipped up the girl’s shirt, KyCIR reported.
The victim then woke up later that night on the sofa, she told KyCIR, and found Johnson kneeling above her. She told KyCIR that Johnson kissed her forehead and then slipped his hands up her shirt and bra. The report said he groped her, stuck his tongue in her mouth and put his fingers in her vagina. She begged him to stop and tried to force the man, who weighed twice as much as she did, off her without waking Johnson’s daughter, KyCIR reported.
“He told her she’d like it. She said no, she didn’t. She pleaded with him: go away, go away,” KyCIR reported. He eventually did.
The KyCIR report highlights how Johnson — known in his church community as “Danny Ray Johnson” — painted a picture of himself over the years as a pro-gun, antiabortion “patriot,” which helped propel him into the Kentucky legislature in 2016, when he won the House’s 49th District seat. But the seven-month investigation, comprised of more than 100 interviews and thousands of pages of public records, alleges the Republican’s persona is orchestrated to mask troubling incidents — including sexual abuse, arson and false testimony.
Michael Skoler, the president of Louisville Public Media — which operates KyCIR — said in a statement Wednesday to The Post that the organization was “deeply sad” to hear about Johnson’s death and was grieving “for his family, friends, church community and constituents.”
“Our aim, as always, is to provide the public with fact-based, unbiased reporting and hold public officials accountable for their actions,” Skoler said. “As part of our process, we reached out to Representative Johnson numerous times over the course of a seven-month investigation. He declined requests to talk about our findings.”
Johnson’s wife told the Associated Press in a statement Thursday that she wants to replace him in the state legislature. Rebecca Johnson called her husband’s death a “high-tech lynching based on lies and half-truths,” the AP reported.
Paul Ham, the chairman of the Bullitt County GOP, said Thursday that “the community is not handling it very well” and slammed the KyCIR report, which he called “the catalyst that started the whole thing.”
“The story was based on hearsay: no arrest, no conviction, no jail time,” he said. “Back when the Constitution meant something, a man could stand before a jury of his peers. But now, it’s just, ‘Let’s just make some accusations and run with it.’ We’re in a very bad place.”
Following the news of Johnson’s death, another Kentucky Republican, state Rep. C. Wesley Morgan, lashed out at the media — and his own party.
Dan and I both were aware of the slanderous lies that were told about us by our very own party. And the character assassination attempts that were orchestrated by much of the news media. We will be lucky if Judge Roy Moore does not do the same. These character hit jobs must stop.
Media, @KyDems and especially @KYGOP should be ashamed of itself. Republicans, you turned your back on an ally and forced a good man who was trying to do right by the people of Kentucky to suicide. All because he wasn’t ever your pick. You wanted him gone. Think about that.
Hours later, Morgan shared the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline‘s 1-800 number, and said: “People will say and do terrible things to you in this world. But nothing is worth taking your life.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted about Johnson’s death, saying: “I cannot imagine his pain or the heartbreak his family is dealing with.”
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) said he was saddened by the news of Johnson’s death, writing on Twitter: “My heart breaks for his family … May God indeed shed His grace on us all.”
Bevin also called for an end to “all the nasty, vulgar comments other despicable responses to the news.”
The accusations against Johnson came as dozens of high-profile men have been fired or have resigned from their jobs in politics, media, entertainment and business after facing allegations of sexually harassing or assaulting women and men.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) both said last week that they would leave Congress over sexual misconduct allegations. On Thursday, several Republicans said that Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) will not seek reelection next year. Farenthold is under scrutiny for allegations that he sexually harassed female staff members and created a hostile work environment.
In Kentucky, other House Republicans facing scandal in recent months remain in the state legislature. Former Kentucky House speaker Jeff Hoover, after admitting he paid to settle a sexual harassment claim made by a woman in his office, resigned from his leadership position last month but is still a state representative. Three other lawmakers involved in the secretive settlement lost their committee chairmanships but also still serve as representatives.
It wasn’t the first time leaders called for Johnson to step down. In 2016, while running for office, he posted racist photos on his Facebook page that compared President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama to monkeys. He disregarded the calls for him to drop out of the race — and won.
At a news conference at the church Tuesday, alongside family, campaign members and other church members, Johnson said the woman accusing him was motivated by his political opponents, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. The woman supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, Johnson said, and disagreed with his conservative stance on abortion rights.
“This is an assault on all real people. There’s no perfect people, and you get into office and all of sudden political hacks come against you and start accusing you after you’re in office,” Johnson said.
He added that there is a “season” of sexual abuse allegations in politics, referring to the accusations against President Trump and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama. He said he didn’t think all the women who’ve spoken out about abuse across the nation were lying, however.
The woman accusing Johnson told KyCIR that she never returned to the apartment below the fellowship hall. When she didn’t show up to the church for service the following Sunday, Johnson sent her a Facebook message, the report said. In the message, he said his daughter told him he had been “mean” to the victim, and to his son, Boaz, the night of the party, the KyCIR report said.
“Sarah said I was mean to Bo You and Her by telling you all to go to bed so sorry don’t remember I was told we all got drugged at TK’s anyway so sorry if I sounded mean, you know you are one of my favorites, love you sorry! Boaz did Great Sunday! Your future Husband!” the message read, according to KyCIR. TK’s refers to T.K.’s Pub, a local bar.
The victim told KyCIR that she responded the next day, saying: “Drugged or not, I think you know what happened that night and that’s why you’re sending this message. I never thought something like that would happen to me, especially by someone like you. I looked at you as a Dad, but now I sincerely hope I don’t see you again, but I might try to maintain a relationship with your kids. And there is no point in responding to this message either because I don’t want to talk about it ever again.”
Louisville metro police said they closed the case after investigating the allegations, according to KyCIR.
On Tuesday, Johnson acknowledged that he sent the victim a Facebook message shortly after the night she stayed over, but again said he did not remember what happened on the night of the alleged abuse because he was “drugged” at the bar, according to the Courier-Journal. He said he didn’t file a police report about the alleged drugging because he did not want to bring accusations against a bar.
He later said at the news conference that he did recall what happened on that night and that he never approached the victim while she was sleeping, according to the Courier-Journal.
The KyCIR report also detailed other incidents from Johnson’s past. A grand jury indicted him for complicity to commit arson and making a false police report in 1987, according to the report, which suggests Johnson may have been linked in another arson incident 13 years later in which his own church was burned down.
With friends and family standing behind him, Kentucky Rep. Dan Johnson spoke at his church on Tuesday. (Timothy D. Easley/AP)
Eltagouri reported from Washington. This post has been updated.
There’s a problem. Here’s what Disney’s C.F.O., Christine McCarthy, told analysts this morning:
We expect to fully realize roughly $2 billion of cost synergies by 2021.
As Andrew reminded earlier this week, “synergies” is a code word for “layoffs.” And Disney executives said that the company expects to start realizing synergies within the first year after the deal closes.
It isn’t clear yet how many jobs would be cut if the transaction succeeds, but this would be a rare deal if it actually generated new positions on balance.
— Michael J. de la Merced
But what about Fox’s bid for Sky?
Fox has a bit of unfinished business before it can go forward with its deal with Disney.
It’s in the process of seeking regulatory approval in Britain to take full control of the British satellite television giant Sky in a deal worth about $15 billion. The two companies said on Thursday that Fox plans to proceed with the acquisition and hopes to complete the acquisition of the 61 percent of Sky that it doesn’t own by the end of June.
Sky would then be wholly owned by Disney, following the closing of the Fox deal.
The context: Mr. Murdoch helped found Sky in the early 1990s and has long sought total ownership of it. He last tried to do so five years ago, but was forced to back off amid the controversy over phone hacking by British tabloids, including the since-shuttered Murdoch-owned News of the World.
Mr. Murdoch’s company had previously said that its existing stake in Sky was “not a natural end position.”
The complications: British regulators have been concerned about how much control the Murdoch family would exert over the country’s media and whether Fox, as an entity, would uphold broadcasting standards here.
Britain’s culture minister, Karen Bradly, asked the country’s competition regulator in September to carry out an in-depth review of the Sky transaction. That review is ongoing and provisional findings by the Competition and Markets Authority are expected to be released in January.
The official word: “While 21st Century Fox’s existing plans to acquire Sky remain in place, we expect the current investigation to continue,” a spokesman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media Sport said on Thursday.
The question: Some analysts have speculated that the British government might be more comfortable with a Sky deal if Disney is the ultimate owner, but whether the Sky deal ultimately received approval remains an open question for now.
— Chad Bray
Scratch one C.E.O.’s name off a list of presidential contenders.
As part of his company’s $52.4 billion deal for Fox, Bob Iger of Disney agreed to renew his contract through 2021 to help complete the merger and integrate the new businesses.
That would seem to mean a 2020 presidential run is off the table for Mr. Iger.
In March, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Mr. Iger “had told friends he is considering their nudges that he make a run for president in 2020 as a Democrat. “
The publication added:
Iger told THR in June that “a lot of people — a lot — have urged me to seek political office” but denied he would consider a run for California governor or senator, positions that historically have served as stepping stones to the White House. However, Iger didn’t specifically address the prospect of a White House run at the time.
Here are a few other notable business people that are on the list:
• Howard Schultz of Starbucks
• Mark Cuban
• Oprah Winfrey
• Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook
— Stephen Grocer
Is the Fox-Disney really done — or is 21st Century Fox now in play?
That’s the question that media executives and Wall Street bankers have been asking this morning.
Could a digital company like Amazon, Google or Apple emerge with a higher bid? Or Verizon or Comcast?
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Or could some of them team up to buy the assets and split them among themselves? For example, Comcast has always wanted Fox’s international assets, while any of the digital players would love to own Fox’s content business.
The Fox-Disney deal has about a $1.5 billion breakup fee if a higher bid were to emerge. If regulators block the deal, Disney would have to pay about $2.5 billion.
The Murdochs’ voting control is worth 39 percent of 21st Century Fox in most situations, except for this: If the company were up for sale, they can only vote their economic stake, which is about 17 percent. And of course, even if the deal is completed as presented today, the next chess piece that will become a point of focus is Hulu given its ownership: Disney would control 60 percent of the service, but Comcast would still own 30 percent and Time Warner owns another 10 percent.
It gets complicated quickly.
— Andrew Ross Sorkin
Of course ‘The Simpsons’ predicted this deal.
Disney announces it has reached a deal to acquire 21st Century Fox, as predicted by a Simpsons episode that first aired on November 8, 1998. pic.twitter.com/kzloJQHeM8
Ryan Parker of The Hollywood Reporter tweeted that one of “The Simpsons” showrunners, Al Jean, told him, “I predict people will make far too much of this mere coincidence.”
Matt Selman, an executive producer of “The Simpsons,” tweeted this:
And, more important, how some of them will split an estimated fee bounty of up to $154 million.
For Disney:
• Guggenheim Partners
• JPMorgan Chase
• Cravath Swaine Moore
For Fox:
• Goldman Sachs
• Centerview Partners
• Deutsche Bank
• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher Flom
• Hogan Lovells
• Simpson Thacher Bartlett
Here’s how much each set of advisers could collect
According to estimates from Freeman Company:
• Disney’s bankers could split between $62 million and $71 million.
• Fox’s bankers could share between $73 million and $83 million.
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— Michael J. de la Merced
Parsing the Disney-Fox announcement.
Here’s Paul Pendergrass’s take:
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Tim Cook and Charles Koch team up to defend Dreamers.
One is a tech C.E.O. who has publicly espoused socially liberal initiatives. The other is one of the most prolific and prominent conservative donors around.
But Mr. Cook and Mr. Koch have written an op-ed in the WaPo imploring Congress to give “dreamers” — the young immigrants at the center of a fight over illegal immigration — a path to staying in the U.S.
From the piece:
This is a political, economic and moral imperative. The sooner that Congress resolves this situation — on a permanent basis — the sooner dreamers can seize the opportunity to plan their lives and develop their talents.
This extraordinary set of circumstances has brought the two of us together as co-authors. We are business leaders who sometimes differ on the issues of the day. Yet, on a question as straightforward as this one, we are firmly aligned.
— Michael J. de la Merced
The latest deal to reshape the media landscape is here.
• Disney will pay about $29.45 a share in an all-stock transaction, buying a big chunk of Fox businesses valued at about $66 billion, including debt.
• Fox shareholders as a whole will own about 25 percent of The Walt Disney Company.
• As expected, today’s announcement has no mention of a role for James Murdoch at Disney. That may come down the line as he negotiates with Disney.
• The Murdochs, who own about 17 percent of existing shares in Fox, will own less than 5 percent of Disney and won’t have any board seats there.
What Robert Iger of Disney has to say
We’re honored and grateful that Rupert Murdoch has entrusted us with the future of businesses he spent a lifetime building, and we’re excited about this extraordinary opportunity to significantly increase our portfolio of well-loved franchises and branded content to greatly enhance our growing direct-to-consumer offerings.
What’s at stake: Disney wants to bolster its defenses against Netflix and Amazon. The deal will give the media giant another production studio to pump out content for its forthcoming video streaming service. And Fox’s international broadcasting operations will extend its reach abroad.
A deeper dive: Ben Thompson of Stratechery takes a look at how effective a response this is to Netflix. He writes, “What has been so impressive over the last few months is the extent and speed with which Disney has seemingly figured it out — and acted accordingly.”
• The corporate tax rate going down to 21 percent,instead of 20 percent
• The top tax rate going down to 37 percent
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• A $10,000 deduction that can be split between mortgage payments and state and local taxes
• A repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax, but not the individual A.M.T.
• The repeal of the individual insurance mandate
• A preservation of tax breaks for medical expenses and tuition stipends for graduate students
• A tax deduction for pass-through businesses that largely mirrors the Senate bill’s treatment
The cost: still unclear.
From President Trump: “We’re very close to getting it done; we’re very close to voting.”
The Senate holdouts: So far, Bob Corker of Tennessee looks likely to again reject the bill on budget deficit grounds. It’s unclear whether Susan Collins of Maine or Marco Rubio are on board after having raised concerns, though neither has raised fresh objections in recent days.
The tax flyaround
• Although Mr. Trump has talked of the tax code drawing companies back to the United States from Ireland, the overhaul may make little difference with investment in the European Union country. (WaPo)
• Even as Jamie Dimon extols the benefits of the G.O.P. tax plan, banks could face higher taxes on important transactions like repo agreements. (Axios, WSJ)
• Jeff Gundlach of DoubleLine Capital warned that the tax overhaul could pose problems for the $1.5 trillion market for junk bonds. (MarketWatch)
This is perhaps the biggest victory yet for the F.C.C. chairman, Ajit Pai, who has already opened the door for more media mergers, curtailed a high-speed internet program for low-income families and allowed broadband providers to raise rates to business customers.
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A useful explanation of the net neutrality changes: Geoff Fowler of the WaPo illustrates the issue using airport security lines.
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Eric Thayer for The New York Times
At Janet Yellen’s last Fed meeting, a disagreement with Mr. Trump.
The Fed has concluded that Republican tax plan isn’t economic “rocket fuel,” though it will modestly improve economic growth. The regulator predicts 2.5 percent growth next year, up from 2.1 percent — but not enough to change the Fed’s plan for three rate increases next year.
When told that the president thinks the Republican tax plan could lead to growth of more than 4 percent, here’s what Ms. Yellen said:
“I wouldn’t want to rule anything out. It is challenging, however, to achieve growth of the levels that you mentioned.”
Looking abroad: Mario Draghi’s final European Central Bank news conference of 2017 is today. Here’s what to expect.
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Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Parliament rebukes Theresa May on Brexit.
Any final deal on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union will have to be submitted to Parliament as legislation before it can be put into effect. It was a defeat for the prime minister, who wanted more leeway to negotiate with the European Union.
Ms. May is scheduled to be in Brussels for an E.U. Council meeting, where the Europeans are expected to allow Brexit negotiations to proceed to discussions about trade, amid renewed questions about her authority.
On top of that, she is under pressure to explain what exactly Britain wants from an E.U. trade relationship, even though she has yet to find a consensus within her own cabinet.
From Jim Brunsden, George Parker and Caroline Binham of the FT:
“We asked the European side to leave it open for now,” said one of Mrs. May’s allies. “We didn’t want them setting down at this European Council what exactly the parameters of a deal might be.”
• Salma Hayek described how Harvey Weinstein harassed her, including by trying to shut down her movie, “Frida,” which he co-produced. (NYT and NYT en español)
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• Four women have accused the hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual harassment and assault. (NYT)
• The angel investor Ron Conway said that he tried to warn Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign about getting too close to Shervin Pishevar, who now faces accusations of sexual misconduct. (Forbes)
• PBS suspended its airing of Tavis Smiley’s talk show amid an investigation into unspecified allegations of misconduct by the host. Mr. Smiley has denied wrongdoing. (Variety)
• Meet Rotten Apples, a website that tracks which movies and TV shows have ties to men accused of sexual misconduct. (NYT)
• A Netflix executive who dismissed misconduct allegations against the actor Danny Masterson, who starred in the service’s series “The Ranch,” no longer works for the company. (NYT)
• Only after an Adweek story did employees of the Martin Agency, which created award-winning ads for Geico, learn that their chief creative officer, Joe Alexander, had been accused of harassment. (WSJ)
• The documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock admitted to committing sexual harassment in the past and that he settled an accusation out of court. (Deadline)
• This week’s NYT Magazine explores the fallout of sexual misconduct allegations and how to move forward. And the NYT gender editor, Jessica Bennett, answered readers’ question. (NYT, NYT)
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Federal investigators add to Uber’s woes.
The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of California confirmed in a court filing that it has opened an inquiry into the ride-hailing giant. (We don’t know the nature of the case.)
But prosecutors told the judge overseeing the trade-secrets trial between Uber and Alphabet’s self-driving car company that Uber hasn’t produced some evidence relevant to that court fight.
The next step: A letter from a former Uber security employee, accusing the company of secretly surveilling competitors, is expected to be released, in a redacted form, by the court on Friday.
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Doug Chayka
The tech flyaround
• Farhad Manjoo writes in his latest State of the Art column: “Tech giants began to grudgingly accept that they have some responsibility to the offline world. The scope of that responsibility, though, is another matter entirely.” (NYT)
• A look at how the Philippine government under Rodrigo Duterte uses Facebook to push back against critics. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
• Why investment management giants like Fidelity are racing to keep up with Silicon Valley. (Bloomberg)
• Target agreed to acquire Shipt, a same-day delivery service similar to Instacart, for $550 million in effort to keep up with Amazon. (Recode)
• Apple agreed to invest $390 million into Finisar, the maker of a key component in the iPhone X, to lock up an important parts manufacturer. (Axios)
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• Microsoft’s new partners in A.I. include Reddit and UPS. And Google has established an A.I. center in China. (Axios, NYT)
Revolving Door
• UBS hired Martin Blessing, the former C.E.O. of Commerzbank, as the head of its wealth management unit, marking him as a contender to become the Swiss bank’s next chief. (FT)
• UBS also hired Chris Cormier from Bank of America to run its tech, media and telecom equity business in the Americas. (Reuters)
• Blackstone has hired Atsuhiko Sakamoto from Bain Capital to build out a leveraged buyout team in Japan. (Reuters)
The Speed Read
• A major union has won significant job protection and increased pay for about 20,000 ATT wireless employees. The union has offered to help make the case for the company’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner. (NYT)
• Walmart is trying to ease some of the financial strain on its workers by allowing them to receive wages before their next payday, but labor groups say that the company should be paying its employees more. (NYT)
• Atos is continuing its unsolicited bid to buy the security software maker Gemalto even after the company’s board unanimously rejected the $5.1 billion offer. (Bloomberg)
• When N.F.L. owners signed off on Roger Goodell’s five-year extension, they were looking for continuity. (NYT)
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• China has put Jia Yueting, a tech tycoon, onto an official online blacklist of credit defaulters, which means he can be blocked from flights, high-speed trains and big purchases. (NYT)
• Kingdom Holding Company, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s investment firm, has become a black hole of information, and all meaningful activity has been suspended in his absence, according to bankers. (FT)
• The rise of economic nationalism is clashing with the open-market ideals of the European Union’s founders and affecting products from Italian chocolates to German faucets. (WSJ)
• Bitcoin made Michael Poutre, chief executive of Crypto Company, one of the richest men in the United States, briefly. “It is yet another sign of the extraordinary popular delusion being created by Bitcoin and the rush for everything crypto,” writes James Mackintosh. (WSJ)
• Tesla is “headed for a brick wall,” according to Jim Chanos of the hedge fund Kynikos Associates. (Bloomberg)
We’d love your feedback as we experiment with the writing, format and design of this briefing. Please email thoughts and suggestions to bizday@nytimes.com.
Fire officials confirmed Thursday that a firefighter died while battling the Thomas fire, which ranks as the fourth-largest in the state’s modern history.
“I am very saddened to report that a firefighter fatality has occurred on the Thomas Incident,” Chief Ken Pimlott, the director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said in a statement. “Please join me in keeping our fallen firefighter and his loved ones in your prayers and all the responders on the front lines in your thoughts as they continue to work under extremely challenging conditions.”
Pimlott said the victim was a Cal Fire engineer from the San Diego unit. Details about the firefighter’s death were not immediately available.
“IMT 4, CAL FIRE Local 2881 and Southern Region leadership are working to support the Unit and his family, who have been notified,” Pimlott said.
There will be a news conference at 6 p.m.
Despite a couple of days of reduced winds and feverish efforts by firefighters to establish new containment lines, the 242,500-acre Thomas fire has surpassed the size of the Zaca fire, which scorched Santa Barbara County in 2007, according to Dave Zaniboni, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
Firefighters hope the 240,207-acre Zaca fire burn scar, as well as the younger vegetation it contains, will help them fight the Thomas fire’s growth along its western edge.
Firefighters have taken advantage of a two-day lull in winds to increase fire containment to 30%. Those efforts could be tested soon, however, as forecasters predict a new blast of Santa Ana winds Thursday, and sundowner winds over Santa Barbara County on Friday.
In Thursday’s incident report, fire officials said they didn’t expect to reach full containment of the blaze until Jan. 7 — more than three weeks from now.
The state of California began keeping records of wildfire acreage in 1932. While other large fires raged on the West Coast prior to that year, those records are less reliable, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
At a morning briefing Thursday, fire commanders said another day of extremely low humidity and moderate winds would greet firefighters as they continued to build containment lines above Carpinteria, Montecito and Santa Barbara.
The mountains north of the coast produce notoriously unpredictable and dangerous conditions for firefighters, said fire behavior analyst Tim Chavez. In the Matilija wilderness, which straddles the border between the two counties, observers saw 50-foot flames backing down a hillside overnight, he said. It’s unusual to see flames that tall working their way down a mountain, officials said.
“This thing is 60 miles long and 40 miles wide,” Chavez said of the blaze. “There’s a lot of fire out there.”
Gusty Santa Ana winds are expected for Los Angeles and Ventura counties Thursday, said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service. In the mountains, gusts of 55 mph are possible.
In the valleys, 15 to 25 mph gusts are predicted, with some gusts of up to 40 mph, Seto said. Over the past few days, a break in the weather has allowed firefighters to increase containment.
“That’s the thing, it’s just going to do the opposite now. The humidities are still down in the single digits,” Seto said. “These winds, especially in the mountain areas, are really going to start blowing the fire around again. What it does is carry the embers further down and can create more fires.”
Winds will be north to northeast, and usually the Ventura side is more affected than the Santa Barbara side, Seto said.
“But it’s still going to have an effect up in the mountain areas of Santa Barbara,” he added. Winds up there will be up to 25 mph and a little gusty, “so there’s still going to be a big concern up in that area,” he said.
Throughout mountain areas on Thursday there’s a greater risk for large fire plumes, which can cause erratic fire behavior.
“It carries the heat up, and it looks like a thunderstorm cloud,” Seto said. “From there, the fire could spread out. Sometimes they collapse, and it’s a strong down-rush of winds and it spreads the fire.”
Sundowner winds are expected Friday into Saturday in the Santa Barbara area. On Sunday, winds are expected to return to offshore conditions, Seto said.
The fire has destroyed more than 900 homes in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since it began Dec. 4 near Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula. In its first day, the fire spread southwest, toward Ventura, and northwest, eventually hugging Ojai before pushing to the Central Coast.
Minnesota’s governor announced his intention to appoint Lt. Gov. Tina F. Smith, his former chief of staff, to fill the seat expected to be vacated by Sen. Al Franken — and she plans to run for election in November to finish out the term.
“I am resolved to do everything I can to move Minnesota forward,” said Smith at a news conference Wednesday announcing the appointment, in St. Paul, Minn.
She promised to serve in the progressive tradition of others who have held the seat, including Sens. Paul Wellstone, Eugene McCarthy and Walter Mondale, to make a “better, more inclusive and just future for all of us.”
Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton said he had made the decision after talking to only one person in Washington not in his state’s delegation, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who he said did not suggest a replacement. In a year that has seen a dramatic spike in political engagement among women, Smith would become the 22nd woman to serve in the Senate.
A New Mexico native, graduate of Stanford University and former vice president of a regional Planned Parenthood, Smith has long been a rising star in Minnesota politics.
She served as chief of staff for Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, before managing his failed bid for governor in 2010. She later helped Dayton’s successful campaign and became his chief of staff when he won. She was elected lieutenant governor in 2014.
Smith started calling members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation on Tuesday to inform them of the governor’s decision and her plans, according to an aide familiar with the calls.
Franken, who has faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment, announced last week that he would resign his office “in the coming weeks,” but has not set a date. Smith said she expected to take office in “early January.”
Schumer declined to answer questions about Franken’s departure date or Smith on Wednesday morning, saying he would leave it to Dayton to make the announcement. Dayton said he had not received any written notice of Franken’s resignation. “Sen. Franken is a man of his word,” Dayton said. “I fully expect that he will follow through and resign.”
Franken has apologized for his behavior, while contesting the particulars of some women’s claims against him. “Some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others I remember very differently,” Franken said, when he announced his resignation, under intense pressure from his Democratic colleagues.
Republicans are likely to mount a serious challenge for Franken’s Senate seat, which was previously held by Republican Norm Coleman. One possible candidate, floated by Senate Republicans, is former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who unsuccessfully sought the 2012 GOP nomination for president and now serves as president of the Financial Services Roundtable.
“I’m politically retired and if that changes, you’ll be among the first to know,” Pawlenty told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Tuesday.
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), who was also discussed as a possible replacement for Franken, announced Wednesday that she supported Dayton’s decision. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), another lawmaker discussed for the seat, released a statement saying he supported the appointment and would support Smith in her 2018 campaign.
