Oregon state senator reprimanded for harassment

by Reid Wilson - 10/25/17 12:44 PM ET

An Oregon state senator has been issued a stern rebuke after allegations that he inappropriately touched a fellow senator on two separate occasions.

The rebuke issued to Sen. Jeff Kruse (R) is the latest fallout from a wave of women going public with claims of harassment in state capitals across the country.

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In a letter to Kruse sent Friday and released Tuesday, Oregon state Senate President Peter Courtney (D) said he would strip Kruse of his committee assignments after the allegations.

Courtney said Kruse had been warned in a meeting with a state human resources official last year that he was not to touch women at work. Last week, Courtney said, he “was made aware that your behavior toward women in the workplace has … gone unchanged.”

State Sen. Sara Gelser (D) last week alleged Kruse had made unwanted physical contact with her, even after Kruse had been warned about his behavior.

“Continuing to touch women at work is inappropriate workplace conduct of which you have already been warned,” Courtney wrote. “Let me be very clear. Women in the Capitol do NOT want you to touch them.”

Courtney also said he would remove the door to Kruse’s office, after Kruse violated state law by smoking indoors.

Kruse did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But he told the Salem Statesman Journal he was being denied due process, and that the state Senate had not informed him of the allegations against him.

Kruse is the first state legislator to be publicly accused of improper behavior in the wake of revelations about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

More than a dozen women legislators, staffers and lobbyists in states across the country have told The Hill in the last week that they have suffered harassment and retaliation when unwanted advances are spurned.

More than 300 women in Sacramento, Calif., last week signed a letter denouncing what they called a “pervasive” culture of sexual harassment, and a similar letter is making the rounds in Springfield, Ill. California’s Assembly said it would hold hearings next month to address the complaints of harassment.

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