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Boulton 'Had No Choice But To Drop Out'

nate boulton
John Pemble/IPR file
/
IPR
Sen. Nate Boulton (D-Des Moines)

The Director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics is critiquing Senator Nate Boulton’s initial response after the Des Moines Register reported on his alleged sexual improprieties.    

Boulton withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination for governor today. 

On Wednesday he apologized to the women who said he had inappropriately touched them at a bar or at parties.   

But his campaign pointed out that he had not harassed women at work.

“Nate Boulton’s behavior in the social settings referenced in the article, as described by women who were social peers, in no way equates to the disgraceful actions taken by men across the country and in the Iowa Statehouse who have assaulted, harassed, and threatened women with workplace consequences,”  the statement read.

"Women want to feel that they are going to be treated with respect not only in the workplace but when they go out for drinks after work." -Catt Center Dir. Dianne Bystrom

Catt Center Director Dianne Bystrom says many women don’t make that distinction.

“Women want to feel that they are going to be treated with respect not only in the workplace and when they go out for drinks after work,” Bystrom said.  “So I don't think that's a distinction and that left him open to more criticism.” 

Bystrom says the report had more impact because Boulton had stressed his advocacy for women’s issues in his campaign.   She advises men who aspire to public office to think twice about running if they have a sexual indiscretion in their past, or at the very least get it out in the open early on.   

“If you think there are some skeletons, it's better to deal with them up front, and not as a surprise,” Bystrom said.   “And that was my first comment, I really thought yesterday, he’s not going to have any choice.”

Senate Democratic leader Janet Petersen is also calling on Boulton to give up his Senate seat.   

“She’s doing something similar to what women in the U.S. Senate did with Al Franken, calling for his resignation or threatening an investigation,” Bystrom said.   “So it seems she’s taking a page out of the playbook of women in the U.S. Senate.”

Some ISU students were active in the Boulton campaign.   Bystrom said she hopes they remain engaged and still get out and vote.

Bystrom was a colleague of Anita Hill at the University of Oklahoma when Hill made her sexual harassment complaints against then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in 1991.    She said discussion of sexual harassment “disappeared,” but technology is helping to revive it now.   

“It’s being sustained because of social media,” Bystrom said.