This just days after a campaign source said Cohen was seeking an “honorable way out” from the campaign that will “give him a little dignity.” Especially in Chicago politics, though, things don’t always go as planned.
Reports WGN, succinctly:
An emotional Scott Lee Cohen, once the Democratic nominee for Illinois’ oh-so-coveted Lt. Governor position, drops out, after allegations involving a knife, a prostitute-girlfriend, and steroids surfaced just days after he won the Illinois primary.
More specifically, via AP:
(CHICAGO) – Just when Illinois was starting to move on from the scandals of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich, along comes Scott Lee Cohen.
After the political unknown managed to win the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor Tuesday, it became widely known that he was accused of abusing his ex-wife and holding a knife to the throat of an ex-girlfriend — a woman who was herself charged with prostitution. He also admits using steroids in the past.
Democratic leaders hadn’t considered Cohen a threat to win and didn’t highlight his past during the campaign. Now they’re alarmed that Cohen could drag down the ticket he shares with Gov. Pat Quinn.
…
Despite the money Cohen pumped into his ads, Democrats and political watchers didn’t pay attention to his past because he was considered a longshot. Quinn said he knew nothing about the allegations against Cohen until after Tuesday’s primary.
Cohen was arrested in 2005 on domestic battery charges for allegedly pushing his then-girlfriend’s head against a wall and holding a knife to her throat. The charges were dropped when she failed to show up for a court date.
The Chicago Tribune reported police records show the woman had been arrested for prostitution. Cohen told Chicago’s WTTW-TV that he met her at a “massage therapy place” and believed she was a masseuse. Cohen has denied hitting the woman and called their relationship “tumultuous.”
“I never tried to cut her throat,” he said on WTTW.
…
Durbin and Davis dismissed the idea of trying to get President Barack Obama’s help in defusing yet another embarrassing political problem in his home state, after the Blagojevich scandal and the dustup over Blagojevich’s nomination of Roland Burris for Obama’s old Senate said.
“First and foremost we should take care of our own problems. We don’t need to go to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to find a solution here,” Durbin said.
Cohen’s brother Randy said his brother is being unfairly attacked.
“Scott Cohen is very smart and very underestimated. He wants to help people. Scott is a very honest person,” he said.
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