Illinois Democratic Lt. Gov. Nominee Won't Quit as Steamy Allegations Surface

2 years ago

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Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn called on his scandalized running mate, Scott Lee Cohen, to "step aside" after a series of allegations surfaced about Cohen's anabolic steroid abuse, domestic violence involving a live-in girlfriend -- a convicted prostitute -- and trying to force his then-wife to have sex with him.

Cohen, a pawnbroker and a political unknown who won Tuesday's five-contender Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, pumped about $2 million of his own money into his race. The Chicago Sun-Times on Friday disclosed that his ex-wife, Debra York-Cohen, alleged in court papers that two months ago -- during his campaign -- he owed her $54,000 for nine months of child support.

Quinn, who just survived a tough primary challenge, said when confronted with the Cohen shocker that the "only appropriate thing is to step aside." Cohen said he would not budge: "I will not resign. I will not step down." He added, "If the people of Illinois decided they don't want me as their lieutenant governor, I would consider it at that point. Time will tell."

The day after the primary, the Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune obtained court records showing Cohen, 45, was arrested in 2005 and accused of holding a knife to a former live-in girlfriend's neck. In a Thursday night interview on Chicago's WTTW, Cohen said, "I never knew her as a prostitute. She was a massage therapist." He did admit to the anabolic steroid use: "It was a bad time in my life. I was trying to put muscle on."

Under Illinois law, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separate campaigns. After the primary, the two run as a team in the November election, and Cohen threatens to be a drag on the entire Illinois Democratic ticket.

Illinois Democratic Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias also called for Cohen to step down. "These revelations are deeply disturbing and there is no place in society, let alone public office, for this type of behavior," he said in a statement.

Remarkably, this is not the first time Illinois Democrats were faced with a controversial unknown winning the lieutenant governor primary, only to be a ball and chain around the neck of the nominee. In 1986, a Lyndon LaRouche follower, Mark Fairchild, ended up as the running mate of the Democratic nominee for governor, Adlai Stevenson III. Since Fairchild would not leave the Democratic ticket, Stevenson tried to save his candidacy by forming a third party. He lost the election to GOP Gov. James Thompson.

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