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Daniel Ken Inouye

Democrat, Hawaii (Rep. 1959-1962;  Senator 1963-present)

The Honorable Daniel Inouye was running against Rick Reed for a Senate re-election.  Reed had ran a campaign commercial, which he later pulled, that included a secretly taped interview with Lenore Kwock, Inouye's hairdresser. Kwock alleged that Inouye attacked her when she ran an errand to his Waikiki apartment in 1975 and that he later molested her at her salon as she shampooed his hair. Kwock said Inouye, then 68, had sexually forced himself on her in 1975 and continued a pattern of sexual harassment over the years. 

Inouye denied the charges and then won by 58 percent of the vote in 1992.  Then Hawaii State Rep. Annelle Amaral, a Democrat who heads the House Women's Caucus, told a Honolulu TV station in 1992 that she had received "a number of calls from people that have said to me that they were also victims of the senator."  The allegations ranged from inappropriate touching to sexual intercourse. 

Most of the alleged incidents took place between 1982 and 1992. 

Inouye is nominated for, but not fully a member of, the Congressional Sexual Harassment Caucus.

Sources:  Ernie Freda, "Washington in Brief," Washington Post, Nov. 12, 1992, A16;  Desda Moss, "New Sex Allegations Against Inouye," USA Today,Nov. 12, 1992, A2,