Zepnick accused of kissing women without warning
Fellow Democrat calls for representative to step down
MADISON – At least one lawmaker is calling on Rep. Josh Zepnick of Milwaukee to step down after a report that he drunkenly kissed women without warning at political events.
Citing anonymous sources, The Capital Times reported Friday that Zepnick, a Democrat, had kissed the women at political events without their consent. Zepnick didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.
In a statement Friday, Rep. Jimmy Anderson, a fellow Democrat from Fitchburg, said Zepnick should step down.
“If we are going to be leaders in our community, then we must lead within our workplace,” Anderson said. “In light of the two incidences reported on today, I believe Rep. Josh Zepnick should resign.”
The Capital Times reported that Zepnick kissed a Democratic Party of Wisconsin staffer at the party’s annual convention in Milwaukee in 2015 after the female staffer stepped in to help handle a disagreement between Zepnick and another lawmaker. The other woman, a legislative staffer, said Zepnick also kissed her without warning at a Senate recall election party in 2011.
The Capital Times interviewed the two women along with co-workers and friends who spoke with the women at the time of the events and corroborated their accounts. None of them were named.
In an email to The Capital Times, Zepnick did not specifically deny that the incidents had occurred, but said neither legislative staff nor Democratic Party employees had confronted him with such allegations.
Since the time of the accusations, “I have had many interactions with political staff which have been professional, positive and without any suggestion of this type of activity.”
Zepnick pleaded guilty to drunken driving in November 2015.
His license was suspended for six months and he had to put an interlock device on his vehicle for a year. He also sought treatment for drinking.
The news comes as a wave of women are coming forward nationally to give accounts of workplace sexual harassment in media and politics and the Wisconsin Legislature is grappling with how to prevent such conduct in the statehouse.