ATLANTA - Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, already knocked off his message by allegations of sexual harassment, told campaign aides that he now needs to decide whether his campaign was damaged beyond repair by a new claim that he had a 13-year extramarital affair.
Cain has vehemently denied all the charges but said in a Tuesday conference call with campaign staff that the allegations of the long affair with 46-year-old Ginger White had created a political "firestorm." The former executive of a pizza restaurant chain said he needed to decide if the latest allegations by White "create too much of a cloud" to continue with his bid for the Republican nomination.
Cain is one of eight candidates hoping to become the party's choice to challenge President Barack Obama next year. He surged into the top tier of candidates but has slowly slipped back in polling since allegations became public last month that he had sexually harassed or groped three women when he ran the National Restaurant Association in the mid-to-late1990s. The trade group paid settlements to two of the women who had worked there.
Should he leave the race, the already topsy-turvy Republican nominating battle could become even more chaotic as the seven other candidates scramble for the backing of Cain supporters with five weeks remaining before the first of the state-by-state contests to choose next year's nominee.
Cain shot to the top of the Republican field in late September and early October with his folksy style and flat tax reform program. But he was never seen as the likely nominee, and his support began to crumble after publicity about alleged sexual harassment surfaced a month ago. He has also stumbled badly on important questions about U.S. foreign policy and voiced ambiguous responses to questions about his stand on abortion, always a divisive issue in American politics.
"If a decision is made, different than to plow ahead, you all will be the first to know," he said, according to a transcript of the conference call made by the conservative magazine National Review, which listened to the conversation.
It was the first time Cain has voiced doubts about continuing his candidacy. As recently as Tuesday morning, a campaign spokesman had stated unequivocally that Cain would not quit.
"With this latest one (White's allegations), we have to do an assessment as to whether or not this is going to create too much of a cloud, in some people's minds, as to whether or not they would be able to support us going forth," Cain said.
Steve Grubbs, Cain's campaign chairman in Iowa, said the candidate declared that White's claim had "taken an emotional toll on his family, but he's moving ahead with the campaign."
Iowa is the Midwestern state that starts the nominating season with statewide caucuses on Jan. 3.
In the conference call, Cain pledged only to keep his imminent schedule, including a foreign policy speech at Hillsdale College in Michigan later Tuesday that he promised to deliver with "vim, vigour and enthusiasm."
Speaking to nearly 1,000 people at Hillsdale, a conservative bastion, Cain didn't address the affair allegation. He stuck to his plan to present his foreign policy vision, one in which the U.S. would stand by friendly nations such as Israel, quit giving money to countries he considered enemies, and spend more on defence. Cain avoided reporters after the speech.
After the conference call, Cain attorney Lin Wood told The Associated Press: "Any report that Mr. Cain has decided to withdraw his candidacy is inaccurate."
"I think they are assessing the situation, just as I would expect the campaign to do or any prudent business person to do," said Wood. He added that he would hate to see what he described as false accusations drive Cain out of the race for the presidency.
The new allegations about the extramarital affair caused at least one New Hampshire state lawmaker and some precinct-level supporters in Iowa to withdraw their support for Cain.
As Cain's troubles began sapping support and political contributions last month, Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, has moved into first place ahead of Mitt Romney, according to a Real Clear Politics average of four national polls. Cain was in third place before the most recent allegations about his sexual behaviour.
Gingrich, who has seen his political standing rise as he has posted solid debate performances, has become the latest challenger to Romney, whose poll numbers have dipped slightly. Romney is the favourite of the Republican establishment but deeply distrusted by party conservatives and evangelical Christians who see his record as too moderate.
The Real Clear Politics average shows Gingrich with a 2.5 percentage-point edge over Romney. Gingrich has rebounded from his campaign's near collapse this summer, when much of his staff resigned.
So far Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Cain have made a serious run at Romney before falling from favour and quickly drifting out of contention as deeply conservative Republican primary voters search for an alternative to Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist. Beyond his moderate record, many conservatives view Romney as too ready to shift positions on issues held dear by the party's base.
Gingrich, after focusing his fire on Obama, has begun attacking Romney, branding him as a political opportunist.
"We think there has to be a solid conservative alternative to Mitt Romney," Gingrich said Monday.
The latest embarrassing claim against Cain erupted Monday when White said she and Cain, who is married, had a 13-year affair that ended shortly before he began his run for the nomination.
"It was fun," said White, as she described in an interview with an Atlanta, Georgia television station how Cain had bought her plane tickets for a rendezvous in Palm Springs, California. "It was something that took me away from my sort of humdrum life at the time. And it was exciting."
Cain said White was only a friend who he had helped with money because of her financial difficulties.
