The Republican leader in the Iowa state Senate resigned Monday after a local political site posted a video of him passionately kissing a lobbyist at a Des Moines bar.
Sen. Bill Dix is married with three children.
The video posted by Iowa Starting Line was taken March 1 by patrons at Waveland Tap on University Avenue. The filmers, according to the political-news site, recognized Mr. Dix from, among other things, his involvement in a sexual-harassment scandal engulfing the Iowa legislature.
According to Iowa Starting Line, the woman in the video, whom it did not name, has been a registered lobbyist for two years.
This isn’t the first time Mr. Dix has gotten in hot water over women.
He fired Kirsten Anderson, communications director for the Iowa state Senate GOP caucus, “hours after she reported a toxic work environment,” according to the Starting Line.
Mr. Dix said she was fired for work-related reasons, but she later took a $1.75 million settlement. Part of the settlement was legislators and staffers at the Statehouse getting new sexual harassment training, which reportedly happened in recent weeks.
“This footage would suggest to me that the sexual harassment training was not effective, at least not for Mr. Dix,” Iowa attorney Katie Ervin Carlson told the Starting Line after viewing the video.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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