Rep. Josh Zepnick, accused of kissing two women without consent, says he is preparing to run again

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - State Rep. Josh Zepnick — accused of kissing two women without their consent — said Tuesday he is preparing to run again this fall.

State Rep. Josh Zepnick, a Milwaukee Democrat.

The Milwaukee Democrat said he hasn't made a final decision on seeking another bid, but was readying himself to run again.

"I'm taking the necessary steps to get ready should I pull the trigger," he told reporters. "I'm doing the back, behind-the-scenes kinds of things I need to do."

He said he needed to consider a number of aspects of a possible run, from an expected court ruling on the maps of legislative districts to the allegations against him.

"I have to factor in the fact that if you Google my name, there's quite a bit of stuff there, right?" he said after Tuesday's legislative session.

It was his first time on the Assembly floor since those allegations were made. He voted with all other Assembly members Tuesday to require state representatives to take sexual harassment training.

Zepnick's fellow Democrats called on him to resign after the Capital Times detailed the accounts last month of two unnamed women who said Zepnick kissed them without their consent at political events in 2011 and 2015.

Zepnick said the incidents occurred at a time when he was drinking irresponsibly and he got sober after a 2015 drunken driving arrest and conviction. He said Tuesday he did not recall the 2011 encounter but remembered some details of the 2015 one, which he said occurred with "somebody who I thought of as a buddy."

Zepnick said people need to make a distinction between people who make mistakes outside of work when they are drinking and people acting like predators or using their position to take advantage of someone sexually.

"Who does that kind of stuff? I'm astonished when I hear those kinds of stories," he said. "But I'm also astonished that women wouldn't want to report it immediately, to be really honest with you. That's a far different cry from me being able to say I made some mistakes."

Zepnick said he hopes this year to bring on unpaid interns from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, even though the university has said it would warn students about the accusations against Zepnick.

Zepnick said he planned to contact officials with the university's Department of Political Science about the planned warnings and why he wasn't initially told about them.

He noted the allegations against him did not involve interns.

"I certainly never went in that direction in terms of trying to romantically pursue them," Zepnick said of interns. "You know ... it just ain't my thing."

Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.