Businessman Herman Cain and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney are running nearly even atop the field of 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows, with most Republicans dismissing the harassment allegations that over the past week have roiled Cain’s campaign. 
 
 Seven in 10 Republicans say reports that Cain made unwanted advances toward two employees when he was head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s — allegations which have been stiffly rebutted by Cain’s campaign — do not matter when it comes to picking a candidate. 
 
 But the potential threat to his burgeoning campaign is evident as well, with Cain slipping to third place among those who see the charges as serious, and Republican women significantly more likely than men to say the scandal makes them less apt to support Cain. 
 
 The poll was conducted Oct. 31 through Nov. 3, starting the evening after Politico first reported the harassment allegations. Support for Cain was basically steady over the four nights of interviewing, even as new charges against him surfaced. 
 
 Nearly a quarter of all Republicans and GOP-leaning independents now back Cain as the party’s nominee, his best showing in Post-ABC polls this year, and up significantly from early October. At 23 percent nationally, Cain is neck-and-neck with Romney (24 percent) atop the GOP field. 
 
 “I think [the charges against Cain are] mostly garbage that they throw at people who want to be president,” James Kindsch, from Middleton, Wis., said in a follow-up interview. 
 
 “I don’t believe it,” said Paul Bradley from Fishersville, Va., adding: “The further in the past they happened, the less accurate they are.” 
 
 In the poll, a majority of Republicans — 55 percent — see reports of Cain’s alleged misconduct as “not a serious matter,” and 70 percent say the situation makes no difference in their vote. 
 
 At the same time, there is clearly a risk to Cain’s campaign should the allegations stick: Sizable numbers of Republicans (37 percent) and GOP-leaning independents (42 percent) see the allegations against Cain as serious ones. In this combined group, Romney is well ahead, with 31 percent support. Cain slips numerically into third place, behind Texas Gov. Rick Perry. 
 
 Among the possible beneficiaries of a shift away from either of the two front-runners are Perry, who checks in at 13 percent in the new poll (down from an early September high of 29 percent) and former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who polled at 12 percent, reaching double digits for the first time this fall. 
 
 Texas Rep. Ron Paul is at 8 percent, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is at 4 percent, and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum are both at 1 percent. 
 
 Although Republican men and women have similar views about whether the allegations against Cain represent a serious matter, GOP women are about twice as likely as men to say the whole situation makes them less apt to vote for Cain (25 to 12 percent). 
 
 “He’s a homey person,” said Blair Watkins of Raleigh, North Carolina, who leans toward Cain but expressed reservations about the sexual harassment allegations in a subsequent interview: “You need someone who’s coming in with a clean record.” 
 
 Although Cain remains a leader in the presidential race, it is unclear whether he would have scored even higher in the new poll absent the allegations. A Quinnipiac poll launched before the scandal broke and ending Monday had Cain at 30 percent among registered voters, up from 17 percent in early October (he also polled at 17 percent in a Post-ABC poll in early October). 
 
 Among registered voters in the new Post-ABC poll, Cain is at 23 percent, just as he is among all Republicans and GOP-leaning independents. (Romney is at 25 percent among registered voters.) 
 
 One shift in Cain’s support over the past month might help him build momentum: His base has diversified, extending to non-tea-party Republicans. The businessman leads Romney among strong tea party backers, but his support has jumped from 1 percent to 14 percent over the past month among those who do not support the movement. 
 
 In a sign of potential uncertainty ahead, however, just 27 percent of Cain’s supporters say they will definitely vote for him. A similarly low number of Romney’s supporters — 28 percent — say they are certain to stick with their choice. 
 
 A total of 1,004 telephone interviews were conducted, including a sample of 438 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents. The margin of sampling error for this smaller sample is plus or minus 5.5 percentage points. 
 
 Polling manager Peyton M. Craighill and polling analyst Scott Clement contributed to this report. ||||| Herman Cain flatly denies the most serious allegation facing him – that he made an unwanted sexual advance toward a female employee at a work event – but POLITICO has learned new details making clear there were urgent discussions of the woman’s accusations at top levels of the National Restaurant Association within hours of when the incident was alleged to have occurred. 
 
 The new details—which come from multiple sources independently familiar with the incident at a hotel during a restaurant association event in the late 1990s—put the woman’s account even more sharply at odds with Cain’s emphatic insistence in news media interviews this week that nothing inappropriate happened between the two. 
 
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 reset Sunday hosts on Cain saga Earlier: Cain on complaint details POLITICO 44 
 
 In recent days sources—including associates of the woman and people familiar with operations of the restaurant association—have offered new details of the incident. 
 
 The woman in question, roughly 30 years old at the time and working in the National Restaurant Association’s government affairs division, told two people directly at the time that Cain made a sexual overture to her at one of the group’s events, according to the sources familiar with the incident. She was livid and lodged a verbal complaint with an NRA board member that same night, these sources said. 
 
 The woman told one of the sources Cain made a suggestion that she felt was overtly sexual in nature and that “she perceived that her job was at risk if she didn’t do it.” 
 
 “She is a pretty confident individual, and she was pretty upset,” the source, an acquaintance of the woman, said of her demeanor after the encounter with Cain. “Not crying, but angry.” 
 
 She described it as an “unwanted sexual advance” to the other source. The woman took the matter immediately and directly to the board member because “she wanted this fixed,” the source said. 
 
 POLITICO has learned the accusation was also later brought to the attention of another board member as well as the restaurant association’s general counsel Peter Kilgore, both of whom are said to have looked into the matter. The woman, who now works in New Jersey, left the NRA in May 1998, shortly after the incident — under an agreement that paid her one-year’s salary, in the mid-$30,000s, sources said. The amount of the settlement was first reported by the New York Times. 
 
 She said at the time that she left because “she was not getting along with her bosses,” said another source, a former NRA employee who knew her. 
 
 POLITICO has spoken to more than six sources familiar with aspects of the woman’s story. Cain’s campaign this week did not respond to repeated calls and emails seeking comment on the new details related to the woman’s claim. Kilgore also has declined to comment, saying he cannot discuss personnel matters. 
 
 POLITICO first reported the existence of the woman’s allegations on Sunday, and that she received a financial payout when she left the organization in 1998. POLITICO shared her name with Cain several days before publication, but, along with other news organizations that have learned her identity, has not publicly identified her for privacy reasons. 
 
 In that story, POLITICO described a second woman who left the NRA after making sexual harassment allegations against Cain. That woman received about $45,000 as part of her settlement. 
 
 Cain, in public comments over the past few days, has said he is unaware of any formal complaints beyond the one he has discussed in public – which relates to the second woman who received a $45,000 settlement. That woman’s lawyer is now negotiating with the National Restaurant Association over possibly releasing a statement from the woman. ||||| WASHINGTON — One of the women who accused the Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain of sexual harassment while working for him at the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s complained that the workplace turned hostile after she alleged that he made advances toward her during a work-related outing, several people familiar with her account at the time said in interviews. 
 
 The advances were said to have taken place during a festive night in which Mr. Cain and several younger staff members drank until late in the evening, and his flirty banter with the woman crossed over into propositions that she leave with him, these people said, speaking in separate interviews and on the condition of anonymity. 
 
 One person with direct knowledge of her account at the time said that the woman — roughly two decades Mr. Cain’s junior and serving in a lower-level job — rebuffed him but that he continued to make advances. “She was uncomfortable, and it was inappropriate from the start,” this person said. “He was persistent.” 
 
 Mr. Cain has repeatedly denied that he did anything inappropriate, though he has acknowledged that at least one severance payment was made to an accuser. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the new accounts of the incident on Thursday evening. 
 
 Three people familiar with the details of the woman’s account said that she complained to higher-ups at the restaurant association. She then came to feel that there was a “change of attitude,” from her bosses toward her, they said, adding to her discomfort and leading her to finally decide it would be best to leave. 
 
 It was then that the deal to pay her a severance of $35,000 — roughly a year’s salary — was struck between her lawyer and the association’s general counsel, they said. The severance agreement was unusual not only for its size, three people familiar with it said, but also for its confidentiality provision. 
 
 Officials at the restaurant association declined to respond to a detailed request for comment from The New York Times. 
 
 The woman is said by friends to be deeply upset that an episode she had hoped to put behind her more than a decade ago is now resurfacing in such a public way, though she is also said to be displeased with the way Mr. Cain has minimized the harassment allegations. 
 
 “She wants to get back to her normal life and not be in this spotlight,” said one person who has spoken with her. 
 
 Mr. Cain has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing or inappropriate conduct, alternately describing the accusations as “a witch hunt” by the news media, a political vendetta from liberals and a plot by operatives for a Republican rival, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. And in a radio interview with Sean Hannity on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Cain said he did not flirt with or proposition any women he worked with, calling such charges a “fabrication.” 
 
 After a round of interviews this week that followed the initial report about the accusations on Politico.com in which Mr. Cain gave conflicting accounts of the reported incidents and did not address them in detail, the candidate has sought to move past them. 
 
 But Thursday brought new descriptions of the encounters with Mr. Cain, and details of the restaurant association’s handling of the matters. Politico reported that the woman’s complaints about Mr. Cain’s advances at the work event had been shared with at least two board members, and that they had prompted an investigation by Peter Kilgore, the general counsel for the restaurant association. 
 
 Mr. Kilgore, who still serves as the association’s general counsel and senior vice president of operations, has not commented. Politico also reported that another woman who had accused Mr. Cain of sexual harassment during his tenure as chief executive of the association had received a severance of $45,000. 
 
 The continuing stream of new details about the harassment allegations have increased pressure on Mr. Cain to further explain his actions and to try to move beyond what has become a crisis confronting his campaign.
– Herman Cain’s sex-harassment allegations don’t seem to have taken much of a toll on his poll numbers. Some 23% of Republicans support Cain’s nomination, putting him in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney, who is at 24%, a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds. That's the best he's done in WaPo-ABC polls all year. What’s more, 70% of Republicans say the allegations won’t affect their vote, and 55% don’t see the charges as a "serious matter." That doesn’t mean Cain is out of the woods, however. Some 37% of Republicans and 42% of GOP-leaning independents call the scandal serious, and Republican women are twice as likely as men to agree that it could make them less likely to vote for Cain. Romney has a strong lead among those concerned about the allegations—details of which keep rolling in. Several sources have provided accounts of an accuser’s story to Politico and the New York Times; one says the woman felt “her job was at risk” if she rejected a suggestive comment from Cain. After she complained about Cain’s advances, she felt her work environment became hostile, the Times notes.