State Sen. Daylin Leach of Montgomery County, considered a progressive and an advocate for women's rights, has been named in the widening sexual misconduct scandal sweeping the nation since the accusations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Former campaign and legislative staffers and advisers told The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News that Leach, a legislator since 2003 who is now running for Congress, "has for years engaged in questionable behavior with young female staffers and volunteers, from highly sexualized jokes and comments to touching they deemed inappropriate." The papers interviewed nearly two dozen people about the senator's conduct.

Incidents include, according to the Inquirer/Daily News reporting:

* 2016:

A woman named Emily was 27 in February 2016 when she said met Daylin Leach, the then-55-year-old incumbent chairman of the state Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, inappropriately touched her,

Leach, a well-known Montgomery County state senator who has long advocated for women's rights, sat next to her while she registered attendees at an

, and grabbed her thigh under the table as he suggested he could help her find a job.

"He grabbed my thigh, almost to punctuate his point with a cruel irony," Emily, who agreed to use her first name but not last, told the Inquirer. She felt "frozen in fear and humiliation," she said. "I wrapped up the fund-raiser and went back to my hotel room and sobbed."

The Inquirer reported that two members of the state Democratic Party confirmed that Emily sent them distraught text messages hours after the incident describing what happened.

* 2015: A former Senate staffer who spoke on condition that she not be named said she first met Leach in February 2015 at the Federal Taphouse in Harrisburg in February 2015 when she was working for the SDCC. She said Leach touched her on the buttocks, and she yelled at him but was told by one of his aides that her response was not appropriate. She said that a month later, after she began working for the Senate, Leach tickled her torso from behind during a budget hearing luncehon. A witness told the woman's boss about the incident, the woman said, and she met with a human resources administrator in the Senate and was assured it would not happen again. "I'm more mad at the Senate for not doing anything," the woman told the Inquirer. "It's the culture up there that's the problem." Senate Democratic officials cited confidentiality rules to protect victims of sexual harassment when asked for comment by the Inquirer.

Calling out sexual harassment can be difficult, witnesses say

* 2012: A female intern in the Pennsylvania delegation reported that Leach made inappropriate sexualized comments on the opening night of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., according to two delegation officials, who said said they were concerned and responded by directing interns to travel in pairs.

* "He'd put his arm around me, and his hand would linger on the small of my back, and briefly graze my butt. As a woman, you get that feeling that this isn't right," said a woman who worked as a fundraiser for Leach several years ago.

* 2008: Two women who worked on Leach's Senate campaign said he repeatedly discussed sex in front of young female staffers. They said his comments, including which famous women he wanted to have sex with, became so uncomfortable they tried to limit his time around interns and volunteers.

Leach, 56, was not interviewed by the Inquirer but issued his own response saying the alleged touching did not happen. You can read the full response here.

"Politics is, sadly, an ugly business," Leach wrote. "I will go back to doing what I've always done, being a fierce fighter for women's rights and trying to protect my family from the unfortunate consequences of the profession I've chosen."

"He's not a predator. He's not a hound dog. He is a very, very conscientious and decent public official that has not lost his sense of humor, despite his political career," Leach's lawyer, George Bochetto of Philadelphia, told the Inquirer.

The episode was not an isolated incident, according to the Inquirer. Eight women and three men told of instances of inappropriate touching or in which Leach turned conversations with young, female subordinates into sexual territory that left the women upset.

"As great as his legislative record is for women globally, he can be awful to women individually," said Aubrey Montgomery, a former finance director for Leach's first campaign for Senate in 2008.

Efforts to obtain comment from Montgomery and several other Leach staffers late last week by PennLive were not successful.

None of those interviewed by the Inquirer/Daily News said they had been assaulted or held back in their careers or had their careers threatened and said Leach framed his comments as harmless jokes.