Disgraced former Sen. Al Franken spent 2006 sexually accosting women and launching the political career of Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the Democrats’ presumptive vice presidential nominee. The two appear to remain close to this day.

Walz was a political newbie that year, challenging a Republican incumbent in a GOP-leaning district. Minneapolis’s Star Tribune carried this news item in July 2006 on the campaigns’ top donors:

“Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht, who serves on the Agriculture Committee, has received more than $75,000 from farm- or food-related PACs, including more than $13,000 from the sugar and sugar beet industry.

“Democrat Tim Walz’s biggest donor has been Franken, a likely 2008 Minnesota Senate candidate who is distributing money to Midwestern Democrats through his own PAC. Besides a $10,000 PAC check, Franken and his wife each gave Walz the maximum $4,200.”

Later that year, Franken would headline a USO tour in the Middle East, on which he allegedly groped and kissed a lesser-known comedienne against her will. Also that year, Franken allegedly tried to kiss a Democratic staffer forcibly in his radio studio. A third woman “stated that Franken attempted to give her a ‘wet, open-mouthed kiss’ onstage at an event in 2006.”

“He was between me and the door, and he was coming at me to kiss me. It was very quick, and I think my brain had to work really hard to be like, ‘Wait, what is happening?’ But I knew whatever was happening was not right, and I ducked,” the former aide said in an interview. “I was really startled by it, and I just sort of booked it towards the door, and he said, ‘It’s my right as an entertainer.’”

Walz and Franken in these same months were becoming each other’s right-hand men. Besides personally donating the maximum legal amount, Franken had campaigned for and raised funds for Walz, headlining a fundraiser for Walz in July.

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In Franken’s 2008 Senate run, Walz campaigned with Franken — the two were something of a ticket.

Considering all the time they spent together, did Walz ever witness Franken’s predations? Did any Minnesota politicos or Walz staffers warn him that Franken was a serial groper? The running mate should answer these questions.