Topeka ? After weeks of giving Republican Gov. Sam Brownback a strong challenge in GOP-leaning Kansas, his Democratic challenger is on the defensive over disclosures that he was inside a strip club during a 1998 meth raid and an officer reported finding him in a dark back room with a nearly naked woman.

Democrat Paul Davis was 26 and single, a young attorney in a firm representing the owner of the club near Coffeyville in southeast Kansas. The owner spent six years in federal prison after the raid, but Davis was not arrested.

Davis, now 42, said he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and released a statement from Independence Police Chief Harry Smith, who participated in the raid as a detective, saying Davis was not involved in any wrongdoing.

Some top Republicans contend the incident raises questions about Davis’ character, and the Kansas Republican Party financed a biting web video, a mock ad for Davis’ legal services suggesting as payment, “We even take lap dances!” Davis supporters argue Republicans are desperate over a potential Brownback loss.

Independent polling suggests the race is close, and the disclosures work against Davis’ strategy of making the Nov. 4 election a referendum solely on Brownback’s conservative, tax-cutting fiscal policies.

“It makes the margin of error smaller for Davis,” said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University of Topeka. “He can’t really afford a gaffe at a debate or two or three more mistakes.”

The Coffeyville Journal first reported the details of the August 1998 raid in a Sept. 20 story that said it obtained documents through an open records request to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department. According to other newspapers’ reports, Timothy Keck, Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer’s chief of staff, made a similar request for documents the same day.

The Associated Press also received documents through an open records request. Club owner Marvin L. Jones ultimately faced federal charges; authorities said the meth came from Oklahoma.

“The governor’s in deep trouble,” Davis said recently. “So he’s going to resort to character attacks.”

Brownback’s campaign referred questions to the state GOP. Executive Director Clay Barker said Davis, the Kansas House minority leader, has represented a safe Democratic district in Lawrence and has “never really been vetted.”

“You’re electing a person,” Barker said. “You have to have a feeling of trust with the person.”

But Alan Ichiba, a 55-year-old martial arts instructor in Kansas City, Kansas, didn’t put much stock in the issue, though he’s a conservative Republican who intends to vote for Brownback.

“To me what happened previously doesn’t really matter,” he said.

The raided club, doing business as Secrets, was a few miles north of Coffeyville. Jones, its owner, now 44, was released from federal prison in August 2006. Attempts to locate Jones for comment were not successful.

The raid involved multiple law enforcement agencies and occurred after officials had an unidentified individual make two meth buys, worth $1,450, according to the documents.

Davis said he was taken to the club by his boss. Then-Coffeyville Police Chief Douglas Murphy said in a report that the meth buyer reported that during his first purchase, “two of Jones’ lawyers” were drinking at the bar in the club. When authorities raided the club at about midnight, Davis was found in the back room.

Frank Parra, a 67-year-old retiree and Democrat, from Kansas City, Kansas, doesn’t believe the disclosures should change voters’ minds about Davis.

“A lot of people go to strip clubs and you never hear about it,” he said.