SALEM, Ore. -- Two years ago, state Sen. Ben Westlund admitted to giving a legislative staffer an unwanted hug when rumors cropped up of an inappropriate act in his past.

However, it appears the conduct by Westlund -- now the Democratic candidate for Oregon state treasurer -- was far more egregious and involved more than the single incident Westlund publicly described in 2006.

A confidential letter obtained by The Associated Press details three incidents involving Westlund making unwanted physical contact with then-legislative aide Deborah Boone, who's now a Democratic state representative from Cannon Beach.

The letter, written by Boone and dated June 30, 1997, describes separate incidents that year in which Westlund, then a Republican House member, touched her hip, grabbed her upper leg and, at legislative party, "reached up my skirt and rubbed my leg."

"I lowered my voice and said to him directly that he should knock it off," Boone said in her letter to the Oregon House chief clerk's office.

In an interview Thursday, Boone confirmed she wrote the letter, but said she and Westlund have long since put the episode behind them, that she's forgiven the Bend Democrat and considers him a friend.

"I don't know why this is coming up again, other than it's the election season and somebody is trying to make something negative out of something that has been resolved," the state representative told The AP.

Westlund, who's running against Republican Allen Alley in the state treasurer's race, was on the road and not immediately available Thursday, his campaign office said.

But his campaign spokeswoman, Stacey Dycus, said release of the confidential letter was nothing more than an election-year attack.

"This is typical Republican smear tactics from political operatives feeling desperate about their Republican candidates' chances of winning statewide office," she said. "Voters are tired of their politics of personal destruction and the distraction from the real issues that the treasurer can help on: health care, education and the economy."

She noted that no formal complaint was ever filed against Westlund and that he and Boone had resolved the issue.

After rumors of inappropriate conduct by Westlund surfaced in 2006, both he and Boone said it involved nothing more than Westlund giving her a hug in some kind of public setting. Westlund said he apologized profusely afterward. Boone, for her part, said at the time it "wasn't a big deal" and that she and Westlund had since become friends.

But Boone's 1997 letter to the House chief clerk's office paints a different picture.

In it, Boone said the first incident occurred when Westlund touched her hip.

"When I responded with a shocked response, he told me to remember that the term harass has two words while looking at me with a challenging stare," she wrote.

At a May 1997 retirement party for two House members, she said, Westlund "grabbed my upper leg while walking past me" at the Reed Opera House ballroom in downtown Salem.

Then, at a party for House members at Willamette Valley Vineyards south of Salem, Westlund "reached up my skirt and rubbed my leg while I was standing between his and another member's chair as they were seated at a dining table," Boone said.

In Thursday's interview, Boone said that in 2006 she played down Westlund's unwanted physical contact by describing it as a single incident involving just a hug because she considered the matter resolved and didn't want to call a lot of attention to it.

"All of this stuff was a long time ago. It's done. It's over with. Ben is a friend. We work well together," the Cannon Beach lawmaker said.