"The day that this latest one hit, fundraising went way down," Cain told reporters in New Hampshire. "As the week has gone on and this woman who has made these accusations has basically started to contradict herself, our fundraising has started to go back up. It's not up to the level where it was, but a lot of people are saying, you know what, they don't believe it."

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In New Hampshire and at other campaign stops this week, he renewed what has become a familiar defense: that he is the victim of attacks by liberals and the establishment, who are threatened by his outsider appeal.

"They want you to believe that with another character assassination on me that I will drop out," a defiant Cain told a crowd of about 200 Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio. Some responded with shouts of "No!" and "Boo!"

In Iowa, Cain's state chairman, Steve Grubbs, said he was preparing a busy December schedule beginning with a Dec. 10 debate in Des Moines. And Grubbs said Cain, who has not aired any campaign ads in Iowa since last week, will resume advertising Friday with a new spot that asserts that electing Cain would put a veteran CEO in the White House, not a politician.

"His campaign is strong enough to survive the allegations," said Michael Farren, 31, an Ohio State University doctoral student in economics, from Pataskala, Ohio.

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Associated Press writers Shannon McCaffrey in Atlanta, Ann Sanner in Columbus, Ohio, Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Kasie Hunt in New York contributed to this report.