OREGON'S GAY/LESBIAN/BI/TRANS NEWSMAGAZINE
SAM ADAMS
DECEMBER 16 Z009
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from page 15
believe he’s a victim now. Exploited, deceived
and betrayed by a friend and a mentor’ (?) for
his own political gain.”
Breedlove himself broke his silence in early
July, when on Portland NBC affiliate KGW,
he expressed his anger at Adams’ refusal to
“come clean.” According to Breedlove, “It’s
just lie after lie after lie until we’re at the end
of the bowl and the last person to be burned
from the situation is me, and he’s still burned
me to try to save his career.”
Breedlove accused the mayor of sending
deliberately misleading text messages and
claimed that Kroger’s office didn’t contact wit
nesses to back up his own side of the story.
“I assumed that there would be some type
of safety net to prevent people from lying,”
he added. Kroger saw no need to put Adams,
Breedlove or anyone else under oath before a
grand jury—a move that would’ve made false
testimony illegal, versus that given to a state
investigator, which is not against the law in
Oregon.
On July 7, Portland State University
political science student Jasun Wurster filed
paperwork with the City Auditor’s Office to
launch the Community to Recall Sam Adams,
a grassroots, volunteer-led bid to put a recall
election on the ballot. Former Mayor Tom
Potter made his support of the effort public
via a July 11 Facebook status update and, on
July 15, released an exclusive letter to Just Out
regarding his stance.
“To my friends in the sexual and gender
minority community,” Potter wrote, “Of all
the communities affected
by Mayor Adams’ actions,
this community has deep
and personal feelings about
the outcome. I know there
are strong feelings on both
sides of this issue. Because
I love this community I
feel it’s important to tell
you why I made my deci
sion to support the recall of our Mayor.
“During his time as City Commissioner
and Mayor, Sam Adams has demonstrated his
serious lack of judgment, a complete lack of
integrity, his serial lying to win an election,
and his callous disregard for others.” Potter
went on to reiterate that his support of the
for a historical archive of community
events, visit the photo gallery al
www.justout.com
One more time, with feeling: New
recall spokesperson and chief
petitioner Avel Gordly (above) says
the second effort is expected to
launch January 2010.
recall had nothing to do with Adams’ sexual
orientation, but “the Mayor’s attempt to deny
and cover up his actions with Beau before
and after Beau turned 18”—and “an honest
government, an honest City Council and an
honest Portland.”
Throughout the 90 day effort, Wurster
stressed that the “campaign will not be the
tool of hatred, but that of citizens being a
part of the political process to make our
government better by holding Sam Ad
ams accountable for willfully lying to get
elected, orchestrating an elaborate cover-up
and abusing the power that the citizens of
Portland granted him.” Wurster and some
700 petitioners canvassed the city to collect
a goal of 50,000 valid signatures from regis
tered Portland voters; 32,183 were required.
Ultimately, the effort fell short, with Wurster
turning by his count approximately 30,000
signatures over to a group calling itself Port
land Future PAC as the basis for a new recall
campaign. Among the high-profile names
coming forward to support the latest bid,
which will be professionally run with start
up funds in the neighborhood of $300,000,
Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle, auto
dealer Ron Tonkin, Stimson Lumber CEO
Andrew Miller and Peter Stott, CEO of local
real estate firm SKB.
The Mayor’s office had not responded to
requests for a statement as Just Out went to
press. With Wurster taking a backseat for the
second bid, new recall spokesperson and chief
petitioner Avel Gordly confirmed that the
second effort was expected to launch January
20, 2010, a year to the date of Adams’ press
conference. Just Out will continue to cover
this story as it develops.
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