News and Culture » Adams Admission

Two More Business Leaders Join Sam Adams Recall

Nigel Jaquiss — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:06:04 +0000

Two more business leaders have put their names—and presumably their wallets—behind the second attempt to recall Mayor Sam Adams.

Last week, WW reported that former state Sen. Avel Gordly had agreed to be the spokeswoman and chief petitioner for the second recall campaign. Today, Gordly sent out an email seeking financial support for the campaign.

That email (below) included the names of two business leaders previously identified as recall supporters—Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle and car dealer Ron Tonkin. But today’s message also adds two more names to the list: Andrew Miller, the CEO of Portland-based Stimson Lumber and Peter Stott, the former CEO of Crown Pacific Partners and now the CEO of the Portland real estate firm SKB.

It is unclear how much money any of the four is going to contribute because the recall campaign has not yet begun filings with the Secretary of State’s elections division.

Dear, _______

I am writing you because I believe Portland is at a crossroads and being defined by a select few.

As you may have read, I have agreed to be the chief petitioner for the new recall campaign. This issue is important to me and others because Portland voters should have the opportunity to decide the city’s future. Whether you support Adams or not, it is important that we stand up and resolve this issue.

The city and region cannot afford three more years of weakened and unsettled leadership. The Mayor must have a mandate to govern effectively and tackle the pressing issues of job creation, business development, schools and the future growth of our city and region.

Our next step is to complete our initial fundraising goal in the next few days so that we can start paying petitioners and recruit volunteers to start collecting signatures right away.

As you may know the volunteer effort came very close with more than 30,000 signatures. Starting with this foundation and adding the paid signature effort, we no doubt will be able to collect the required signatures to put this issue before Portland voters.

Several prominent business leaders have stepped up to help fund our down payment. Among those are Tim Boyle, Ron Tonkin, Peter Stott, Andrew Miller, and others. These are their personal views and not views of their companies. Contributions range from $20,000 to $10,000 to $5,000. Either personal or corporate contributions are acceptable.

We are within striking distance of our goal and need your help to put this issue on the ballot.

Your financial help will make a difference. Please make contributions to Portland Future PAC and send to PO Box 5217 Portland, OR 97208. Together, we will reclaim Portland as the great place we know.

Thank you.

Avel

P.S. Attached is a form required by the Secretary of State. Please fill out the form when sending a contribution.

Avel Gordly Will Take A Top Role In The Second Effort To Recall Mayor Sam Adams

Nigel Jaquiss — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:58:56 +0000

Former state Sen. Avel Gordly signed up for a role today as chief petitioner and spokesperson for the second attempt to recall Mayor Sam Adams.

Gordly, 62, retired from the Legislature in 2008 after 17 years of service and now teaches at Portland State University. Her new prominent role in the second recall could thrust Gordly back into the kind of partisan battles she decried as a lawmaker. But she’s among a group of Portlanders who believe voters should have another chance to decide who should be mayor, given that Adams acknowledged lying about his relationship with then 18-year old Beau Breedlove in order to win the mayor’s seat in 2008.

During Gordly’s tenure in Salem, she earned a reputation for independence. In 2006, she left the Democratic Party and became the only lawmaker not affiliated with either major party in protest over what she saw as excessive partisanship. (She became a Democrat again in 2008 to vote for Barack Obama in the presidential primary).

Gordly joins a nascent effort that began earlier this month after the first recall campaign failed to gather the 32,183 signatures required to place a recall on the ballot.

In the last week, The Portland Tribune and The Oregonian have identified two local business leaders -Tim Boyle, the CEO of Columbia Sportswear; and car dealer Ron Tonkin- as two of the deep pockets interested in backing a second recall campaign.

Here’s a brief interview WW conducted with Gordly late Tuesday afternoon.

WW: Why did you agree to get involved with the recall?

Gordly: I remain convinced that Portland voters should have an opportunity to decide whether the mayor should stay in office.

WW: You’re likely to face criticism from the mayor’s supporters. Was it a difficult decision to get involved in the recall?

Gordly: No. I’ve thought long and hard about the issue and believe strongly that we’re at a crossroads at the city and state. This is about the character and values of our city—not just about one person. It’s about how we move forward. And I don’t think we can diminish the importance of voters having their say.

WW: Some people say that recall proponents had their chance and now it’s time to move on and deal with the pressing issues Portland faces.

Gordly: I disagree. This is unfinished business. It’s about what we as a city communicate to the rest of the nation and the world about our values.
I recognize that we have a “status quo” culture in this city that would like us to be satisfied [with the failed recall attempt] and move on. But what are the missed opportunities that are not coming to our city as a result of crippled leadership? We can’t move on until we finish the business of defining who are we are and what the values are that set us apart in this city and this state.

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Wurster Confirms New Recall Group Will Start And Get The Signatures He’s Gathered

Nigel Jaquiss — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:25:07 +0000

Jasun Wurster told WW this morning that he will turn over what he says are 30,000 signatures to a new group that will try to recall Portland Mayor Sam Adams.

Today is the deadline for the Wurster-led recall effort to turn in the signatures it’s gathered if it hoped to put a recall of Adams on the ballot for Portland voters. Wurster claims 700 volunteers will have gathered more than 30,000 signatures. But he says rather than turning those signatures in, he will give them to the new group, Portland Future PAC.

Wurster says he has two reasons for not turning in the signatures: first, he doesn’t think he has the 32,183 valid signatures needed; second, the names of those who signed would become a public record and he says he does not want to expose them to the wrath of Adams and his supporters.

Wurster says several people approached him a couple months ago and expressed interest in mounting a professionally-managed effort but wanted to give him a chance to meet the statutory requirement of 32,183 signatures first. About a month ago, those people came back, this time with indications of financial support from people Wurster calls “business leaders.”

“These are people who want to take the city in a better direction,” says Wurster, whose recall effort was all-volunteer and had little financing. “They think Adams’ behavior is having an economic impact on the city and hurting our reputation regionally and nationally.”

He declines to name either the people who approached him orginally or those who have said they will support the new recall effort.

“People fear retaliation,” Wurster says. “We found that gathering signatures. It’s very troubling when people fear participating in a democracy. It makes you wonder do we really have a democracy?”

Wurster, a 34-year-old political science student at Portland State University, says he is disappointed that he did not meet the recall threshold but feels he accomplished two goals: “We’re on a path to hold Sam Adams accountable for lying,” he says. “And we’ve got people talking about this issue rather than ignoring it.”

Asked whether he wants to replace Adams or is a stalking horse for another candidate who hopes to replace Adams, Wurster answered “no,” to both questions. He says he’ll be ready to assist the new group but will leave the heavy lifting to new leaders and to paid signature gatherers.

“I’m ready for a vacation,” Wurster says.

Breaking: New Mayoral Recall Campaign Will Begin Monday

Nigel Jaquiss — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:30:31 +0000

WW has learned that a new group calling itself Portland Future PAC will begin a second attempt to recall Portland Mayor Sam Adams. The new group will employ paid signature gatherers, a stark contrast to a recall group that has spent the past three months relying on volunteers to gather the 32,183 signatures needed to put a recall of Adams on the ballot.

Portland Future PAC will begin its effort on Monday —the day that the current recall effort faces a deadline to turn in the signatures it’s gathered to the city elections office. In effect, the new group will restart the clock on the current all-volunteer effort led by Jasun Wurster. That Wurster-led effort—calling itself The Community to Recall Sam Adams—claims it’s gathered more than 30,000 signatures from registered Portland voters. Wurster has offered no proof of that total. And given that some signatures are likely to be invalid, observers speculated he would need to turn in 40,000 or more signatures to ensure he had enough to guarantee 32,183 valid signatures.

Two people familiar with the new effort, speaking on background because they are not authorized to speak for the group, say Wurster won’t turn in the signatures he has gathered to the city elections office. Rather, Wurster will give the signatures to the new group so that it can ask those people to sign a second petition. Wurster, a student at Portland State University who previously worked on the campaign of City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, will reportedly take a back seat in the new effort.

Wurster did not return a call seeking comment Sunday night.

The new group, Portland Future PAC, has held a number of meetings in recent weeks. And people familiar with those meetings say it already has commitments for a substantial sum of money from prominent donors upset with Adams over his belated admission in mid-January that he had previously lied about having a sexual relationship with then teen-aged legislative intern Beau Breedlove.

Adams spokesman Roy Kaufmann ~~did not immediately return a request for comment Sunday night.~~

Updated at 8:45 pm: Turns out Kaufmann is not allowed to talk about the issue:

“As the current recall is a pending election measure, election law prohibits me from commenting,” Kaufmann told WW via email.

Unlike Wurster’s group, according to a source familiar with the new group’s plan, the new effort will not start the statutory 90-day clock on signature gathering until it has raised a “substantial” amount of money.

It will not be cheap to gather the required signatures.

The group Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes has spent about $900,000 so far and it gathered 250,000 signatures state-wide for the referral of two income tax hikes passed by the 2009 Legislature. That’s more than $3 per signature, although the group also incurred expenses other than just paying signature gatherers.

Wurster’s group has spent just $18,000. However, if he really has gathered more than 30,000 signatures that the new recall group can use as a base, the task might be slightly easier for the new group.

Week To Go in Sam Adams Recall Effort

Hank Stern — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:55:51 +0000

In case you’ve lost track of where things stand in the move to recall Mayor Sam Adams, there’s a week to go and little indication the petition organizers can reach their goal of 32,000-plus valid signatures by next Monday’s deadline.

Yet in a world where surprises occasionally happen, there is at least this new video (delivered with a nod to the “Greetings Earthlings” style of filmmaking that’s proven popular in this saga) to chew on from recall organizer Jasun Wurster. In the video, Wurster claims his group is “very close to having enough signatures.” We’ll know in a week.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tarnished Actor/Reality TV Star Likes Mayor Sam Adams

Nigel Jaquiss — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:33:14 +0000

Mayor Sam Adams’ first year in office has been the stuff of reality television — with a criminal investigation, a car crash and two homes in foreclosure since January.

Now comes a wannabe purveyor of reality fare, a scandal prone actor and reality TV subject Daniel Baldwin, to the Rose City — and judging from this Tweet (hat tip to Oregon Media Central) — Adams is his kind of guy.

“Hey, How about Mayor Sam Adams of Portland Oregon. This guy is the real deal. He cares about his people and backs it with his ACTIONS !!!!”

Baldwin, who has a production company, plans to work on reality projects in Portland.

Recall Campaign Hits Midpoint With A Long Way to Go On Signatures

Beth Slovic — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:17:00 +0000

The Recall Sam Adams campaign has reached the mid-point of its 90 day effort.

How far do recall supporters have to go to reach their goal of 50,000 signatures and possibly force a recall election?

Well, the answer is very far. The campaign has no official numbers at this point, Jasun Wurster, the spokesman for the group, says. But he says they have at least 7,000 at this point, 45 days into the 90-day effort. They need 32,183 valid signatures to make the ballot — which worked out to 358 a day when they started last month.

“People look at the numbers and say ‘Oh, they’re not going to make it,” Wurster says. “But we trained 30 volunteers yesterday and that’s 1,000 signatures. We’re very confident we will reach 50,000.”

DA’s Office Declines to Prosecute Perlman in Adams Recall Case

James Pitkin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:25:08 +0000

The Multnomah County District Attorney’s office won’t prosecute Portland journalist Lee Perlman for allegedly scribbling on one of the petitions to recall Mayor Sam Adams.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Rod Underhill told WW this morning there’s insufficient evidence to prove Perlman caused “substantial inconvenience” to the recall campaign — the standard prosecutors would need to meet to support charging Perlman with criminal mischief.

“The signatures are still valid as we understand them,” Underhill says. “Can you describe to me the substantial inconvenience? There has to be that for criminal mischief, and there just isn’t.”

Perlman, who writes for the Hollywood Star News and other local papers, was arrested last Thursday for third-degree criminal mischief for allegedly scribbling on a recall petition signature-gatherers handed to him Aug. 6. Check out a copy of that petition, with the names redacted, here.

Hat tip to blogger Jack Bogdanski.

Unzipped Goes Back to The Political Well In Hopes of A Cover

Hank Stern — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:45:07 +0000

Beau Breedlove may not be the only person with a political connection to pose this year on the cover of Unzipped magazine.

The gay porn magazine now wants Levi Johnston on its cover, saying it would be “thrilled” to have the father of Sarah Palin’s grandson. And apparently Johnston, who’s become a gay icon, is apparently interested in posing nude “if the money’s right.” Hat tip to Gawker. In case Johnston wants to see what he might look like …

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Adams’ Admission Reaction: Beau Shows — Breedlove Poses Nude For Unzipped According
Kroger on Adams: ‘Ethical’ and ‘Political’ Questions Still Unanswered Once agai

Police Arrest Journalist Who Allegedly Defaced Recall Petitions

Beth Slovic — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:55:48 +0000

Portland Police this morning arrested Lee Perlman, the reporter for the Hollywood Star News who allegedly defaced a petition to recall Mayor Sam Adams last week.

The charge Perlman faces is criminal mischief (PDF) in the third degree, a misdemeanor.

Reached by phone last week, Perlman offered no clear explanation for his actions, saying over and over again that he had “sloppy handwriting.” He did, however, offer a story about goats.

“Jimmy Doolittle, the famous flying ace, said that his biggest recreational activity was mountain goat hunting,” Perlman told WW. “They said, ‘You really like mountain goat hunting.’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t like mountain goat hunting, but I like to hang out with people who like mountain goat hunting.”

Mug shot from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department. Cell phone photo of Perlman from J.M. Favata.