Mayor Sam Adams’ escapades with a young intern, followed by the lies regarding said incident, garnered him many an enemy here in Portland. Enough enemies for some to believe they could mount a reelection. That poor effort failed, and now Adams’ opponents are gearing up for round two.
Let us get the obvious stuff out of the way. Mayor Adams lied. Plain and simple. Not only did he lie, but he lied about sex. Not only did he lie about sex, he lied about gay sex. And not only did he lie about gay sex, he lied about alleged young gay sex. A more perfect scandal that challenges social norms and taboos there is not. Even given these facts, I think these recall efforts are motivated by more misguided ideals than ousting the lying politician.
The people leading the recall effort, like Jason Wurster, seem to be under the impression that they have a large amount of people who back their effort—an effort that is being pursued in the name of truth and justice. How they came around to this idea probably has to do with how loud Mayor Adams’ opponents are as opposed to the people who support him, because the numbers do not agree.
Adams was elected in May 2008 with 58 percent of the votes. His closest opponent, Sho Donozo, had only 34 percent, with the rest split among a dozen or so no-names according to KGW. That’s a pretty significant win by my standards, even in the face of the as-yet-unconfirmed rumors of the aforementioned young gay sex.
According to the Portland Auditor’s Office, the city of Portland has about 350,000 registered voters. The amount of signatures required for a recall? A little over 32,000—a number that Wurster and his volunteers did not reach.
I’m certainly glad that less than 10 percent of voters can make it possible to waste time and money by initiating another election. To Wurster, all these numbers somehow add up to the idea that it is the right thing, and a possible thing, to get Mayor Adams out of office. Again, this is probably largely due to the volume of Wurster and his allies’ voices, not their numbers.
If I were able to believe that the smear campaign against Adams was really about the search for truth and justice, these recalls, and even the initial allegations, would be a different story. However, it seems to me that the initial rumors were brought about not in an attempt at truth seeking, but in a blatant attempt to smear Adams. I would be willing to bet that Sho Donozo and his team were much more interested in negatively affecting Adams’ chances of getting elected than the pursuit of truth.
So what has our mayor, who has come under so much fire during these strained attempts to force reelection, been doing in the face of all this recall madness? Well, he’s working for the city in his elected capacity. Mark Larabee of The Oregonian quotes Adams as saying, “We’ve been running full speed. That’s what the citizens expect of the mayor of a city with one of the largest unemployment rates.” Adams is doing the job he was elected to do and doing it well.
So Mayor Adams lied. About sex. Gay sex. He lied because he knew bigots and political competitors would use the truth to smear him. Adams is not the first nor last politician to lie while running for office, but most of those other lies weren’t of such a taboo nature. Nor do they prevent Mayor Adams from doing his job well.
This recall is a waste of time. The only thing we are going to see from a potential recall, assuming that throwing money at the effort will produce one at all, are a bunch of annoying and preachy commercials slinging mud at Mayor Adams. Most importantly, if there is a recall, be sure to send in your ballot if you support Mayor Adams. Make sure that your voice, though quieter than Wurster’s, is heard above the roar.