You wouldn’t know it by media coverage, but not everyone in Portland thinks Sam Adams should resign.
Do you believe the following?
1. Consensual sex between adults does not impact one’s ability to serve in public office;
2. The personal affairs of gay officials face a level of scrutiny that is not equal to that of their heterosexual counterparts;
3. We acknowledge Sam Adams’s dishonesty in this matter and do not endorse it;
4. Sam Adams is the person we want to lead our city.
Then you should visit Sam Is Still My Mayor.
If Sam Adams does end up resigning though, I actually agree with Jack Bog on who might make a good replacement.
Thanks for posting this… I’m still in favor of Sam being mayor, mostly because I think that he can overcome his new image as an untrustworthy public figure. I voted for him once, and I would do it again.
Thank you, I’m headed over there now.
I’m on the fence leaning toward asking him to step down. I don’t care what he does in the bedroom – that is his personal business, but he lied about it and asked someone else to lie about it. Why? I understand there is greater scrutiny of Gay politicians, and that is why he shouldn’t have lied in the first place and let it all hang out. I think he would have been judged by some, but at least not as a liar.
Resign! Resign! Resign!
He lied to get into office and bulldogged his way in. Trouncing Sho by blocking his way to public financing. This is not the only offence Adams has commited. You should see my road, it’s an atrosity. We were told we’d have to pay for the repairs ourselves, but had to use the city as our contractor. This is Adams legacy. He’s as bad as Bush. Use this oportunity to get rid of him. The only reason he was elected to this office is he portraid a powerful gay rights activist. It should always be that the public vote for the best candidate, not the best of a catagory of people.
His smear of Mr. Ball and cries of homophobia when asked about the incident were the final straw for me. Plus I don’t believe he waited ’til the magical 18th birthday. He has set back gay rights and should step down.
Thanks for posting this, Dave.
Folks might also want to know about the rally in support of Sam Adams planned for tomorrow, 1/23 @ 5:30pm in front of City Hall downtown.
Hope to see you there!
I’m very disappointed that Sam lied but this isn’t a reason for him to resign. Unfortunately, the system rarely allows politicians to be completely honest. Let’s just move on and let him get back to the job he was elected to do.
If he’s going to resign I’d rather it be over his proposed tolls on the city’s bridges instead of the whole sex scandal thing.
My thoughts:
There are politician lies and actions I would condemn, but lying about legal sexual activity is not one of them.
Personally, I couldn’t care less about the legal sex lives of public officials. And there has been no evidence presented that anything illegal occurred. This might occur in the future, but I’m waiting to see.
Lying about policies or political opponents won’t get the Oregonian to demand you resign (in fact, if you’re Gordon Smith, you’ll get its endorsment).
There’s apparently something magical about lying about sex that makes someone forever untrustworthy and incapable of fulfilling their non-sex related job duties.
Lots of folks never liked Sam Adams in the first place, for a variety of reasons. Naturally they’re glomming onto this “scandal.” But I, for one, did not have my trust violated because I never trust a politician not to lie occasionally and not to have legal sex with another adult.
Dave,
You make a good case with your comment that makes me think – yes, if he were lying about sex, it is a non issue. Yet this campaign of lies and the people who got hurt along the way is what frustrates me. When Mr. Ball first brought up the allegations (which ended up being true) he was vilified in the media and torn down by everyone around. Did he deserve that? Maybe. Maybe he shouldn’t have been spreading rumors. I don’t know. It just seem like this scandal isn’t just affecting Sam, but others too and that to me makes it more than just sex.
dieselboi, et al –
Yeah, I agree that the scandal will effect Sam Adams’ ability to govern; regardless of where people assign the blame, and regardless of whether he’s innocent or not of any crimes. I would not be too surprised nor, honestly, too disappointed, if he does resign.
But to me Sam’s motivation for lying about the relationship, and fighting back against the allegations are pretty clear; he wanted to win an election and continue his career. If he is innocent of statutory rape (and I have not seen any compelling evidence that he isn’t), his reaction may also have been motivated by honest disgust at being accused of such a crime.
But Mr. Ball’s motivation for coming forward with the allegations? That’s more murky.
(Plus – I walked by City Hall this afternoon and the Fred-Phelpsian “Christians” marching about spouting hate and wielding “sodom and gomorrah”-related protest signs make me sick to my stomach. Whatever side they’re on, I’m on the opposite.)
Wow, where do the Fred-Phelpsians get all the cash to travel like they do?
Heather – I don’t know that they were the Fred Phelps cretins, but they were cut from the same cloth.
I was working with Sam when “the 17 y/o intern” was showing up at city hall. Members of his staff were stunned and concerned about their jobs if it should get out that he was “mentoring” this guy. There were lots of stories about Sam’s less than ideal dating choices. At the time I thought he was a sleazy hypocrite. Everyone assumed he was sleeping with the guy. Sam was allegedly buying the kid amtrak tickets to come for visits and stay at his house. If they weren’t having sex, then he was grooming the kid until he turned 18. Interesting that he drove down to Salem to celebrate his 18th birthday, then within days had sex with him. It says a lot about his character. I’m personally glad he got caught. I was surprised he got this far with covering it up and lying.
The biggest letdown is for gays and lesbians who thought he was a positive role model and now have to deal with all the negative stereotypes again.
I think the WW article was right on the money from what I know happened in 2005. I personally think his political career is over if he resigns or not.
Dave, I appreciate your reasonable and dispassionate perspective.
Ability to govern is the issue now, no matter how much Adams’ supporters want to keep talking about sex.
(I find it endlessly amusing to be labeled a prude, but at least I’m in good company with the editorial board of Just Out, among others.)
Regardless of how we got here, Adams’ political clout is severely diminished, and that’s bad for Portland. Even worse for Portland would be a recall campaign.
Politics is ugly, brutal business, with an unwritten code of honor. Whether you agree with that code or not, it was violated when Adams used Leonard’s credibility to salvage his incipient mayoral bid, and when he used his paid political adviser to coach Breedlove to lie, both as part of a campaign to smear Bob Ball.
(Smearing Bob Ball didn’t violate the code in and of itself; that’s just regular old negative politics, like Ball himself was engaged in. My reaction at the time? Meh. Politics as usual; none of my business; don’t care so much.)
But let’s not forget, Adams is still under criminal investigation, which may well clear him of actual criminal wrong-doing.
Until the results of that investigation are in, we shouldn’t insist this about “[c]onsensual sex between adults.” (By the way, the investigation is not into statutory rape, but the misdemeanor of contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor, and perhaps official misconduct.)
In the end, you’ve got to wonder what motivates a person to seek and cling to power.
Sure, most politicians have an element of personal ambition mixed in with their civic-mindedness, their desire to serve, and their pursuit of better governance. I’ve always had a hard time seeing beyond Sam’s personal ambition. This whole thing seems to confirm that reading of things.