By Amanda Schurr

On Monday, January 19, 2009, freshly sworn-in Portland Mayor Sam Adams was in the nation’s capital to witness the inauguration of 44th President of the United States Barack Obama. Adams was basking in the afterglow of his own historic victory: chief executive of the largest city in America to elect a gay mayor, and by a sizeable, 58 percent margin.

Then came a late afternoon call from the Willamette Week, preparing to update a story first published in September 2007 about Adams’ relationship with former state legislative intern Beau Breedlove. In the original story, both Adams and Breedlove insisted their summer 2005 relationship, when then 42-year-old Adams was City Commissioner, was platonic. But after the Willamette Week presented Adams with new evidence, he admitted that he and Breedlove had sex after Breedlove turned 18 in June of that year, and that he’d asked Breedlove to lie for him.

“I want to publicly acknowledge I made a mistake and apologize for it,” Adams told the paper via telephone in January. “In the past, I’ve characterized my relationship with Beau Breedlove as purely non-sexual and that is not true.” He also claimed that he had lied to avoid false accusations of having had sex with a minor, referencing the 2005 scandal involving former Mayor and Governor Neil Goldschmidt, and the likely turmoil such allegations would mean for his mayoral campaign.

Adams was on a plane from Washington D.C. back to Portland hours later. At a January 20 press conference, Adams told reporters, “I want to apologize to the people of Portland for my dishonesty.” He continued, “This is about a public official lying. It’s not about sexual orientation.” Later that weekend, the Oregonian broke news of Adams’ admission that he and Breedlove had kissed prior to Breedlove’s 18th birthday, when Breedlove was an intern for Oregon Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer).

As Adams announced his intention to remain in office, calling his actions an “anomaly, not a trend” in two decades of public service, the revelations kicked off a firestorm of debate. Just Out publisher Marty Davis incurred both the wrath and support of a polarized GLBT community when in a January 21 editorial, she called for Adams’ resignation; other publications, including The Oregonian and the Portland Tribune echoed her sentiments. The news also prompted an inquiry by the Oregon Department of Justice. During an almost six-month process, state investigators interviewed 57 witnesses and found none to corroborate Breedlove’s account of his underage relationship with Adams, or any subsequent criminal wrongdoing.

Among the questions stemming from the initial matter, whether or not Adams committed official misconduct by hiring former Portland Mercury writer Amy Ruiz to his administration in an attempt to halt her coverage of the scandal; whether or not he utilized government resources to cover up the story; and whether he made untrue statements while on the mayoral fundraising trail.

On June 22, Attorney General John Kroger cleared Adams of any criminal charges related to the relationship, citing lack of “credible evidence” of inappropriate contact. “Accordingly, we have concluded there is insufficient evidence to charge, let alone convict, Adams with illegal sexual contact with a minor,” stated the office’s report.

“I am confident that we have resolved those legal questions correctly,” Kroger explained during a June 26 City Club appearance. “But it would be wrong for a prosecutor to try and resolve the moral or political questions. That’s not my job, that’s a job for the citizens of Portland.”

Following Kroger’s announcement, Breedlove’s mother, Gwen Rossler, released a letter of response, in which she stated that her “son was naive and trusting. As I see it now, these actions were all part of Mr. Adam’s [sic] strategy to discredit my son and deceive the public, in the very beginning.” She added, “My son has always believed that he was not a victim in 2005. But I 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 witnesses 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 decision 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 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 Adams 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 registered 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 Portland 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.