Former Mayor Tom Potter has upped the anti-Sam ante today. He's gone from merely supporting the Recall Sam Adams campaign to publicly trashing current Mayor Sam Adams on the Just Out blog.

As reported in the Oregonian, Potter sent a letter this morning to Portland's LGBTQ news magazine Just Out in which he said Adams had "demonstrated his serious lack of judgment, a complete lack of integrity, his serial lying to win an election, and his callous disregard for others" and characterized the recall effort as "about honest government, an honest City Council and an honest Portland."

Ouch.

Read the full letter here.

Amongst all the cool things going on on N. Mississippi like the launching of a new food cart court, there's this strange little bit.

Earlier this month a Mississippi business sent us a copy of a curious flyer that had been put under the door.  The two page flyer was about as coherent as the label on a Dr. Bronners liquid soap bottle, but clearly was against the Sam Adams recall. 

The flyer was covered in strange clipart and words including a happy face, a stop sign, a bit that read 'no spare change', a McDonald's logo and other dissonant images.  It also had the names of several businesses and contact information. The first page of the flyer called for a "low-key" informational meeting between the community and the mayor away from "Mainstream Media" but giving allowance for "a small local, neighborhood newspaper can be there, preferably newspapers owned & managed by Blacks or Seniors."

Apparently the flyer was distributed up and down N. Mississippi Street.  The flyer asked to discuss important non-recall related issues. Some of the details from page 2 below:(grammar, spelling and punctuation are reproduced verbatim)

"Dear Mayor, we support you 100%! NO-RE-CALL! We want you to reamin at City Hall.  If you want our continuous support and votes, you have to listen to our concerns And "take it to the streets"! Remember Pres. Roosevelt? Good Example!

PUBLISHER'S BLOG ~ Cornelius Swart

The Portland Mercury reported that former Mayor Tom Potter endorsed the recall of Mayor Sam Adams this afternoon.  The statement was released via Tom Potter’s Facebook page.  The Mercury reported the announcement at 12:28pm, just moments after the Facebook posting had occured.  Ironically,  Mayor Sam Adams and Tom Potter were both at an awards ceremony at the Mississippi Street Fair at approximately 1pm.

The two appeared with local police officers, Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder and street fair organizers in a ceremony honoring the efforts of activists like Leonard Smith and police officers who fought to rid the area of crime during the 1980s and ’90s. (See photo below)

Courtesy of the NW EXAMINER ~ Allan Classen

Before Sam Adams’ political life was laid on the chopping block by headlines of lies and sex, the new mayor had bold plans.

None was bolder than what he had in mind for Linnton, where he was apparently prepared to take on a broad coalition of business interests and open the industrial waterfront to residential development.

 SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE~ Cornelius Swart

Jan 29th-Marty Davis is a University Park resident and the publisher of the Just Out, a bi-weekly publication for the Gay Lesbian Bi-Sexual and Transgender (GLBT) community. Its offices moved to N.Greely in Arbor Lodge neighborhood two years ago.  North Portland has a significant resident GLBT community. Davis has stated in the past that one of the Just Out’s busiest stacking points is the Videorama at N. Lombard in Kenton.

On January 22nd Davis and the Editorial Board of the Just Out called for the resignation of Mayor Sam Adams via the paper’s blog. The initial posting received 404 comments to date.  Davis and the paper have drawn great anger from the GLBT community for their position.  The piece states “This publication has long admired Adams’ vision, his intelligence and his tenacity. Ultimately we have concluded that these qualities cannot overcome the weakness revealed in Adams’ recent admission.”

Davis spoke with the Sentinel on Tuesday January 27th, a day after Adam’s returned to work at City Hall and two days after he stated he would not resign. Davis seemed exhausted in the phone interview. She expressed that the paper’s position had attracted more division, derision and attention that she ever expected.

Willamette Week reports that Wade Nkrumah, Mayor Sam Adams' spokesman and a former Oregonian reporter, has resigned. Nkrumah is the first Adams staffer to resign since news broke last week that Adams had lied about the sexual nature of his 2005 relationship with then-18-year-old Beau Breedlove.

 SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE: Satire Division

Rarely do we point to the Willamette Week for a good joke. But every once in a while they have a pretty good video up on their blog.  Here at the office, we've recently brought up the topic of a Sam Adams the musical, a-la The Chavez musical we did last year. Looks like we've been beaten to the punch. Wweek has a youtube video posting of Sambeau the musical (hmmm. Scathingly off color...) and it's worth a quick watch.  Meanwhile in real news, KGW says its SNOWING! The Governor calls for Matt Zaffino's head on a spike (..ok..I made that up) and tolls may be the deciding factor in how many travel lanes the new I-5 bridge will have. Well if the bridge size is determined by the pay-to-play model then I'd say with the economy being what it is, and Portlanders being the uh..thrifty souls they are...I think the bridge will be half a lane wide, with more commuters opting to swim.

~Cornelius Swart

 SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE

From a press release issued by the Mayor's office:

Mayor Sam Adams: “I will work harder than I ever have in my life to meet the challenges facing our great city”

See Online Poll

Even more breaking news in Adamsgate: Willamette Week is reporting that, according to an anonymous source, Mayor Sam Adams will announce later today that he will not resign and will return to work at City Hall next week. This comes directly on the heels of this morning's Oregonian story in which Beau Breedlove admits that his relationship with Sam Adams was romantic (but not sexual) when Breedlove was 17, calling into question whether all information about their relationship has been fully disclosed.

This morning's Oregonian features the first interview with Beau Breedlove since Tuesday's revelation by Mayor Sam Adams that he and Breedlove had a sexual relationship in 2005 - when Breedlove was allegedly 18 - and then lied about it until last week, when Willamette Week broke the story that led to Adams' admission.

In the interview, Breedlove, now 21, says that while he and Adams did not commence a sexual relationship until two weeks after his 18th birthday, Adams did kiss him twice when he was still 17, and that the nature of their relationship was romantic earlier than Adams has publicly claimed.

There are some discrepancies between Adams' and Breedlove's accounts of their first lunch together, as well as new revelations about Adams and  then-17-year-old Breedlove kissing "for about a minute" in a City Hall bathroom. However, Breedlove insists that Adams did not take advantage of him, and that "I knew what I was doing." (Interesting bit o' trivia: Breedlove's dog, who he brought with him to the O interview, is named Lolita.)

  SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE

Part 1: The Mayor and the Media

As the city holds its breath waiting to hear what Mayor Sam Adams will do in the face of recent controversy, nPodcast producer Allison Millionis and Sentinel Editor Cornelius Swart sat down to discuss community reaction and editorials in the Oregonian, Tribune, and Just Out calling for Adam's resignation.

Part 2: North Precinct and the Awesome
The second installment of this episode will include a discussion of the proposal to close North Precinct. Also, assistant and online editor Rebecca Robinson joins in to talk about how, despite recent events, the community remains an awesome place to live and work.

 SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE

~William Crawford

VIDEO BELOW THE CUT:

A fired-up crowd gathered at City Hall Friday night in support of their scandal-smacked mayor, Sam Adams.
 

The ever-thickening crowd, estimated at up to 500, braved sharp rose bushes and hopped stone fences to get better views of local singer Storm Large, and Editor of the Seattle Stranger and syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage as they declared their support  for the beleaguered mayor.
 

Large’s rendition of “America the Beautiful” and “Stand by Your Sam” cooed the crowd into remembering that sometimes it really is hard to be in Portland.
 

 SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE: See online poll

With a rally planned in support of Mayor Sam Adams, some appear to be rallying behind the media's quick calls for his resignation.  The following video is from the Oregonian's site. 

 SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE

The Oregonian reports that Sam Adams spent the day at his Kenton home yesterday making calls with the sound of 'resignation' in his voice.  The Sentinel continues to speak with local gay activists and prominent public people in North Portland.  North Portland resident Marty Davis' publication, Just Out (located on N. Greeley), the city's gay newspaper of record called for Adams' resignation yesterday.  Tuesday night we got this email response from gay Quaker activist and graphic designer Mitch Santine Gould.  Gould had this to say.

"I know Sam a bit, having campaigned for him.

My initial reaction was that I felt quite strongly it is wrong to lie about same-sex relationships, because human beings have a right to make their own sexual decisions. This is a deeply-held spiritual conviction.

  SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE

~ Cornelius Swart

The Sentinel has spoken with community members in the wake of recent news that Mayor Sam Adams previously lied about a relationship he had with an 18-year-old legislative assistant.

Reactions have varied from disbelief to anger at the media for releasing a story on Martin Luther King Day.  Some have felt that Adams is guilty of a betrayal of public trust, but are not yet demanding his recall or resignation.  Others feel that a politician's personal life should be immaterial when considering their ability to do their job.  Some see parallels to the impeachment investigation of former President Bill Clinton.

Today's Oregonian and Portland Tribune editorials in no uncertain terms call for Mayor Sam Adams to resign.

Some excerpts from the O's piece:

So now, Portlanders are left with a mayor whose election was built on a lie. Nobody knows how the election might have turned out if Adams' conscience had gotten the best of him in a more timely way. But he preferred not to put it to the test.

He's already said he doesn't plan to quit, but we submit that it is not in the city's interest to have a mayor who cannot vouch for his own character under fire.

 SENTINEL GUEST EDITORIAL

~Roger Anthony

So it turns out that the last few years have actually seen some progress in American politics:  Since 1998, we’ve gone from “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” to “I did not have sexual relations with that man … until then.”

The case of Sam Adams and Beau Breedlove has many twisted, tangled threads running through it.  Taken together, they point to one conclusion: 

Adams, not yet one month into his mayoral term, should resign.

The Sentinel endorsed Adams during the 2008 campaign.  His long background in City Hall gives him an exceptional knowledge of the gears, levers and pulleys that make city government work.  He’s articulated a big-picture vision for the city, and in keeping with the mood of the electorate, positioned himself as a font of innovative ideas.  

Putting forth that agenda now will be difficult, if not impossible.  If Adams chooses to stay in office, he will be surrounded by this controversy for at least the rest of 2009.  That’s because city elections regulations prohibit submitting a recall petition until the elected official has served six months of his/her term.

Additionally, Adams’ claim to credibility now rests on the assertion that while he and Breedlove did have a sexual relationship, it took place after Breedlove turned 18.  There is no evidence that this is not the case.  But that claim stands at the center of a circle of deceit formed by earlier denials of the relationship, a questionable hiring for his new City Hall staff, the admission that he persuaded Breedlove to lie about the relationship when reports first surfaced in 2007, and the ghost of Neil Goldschmidt.