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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

City Hall / Election 2008 / News / Politics / Portland Former Fritz Campaign Deputy Becomes Spokesman For Adams Recall Effort

Posted by Matt Davis on Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 2:16 PM

Amanda Fritz's former deputy campaign manager in the 2008 primary is now the spokesman for the website RecallSamAdams.com. Jasun Wurster is volunteering as the spokesman for the effort, he says, because he has never appreciated government officials abusing their power, which is one of the reasons he was attracted to work on Amanda Fritz's campaign in the first place.

Fritz, meanwhile, has been a staunch advocate for the inclusion of regular citizens like Wurster in Portland government, but also, was the first city commissioner to come out in support of Adams. This latest development may require her to engage in a delicate political balancing act, although Commissioner Fritz is yet to return a call to her office, seeking comment.

This weekend, Wurster and his friends called on Fritz to place a vote of confidence resolution on the council agenda, so that citizens would have an opportunity to weigh in on Adams' fitness for office during the regular council session. Wurster is no stranger to political advocacy, and has been featured numerous times in the Mercury over recent years, whether protesting increased fares on Trimet, or the actions of private security.

"I'm not being a Judas," Wurster says, when asked whether turning his back on Fritz might have a negative effect on her. "This may come back to burn me down the road, but I need my elected officials to stand up for the good of the city."

Wurster says Fritz has an "opportunity to be the leader that she said she was going to be" during her campaign, by putting the confidence motion on the council agenda. "When we were talking, we said the person that represents the people best is Amanda Fritz," he continues. "That's one of the reasons she got 70% of the vote in November."

"I think Amanda is very process-oriented, and the people I worked with on her campaign, and those who've supported Amanda are very confused," Wurster says. "Because they believe that one of the most important parts of city government is for citizens to go ahead and use council sessions to testify on their feelings about government."

"People's silence is not a show of support," he continues. "More times than not, in history, when people are silent, it's out of fear."

One of the major criticisms of the RecallSamAdams.com website has been that those behind it are remaining anonymous. But Wurster says that many of those behind the effort are scared of retaliation by Adams.

"A lot of people are really scared," he says. "Sam Adams is a very powerful person, and lean times are ahead of us. We have attorneys and business owners in our ranks, people who are very active in local politics, put it's one of those things where they're afraid politically and financially that should Adams ride out this storm, he's going to retaliate."

Wurster says 250 people are currently registered users of the recall website, and that many more users are logging on every day without signing up. He adds that the recall effort is nothing to do with Adams' sexual orientation, and that it is not a "witch hunt" of any kind.

"This recall campaign is legitimate," Wurster concludes. "It is not going to cease, even if the Attorney General comes back with a verdict clearing Adams of sexual misconduct and misuse of election law. This recall is going to happen."

 

Comments (22) RSS

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1
Saying Amanda is "process-oriented" is the under statement of the year.

The people that run Recall Sam Adams are giant pussies. If you don't have the balls to stand up and say you want a guy out of office for any reason you're a giant putz. This is America. A bunch of people stood up to our former President to his face and didn't hide behind a website.

It's been almost a month since this scandal broke. These jokers put up that website on just about every comment section of every story that comes out and they've only got 250 registered members? What an epic fail.
Posted by BlackedOut on February 10, 2009 at 2:52 PM · Report
2
They're getting desperate as well. Trying to provoke outrage because of the sex-with-someone-younger failed. Trying to provoke outrage by claiming it's-all-about-the-lying failed. Trying to provoke outrage about the Amy Ruiz hiring failed when it turned out there was no evidence of Sam's involvement. So now they've moved onto "government officials abusing their power". If anyone can figure out a logically sound connection between having sex with someone who doesn't work for you and who you have no power over, and abusing your power, I'd love to hear it...

I have no doubt that their will be an official petition in July to recall Sam. Either it fails to get enough support, or it results in a vote that it looks increasingly likely Sam would win. One of those options wastes taxpayers money at a time we can't afford it; the other doesn't. Your choice - do you want to put your own personal distaste with Sam's actions above what financially is best for the city during a major recession?
Posted by Stu on February 10, 2009 at 3:11 PM · Report
3
I'm just amazed by how small of numbers they have. I would have figured there would be far more. Now that more and more people are caring less and less about this do you think they'll even be able to manage a recall petition? It seems like they want Fritz to put a confidence motion out there because they know this story is going away and they want to get it back in the spotlight.

Still...it's pathetic these guys don't have the stones to stand up and say who they are. It's probably Sho Dozono. Wait, scratch that. I'm not sure he knows what the internet is.
Posted by BlackedOut on February 10, 2009 at 3:36 PM · Report
4
As out friends Garrett and Stu have pointed out better than we ever could. This madness needs to end as soon as possible. This is why we have asked Commissioner Fritz to start the process of healing our city by providing a safe environment for citizens to have civil public conversations.

For those that have never visited the site please do review it and if making our government better within the bounds of civility is something that you are interested in please do sign up to help.

This issue has always is about the lie that Sam Adams deliberately told to get elected and the elaborate cover-up he orchestrated that we the citizens are now having to pay for.

RecallSamAdams.com
Posted by RecallSamAdams.com on February 10, 2009 at 4:49 PM · Report
5
A much-cited 1995 Supreme Court ruling in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission reads:

Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical, minority views . . . Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. . . . It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation . . . at the hand of an intolerant society.
Posted by alan cordle on February 10, 2009 at 5:06 PM · Report
6
Okay, so 250 people, who wish to remain anonymous, want Sam Adams to resign bad enough to sign up on a website. Meanwhile, 500+ people want Sam Adams to stay bad enough that they showed at a rally at 5:30 on a Friday with basically the same day's notice, and several thousand are willing to publicly sign up on a Facebook page.

Of course, neither of those tell you what the rest of the city thinks, but I think those numbers might be indicative of something...
Posted by Matthew D on February 10, 2009 at 6:59 PM · Report
7
Fair Enough,

Wouldn't you be curious to see how many people show up at a 6:00PM city council meeting next week if they were allowed to speak directly to Sam Adams about his trust issues?

Please note that those are 250 people that signed up since Jan. 21

If I may add some more numbers, here are the total website traffic since the site has been active 20 days ago:

Successful requests: 527,830
Average successful requests per day: 26,324
Successful requests for pages: 73,551
Average successful requests for pages per day: 3,668
Data transferred: 2.05 gigabytes
Average data transferred per day: 104.59 megabytes

Note: there will be a spike in these numbers after today's media events.

Yesterdays #1 requester:
2.92% ptldnet.ci.portland.or.us

RecallSamAdams.com
Posted by RecallSamAdams.com on February 10, 2009 at 7:19 PM · Report
8
Stu,

"Trying to provoke outrage because of the sex-with-someone-younger failed. Trying to provoke outrage by claiming it's-all-about-the-lying failed. Trying to provoke outrage about the Amy Ruiz hiring failed when it turned out there was no evidence of Sam's involvement. So now they've moved onto 'government officials abusing their power'": And in this very thread, they've moved farther. Now it's a free-speech issue: "...we have asked Commissioner Fritz to start the process of healing our city by providing a safe environment for citizens to have civil public conversations."

What a crock.
Posted by Guffman on February 10, 2009 at 7:47 PM · Report
9
I would just like to point out that being the "deputy campaign manager" of a publicly funded city council campaign with virtually no chance of losing is hardly qualifications for running a recall campaign of a sitting mayor, much less commenting on it in the media. Just saying.
Posted by Finnegan on February 10, 2009 at 11:31 PM · Report
10
I think that data just proves that people DON'T agree with you. 73,000 pages have been served on your website, but only 250 people cared/agreed enough to sign up, or 0.3%. (I hear that penis enlargement spam has a better hit rate than that.) Given that the site has been spammed everywhere in the media already, and that is all the better you can do, Sam clearly has nothing to fear.
Posted by Matthew D on February 11, 2009 at 4:20 AM · Report
11
Finnegan,

I am a volunteer spokes person for the campaign, generally it is bad form to attack the messenger. I guess I wasted my money on the 4 years of political science and communications classes at PSU... But hey, it was fun.

Could you please list your requirements to be an active citizen who is working with others to hold their elected officials accountable?


Matthew,

We remove spam accounts regularly. Spam accounts were not part of the 250. Generally spammers create an account, post and are off to another site. This means that the do not generate much traffic.

But since we are talking numbers, we are still 5 months out from the recall. Our current recruitment rate puts us at having ~1750 volunteers to collect signatures. With our goal of 50,000 this means that each volunteer would have to collect about 30 signatures. A person can canvas about 30 homes in an hour. If this issues is divided 50-50 that is only 2 hours of canvasing for them to meet their goal.

But as Finnegan pointed out I was but a lowly "deputy campaign manager" and probably learned nothing about running an effective campaign during that 6 months.

---

For those that have a few hours this July to spend talking to your friends and family about Sam Adams trust issues and want to make your government stronger please do consider signing up at the site.

Though, if you really want to know where your city council stands on this issue please call Amanda Fritz at (503) 823-3008 and ask her to place a non-binding Vote of Confidence on next weeks Regular Agenda.

RecallSamAdams.com
Jasun Wurster
Posted by RecallSamAdams.com on February 11, 2009 at 5:50 AM · Report
12
But if we testify at a council meeting about a Vote of Confidence, won't we have to give our names?

I'm scared of Sam Adams. I met him at a party last year and made a joke about his tie. The next night someone tried to poison my dog. I can't prove it, but I'm sure it was him.

Jasun, can we testify anonymously, maybe with a paper bag over our heads?
Posted by billy on February 11, 2009 at 7:05 AM · Report
13
Billy,

The vital point that you bring up is that it is your right to testify at City Hall. We are asking that our elected officials provide us that right and publicly tell us if they have confidence in the mayor.

The people that fear Adams are city employees, small businesses that rely on city contracts and those who lively hoods rely on having access to the Mayor.

RecallSamAdams.com
Jasun Wurster


Billy, on a personal note I would like to share a great Kurt Vonnegut Jr. quote with you:

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."

Have you ever considered running for public office?
Posted by RecallSamAdams.com on February 11, 2009 at 8:02 AM · Report
14
Jasun,

The point i was TRYING to bring up is that people SHOULD be afraid of the Mayor. All the commissioners, in fact.

Any way to testify anonymously at a vote of confidence hearing in council? You didn't answer that. It's important.
Posted by billy on February 11, 2009 at 8:21 AM · Report
15
As for those who mock Jasun's "qualifications", here's another great quote from Kurt Vonnegut: ""If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind."

jasun you're very brave to stand up to the Mayor under your own name. i hope you dont wake up some morning & find Rohypnol in your tap water.
Posted by billy on February 11, 2009 at 9:00 AM · Report
16
"Spam accounts were not part of the 250."

You've missed the point. You claim to have 527,830 page hits. What we're trying to say is you've only signed up 250 people in the 3+ weeks you've been up and running. You've had tons of free publicity and you post that website in the comment section of every city paper and blog that wants to talk about Sam Adams and you've been mentioned all over the local news already. Our point is that your conversion rates are a pathetic 0.00047. Not even close to 1% of the people that view your page.

Matthew was trying to point out that the penis enhancement spam those of us without gmail get in our inbox has a better success rate than your website.

As for the owner/owners of the website not willing to come out and say who he/she is or who they are as a group. That's terrible leadership. It's also total chickenshit.

As for you actually having 1750 volunteers...that's a stretch of biblical proportions. Even if you manage to sign up that many people on your website a large portion of them won't show. This is coming from someone that did some volunteer coordination for Kerry-Edwards. You'll be lucky if 50% of the people who say they'll show up actually do. Then you're going to ask them to gather 30 signatures from their neighbors? I am a rare exception in that I actually know my neighbors. Not a single one of them is in support of this and not a single person from my group of friends is in support of this. Hell my physical therapist told me she thinks this is ridiculous.
Posted by BlackedOut on February 11, 2009 at 9:13 AM · Report
17
Jasun, it's not worth your time to engage with these people, believe me.

The last thing they want is for the council or anyone else to actually have a vote of confidence on Sam, because they're afraid they'll lose. If they were really as confident as they act, they'd welcome a vote of confidence, and a recall vote in order to prove that Portland "still loves Sam." Instead they'll resist such a vote tooth and nail.
Posted by Blabby on February 11, 2009 at 9:56 AM · Report
18
No Blabby...it's because it's a giant waste of time and takes the focus off the problems of the city and onto a sex scandal. I remember the last time that happened nationally and it was stupid.
Posted by BlackedOut on February 11, 2009 at 10:19 AM · Report
19
You're rationalizing, Garrett.
Posted by Blabby on February 11, 2009 at 10:29 AM · Report
20
You're lying, Blabby.
Posted by Guffman on February 11, 2009 at 10:32 AM · Report
21
About what?
Posted by Blabby on February 11, 2009 at 11:33 AM · Report
22
"Jasun, it's not worth your time to engage with these people": That, for starters. Anyway, that's more foundation for my conclusion than you have for accusing Garrett of rationalizing.
Posted by Guffman on February 11, 2009 at 11:46 AM · Report

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