This Week in the Mercury
Friday, May 1, 2009
Media / News Breedlove Scandal Continues
Posted by Matt Davis on Fri, May 1, 2009 at 8:00 AM
Mayor Sam Adams is due to release his budget at 11am this morning, but the press conference may very well be overshadowed by this morning's Oregonian story resulting from Adams' cell phone records: "Portland Mayor Sam Adams called Beau Breedlove 33 times when the younger man was 17 — far more contact than Adams has acknowledged having with the teenager. Adams has said that his contact with Breedlove, with whom he had a sexual relationship, was infrequent and that Breedlove pursued him."
Oregonian reporter Ryan Frank has been fighting for access to Adams' cell phone records since the scandal broke—sending repeated letters to the mayor's office encouraging the mayor to comply with the O's interpretation of Oregon public records law.
Perhaps more interestingly, the Oregonian got access to a 38-minute interview of Adams by Willamette Week reporter Nigel Jaquiss from January 15. The recording was made by the mayor's office: "What follows is a 38-minute recording of that interview, during which Adams lies repeatedly and evades questions about Breedlove. Four days after this interview, Adams admitted he and Breedlove did have a sexual relationship."
"Last April I got an email from Beau Breedlove from his Myspace page in which there was a cryptic message to the point that I've done something that I feel badly about," says Jaquiss, opening the interview. "It read like a confession of something he had done and he wished he hadn't done, and it came to my email box from his blog. Now his other blog postings did not come to my email box, so I thought I would follow up on this."
"I went back to many of those people and re-interviewed them. Several of them told me a different story. Several of them said to me Beau Breedlove said to me that he had sex with Sam Adams," says Jaquiss.
"Would you be able to tell us who those people are?" asks Adams' sustainability policy adviser Amy Ruiz.
"Some of them," says Jaquiss.
And it goes on from there. Jaquiss's low-key interviewing technique is certainly something to listen to, if only as a study in reporting technique. I know that I for one tend to let fly with all kinds of vocal inflections, sarcasm and the like, even when I haven't got a particularly strong story. Whereas Jaquiss just keeps the tone dead-level from start through to finish.
"Is that what's being alleged here? That I had an affair with Beau, and that Beau has confirmed that to you?" asks Adams. "So the allegation is that Beau and I had an affair after he was 18..."
Adams then denies having done anything of the kind.
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AAaaaaaand really 33 times? How many people have I had 2 word convos/text messages with in a week? Is that number the TOTAL amount of calls made to him before he was 18?
Seems like grasping for straws here.
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SUSTAINABILITY ADVISOR. More like survivability adviser/chihuaha.
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But pending the investigation's outcome (that this is the iceberg tip of) and a mayor who clings to power like a security blanky it's gonna continue.
Boo.
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Look, we all know there's going to be a recall election (whatever the flaws of Wurster's campaign, collecting enough signatures is the easy bit). And we all know that if it was held today, Sam would win (because Portlanders would rather support a liar than side with the conservative homophobic bible-bashers, whether they're involved in the anti-Sam campaign or not). And the only thing that will change the outcome is a finding of illegal conduct by the Attorney General. So can we just forget all about it until that verdict comes in, and concentrate on more important stuff instead? Like, say, watching some paint dry?
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You're wrong.
And this story today is KEY. Please listen to the audio recording. adams has a 27 year-old "sustainability advisor" ACTING LIKE HIS LEGAL COUNCIL during the interview. As I repeat, day in and day out, to the folks who just haven't "seen"- this is not about sex. This is about a nepotistic, incestuous, oligarchic, corrupt local government. Please rethink!!
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This "let's concentrate on important stuff" stance is naive. This is a media catnip and no matter how you feel about Adams, he brought it on himself.
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Because more importantly, I don't believe for a second that he will be recalled successfully (unless the AG finds him guilty, which would be a game-changer). The majority of Portlanders are so disgusted right now by the moral crusader types (read: Republicans) who are calling / will continue to loudly call for him to be ousted, that they would rather cut off their own nose than go along with them.
Whatever our personal opinions on what he did (I believe it's been blown out of proportion; no doubt you would disagree) is irrelevant to the big picture. Pragmatically, he's safe, and has been ever since the anti-gay protesters appeared outside City Hall; so it's time to move on to something that is still undecided. It's like harping on about how we shouldn't have invaded Iraq; it's too late now to change it, so move on and fight the next battle.
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What are you basing that statement on?
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Nigel: "Have you ever seen the movie 'Kinsey'?"
Sam: "Uh, what's it about?"
That's the kind of out-of-left-field question that basically tells Sam: we know all kinds of shit about you. You can practically hear his stomach dropping when Nigel asks the question.
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I really doubt the same guy who thinks it’s appropriate to hit up some high schoolers cell phone, the minute he steps off a plane, has only one victim. How can anyone justify this type of behavior? I guess I can sorta understand Amy Ruiz selling her soul for a crap job at City Hall but what are the rest of the apologist’s excuses?
For once I would like a Sam Supporter to just go ahead and say what they really think. No more hinting around. If you feel that having sex with kids is acceptable then be big enough to admit it. All this dancing around the issue is getting old and tiresome. He is a sex predator, that’s it. End of story.
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