Here’s hoping Portland’s Mayor Sam Adams didn’t think he was off the hook after the first effort to recall him — for lying about his romance with Beau Breedlove during the election — failed. ‘Cause now a former state senator wants his head!
Ex-Sen. Avel Gordly says she’s launching a second recall to remove Adams from his post. And Gordly is gonna use paid staffers to do so.
You’ll recall Jason Wurster’s first effort, which relied on volunteers, didn’t score the necessary 32,183 signatures to trigger a new election. Wurster didn’t file any signatures with the City Auditor’s Office.
Ever the public servant, Gordly’s mission is understandable: she wants honest-ish folks serving the people. Or does Gordly herself want to be Portland’s new mayor?
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
David
Umm… Avel Gordly is a “she”, not a “he”. If Sam hadn’t lied about his relationship with Breedlove in the first place, there probably wouldn’t be a recall.
J Christen
Sen. Avel Louise Gordly is a woman.
Jasun Wurster
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avel_Gordly
Let’s stop focusing on who the Chief Petitioners are and more on how Portland is affected by having an ineffective mayor.
AlwaysGay
Another anti-gay petition. Heterosexuals want to take away your rights, constitutional or otherwise, and outcast you where the only way you can get your rights is by ballot initiatives where heterosexuals vote on them. Here again heterosexuals want to control a gay man’s life. Sam Adams was rightfully elected a year ago. He was asked personal questions by nosy heterosexuals who wanted to undermine him by using the sex fallback. Heterosexuals ALWAYS fallback on sex when trying to undermine gay people. Sex plus gay people equals a lot of bad things to the haterosexual. So even if it has nothing to do with sex the haterosexual will trot out sex and try to connect it to gay people because it will automatically sway other haterosexuals into believing them. All of Sam Adams activities that some wanted to know about happened before he became mayor and they were entirely legal.
Jasun Wurster
Strange AlwaysGay that you took so much time to write… but failed to do any research.
If you take the time to Google “Avel Gordly gay son” (go ahead and do it right now… I will wait).
You see, this has nothing to do with what you describe.
More so, her concern is about the City of Portland and the people who live here, as quoted she was quoted in WW:
“I’ve thought long and hard about the issue and believe strongly that we’re at a crossroads at the city and state. This is about the character and values of our city—not just about one person. It’s about how we move forward. And I don’t think we can diminish the importance of voters having their say.”
Source: http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2009/10/20/avel-gordly-will-take-a-top-role-in-the-second-recall-effort-of-mayor-sam-adams/
Please do take some time to put down the talking points fed to you and educate yourself on the issues.
Tara
@Jasun Wurster:
Arrg! Really? Again? More?
This whole thing is so silly now. There was not enough evidence that he committed a crime.
There were not enough signatories to bring it up the first time.
Is this really where we should be focusing right now?
Jasun Wurster
Tara,
Feel free to focus on issues that are important to you.
The beauty of living in a free society is that I have the right to focus on issues that are important to me… this being honest government.
I find it kinda appalling that you have the audacity to tell me what I should be focusing on.
Jaroslaw
Jasun – you’re an idiot. Tara asked a reasonable question – she didn’t “command” you to focus on anything.
And since you like tossing around criticisms (your analysis of Always Gay’s post) why don’t you just tell me why this isn’t anti-gay?
Are you trying to tell us that if Sam wasn’t Gay and lied about sex all of these wonderful people would be trying to recall him anyway? Right.
Jaroslaw
Oh and I did read her interview – nothing changes anything that Always Gays said from my point of view. The voters had a chance to recall him, it failed and she is beating a dead horse.
Further, the article indicated she is engaging in highly partisan and divisive behavior, which she herself decried when she was in the legislature!
Interesting how she (and many others) claim they only want to give the voters a chance to decide! Didn’t most voters not want to go to Iraq? Most voters think taxes are too high and most voters want all citizens to have health insurance.
I think where Sam Adams puts his willie is pretty low on the list of voter priorities.
Jaroslaw
Obviously I forgot to include at the end of paragraph three above – that “what most voters want” is not what most politicians do.
Jasun Wurster
Jaroslaw,
The recall of Sam Adams is about his inability to lead our city.
By his own volition, lies and abuse of power he has created a leadership void within Portland city council (and our region). Citizens and businesses have had enough of his antics and it is our right to remove him from office via the recall process.
You are free to support Sam Adams in any fashion you want… thought your ad-hominem attacks on me and red herring logical fallacies only make a stronger case to remove him form office. In a way I should be thanking you for making his removal easier by your false cries of sexual partisanship.
I guess you have to stoop to this level because you can not defend Sam based on his record or leadership.
Keep up the good work.
Jaroslaw
Jasun – Interesting that you don’t want to answer my questions or address my points about Ms. Gordly’s interview.
One main point I will repeat: there was a recall effort and it failed. Apparently everyone doesn’t see Mr. Adams in a negative way.
If however, Sam Adams is ineffective as Mayor that is an issue. I thought I read how great he was, though, until this business with Sam Breedlove became news. If the sex scandal is making him ineffective doesn’t that bother you? That is a double standard – straight guys can do what they want, mostly, but a Gay guy can’t? in other words, you set up an unfair system and then say SEE? The mayor is ineffective.
By the way, don’t toss out words you don’t understand – ad hominem and red herring. Pointing out that you cannot read when it is clearly obvious based on what Tara said and you’re response to her is not an attack, it is fact.
Jasun Wurster
Jaroslaw,
Strange how you always turn to insulting my intelligence (ad hominem attack) and focus strictly on something the recall has never been about (red herring argument).
Perhaps, if you did your homework about Sam Adams you would learn that very few were saying Adams was a great leader when he got elected.
You see, Adams was the one who rigged the system to elect himself under false pretenses via lies, collusion with Randy Leonard and abusing his power so that no viable candidates would run against him. I cite Bob Ball as and example of this.
Maybe, if you take the time to read the AG’s report supporting documentation and try having civil conversations with those who have been in Portland politics… you may just find out that people want Adams recalled because his style of leadership is sinter, divisive and (most of all) no longer welcome in Portland.
I am always open to meet you for coffee if you would like. Feel free to give me a call at 503-799-7919.
jasun
Jaroslaw
Jasun – well, I give you this much, you got some cajones passing out your tel # on a national blog. I hardly know what to say – perhaps an apology is in order – but I don’t want to be insincere about it….. My intention was not to “insult” you simply because we disagree – it seems as though you are not reading and responding to what others write. Which, of course, is not to say you can’t have and express your own opinions.
I live a couple thousand miles from Portland – so we won’t be meeting for coffee although it might have been interesting. I have no vested interest in supporting Sam Adams, and he’ll hardly be the first politician to manipulate the system to get elected. I think what this Blog is about is exposing the double standard that is applied to Gay people. You do see this don’t you? As an aside, do you really think Ms. Gordly is worried about the will of the voters?
Why did the recall fail the first time if this guy is so universally disliked, inneffective and corrupt?
I’m intrigued and a bit unnerved with the ph# thing – do you really want me to call you?
Jasun Wurster
Thanks Jaroslaw,
There are many reasons why we only got 30,000 signatures the first time, which I look forward to sharing with you. Feel free to call me later this afternoon or most evenings.
One of the reasons I took on the first recall (and am part of the 2nd recall) is to protect the rights of gay people. This was the volunteer collector agreement that I had all signature collectors sign:
http://www.citizenrecall.org/data/Volunteer_Signature_Collector_Agreement.pdf
We have many volunteers who are members of the GLBT community who were collecting signatures.
I very much look forward to chatting with you,
jasun