I know that if I did not read this blog I would be just like all the other uninformed people of Portland just living from day to day and not getting involved. The fact that the recall failed saddens me greatly. I don't think this city can survive till 2012. It seems hopeless yet I will continue to have hope. At some point Sams bad karma has to come back around and finish him off.

This recall failure is due to voter/citizen complacency and nothing else. The majority of the population doesn't like Sam or his actions, but they're too busy watching TV and attending Blazer games to care about what is really important. They won't wake up until it is too late. I wouldn't be surprised if Sam runs again and gets re-elected. It's that bad.

shot while black
bicycling while hipster
writing while drunk
sodding while Portland.

I wonder what Dylan Thomas would have said from his depths, if presented with the document in question.

Let's have a contest...

just for you Gaye -

Portland's Homesick Blues

Sammy's in the guvernment
Feeding up development
I'm on umemployment
Thinkin' about where the jobs went
The cop with the gun out
Shooting up the sad ones
Says he's got to kill the bad ones
While there's protesting by the rad ones
Look out kid
It's something COP did
And they want to keep it hid
God knows when
But they'll be doing it all again
You'd better jump on your bike
Before they make you take a hike
Water bill's due and they want five large
You'd better live on a barge
Or just move out of town
Before Randy the clown
Comes ragin' around
The city don't work
Coz the crooks cooked the books

Apologies to Bob Dylan (Subterranean Homesick Blues)

Sam Adams, as Mayor, is a living monument to the civic indolence, lethargy and disinterested passivity of the city's population of voting adults. And maybe I'm being too kind, but it would be cynical and ungenerous to suggest that Portland deserves even worse than Adams.

"...Portland deserves even worse than Adams."

It's time an Adams returns to the White House.....

This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Recalls are by their very nature negative acts. People aren't inclined to get behind negative acts.

Adams is a sleazy person and should have resigned. I called upon him to do so more than once. But he didn't and he remains our mayor.

The recall failed for a couple of reasons. The first attempt, headed by Jasun Wurster and not backed by any money, was hobbled by Wurster's own rules regarding participation. You couldn't participate if you were homophobic. You couldn't participate if your motivation was anything other than Adams' lies. Heck, in order to collect signatures you had to sign an affadavit to that effect.

The failure of the second attempt was simple. No money. The deep-pocketed prospects decided it was more important to put their money into the effort to defeat measures 66/67 than to recall Sam Adams.

Finally, the outrage subsided. Six months is a long time in political memory, let alone a year. The outrage that existed after a year was pretty much in Beaverton, Tigard and Lake Oswego. Portland voters had moved on.

It's pretty clear that recall 1.0 was simply a machination to put Jasun Wurster on Portland's political map and no he's using recall 2.0 to promote the election of his girlfriend, Mary Volm. Don't get me wrong, I like Mary and I might even vote for her, but Wurster's motivations are as clear as the ice cubes in my freezer.

The big mistake, one in which I participated, and in which I regret, was getting Adams elected to the city council in the first place. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

Ouch.

Did Wurster write that press release himself?

If this recall thing was an undergraduate class at PSU, his grade would have been EPIC FAIL.

That was fun. Why don't we do it again?

In a few short years, *no one* will recall him, even dimly.

The developer scums who nurtured him, however, will long remain around like a succubine bathtub ring.

Prediction.....THIS CITY WILL FACE SHORT FALLS SOONER THEN LATER, SAM is running out of people and things to tax....and you stupid idiots, have not a clue...not one clue what you have done.

Just so many of you can work in government, your going to see the housing market tank again....my house lost 100,000 dollars in one yr, BHO is looking at 20 -25 percent VAT tax, and you stupid idiots are sucking it up.

You fools want more bike paths....and you want to kill business to do it, one idiot said the other river supported business could go to Longview WA, or Kalama, WA....they had out lived their usefulness, the new bike park would be a better investment....COMPLETE INSANITY.

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND....MAN,sometimes you have to be patient, to see that transpire, But it will be worth the patience.

TO THE PRINT MEDIA

I know you think your paper, and your political thinking is so many times better then you give my views about this city, it's leaders, and it's politics, but if your so intelligent(and your not) a review of the cities outstanding debt load, shrinking tax base, insane projects, toxic stance towards business, if you put a pencil to it...there is only one conclusion.

So, I cannot even feel sorry for you, that commonsense and basic math were courses you and your dumb paper never took, or could pass.

The recall failed for a couple of reasons. The first attempt, headed by Jasun Wurster and not backed by any money, was hobbled by Wurster's own rules regarding participation. You couldn't participate if you were homophobic. You couldn't participate if your motivation was anything other than Adams' lies. Heck, in order to collect signatures you had to sign an affadavit to that effect. Dave Lister

It bothers me to no end to agree with Dave Lister on anything, but on the above from him I do.

It also has been discussed by me with many people, that Wuster still may have been a plant, there was a similar deal done by a certain "chief of staff" a few years back, with some serious negative results on another recall, there certainly was at least two "plants" on the KATZ recall committee, one left the committee, when we knew we had money troubles, and went to work in Vera's office,as his lawyer work wasn't feeding him well, and the other,a so called neighborhood leader in Vera's home neighborhood.

A rough education on how politics is played here, I have said it before, this place makes Chi-town politics look pure as the snow that falls there.

Bogdanski knows the fiscal foundation of PDX, Adams supporters are to stupid to listen.

but if your so intelligent(and your not)

LOLZ.

Dave J - I know huh? Mental note: Dripping with 'earnest' oughtta count for something though!

I agree with many comments here so far, especially with regards to Wurster's leadership and the second effort lacking organization. What about the debate? In my opinion this debate was totally dominated by opposition. I also think the internet media played an inordinately large role in all of this. A remarkably large role. As in: If you are seeking office from now on DO NOT neglect the internet media, this thing was decided there.

Once the whole city found out Mr. Wurster was just some misguided college-kid, no offense...kid, and I could veritably hear the collective civic, "Oh great...", when we all found out, I saw that effort as a foregone conclusion then. After receiving the very first email, from the then-manager of the second recall, I knew right away that effort was doomed too. Turns out the 'work' part of 'volunteer work' to some came as a big surprise.

The real factor in the demise of this recall was opposition and Mayor Adams himself. What is it fear, haste, quick judgment, what causes us to dismiss the successful efforts of opposition? From day-one they asserted that the recall was primarily a homosexual witch-hunt predicated upon the false premise that Sam Adams tampered with the electoral process. Moreover opposition dominated online forums, and comment sections, by relentlessly putting forth this unsupported, provably false, assertion.

Then came the civilly ignorant. Ordinary voters don't know what a recall is. They don't understand that it is incredibly rare for a city to have a policy like that, and what is implied about why. They further don't understand that the recall is constrained in nature, and that a recall may only occur for a very narrow set of violations. This ignorance was beautifully exploited by opposition when people clearly supported the recall for purposes of curtailing Adams in his Mayoral role. That debate quickly shrinks to semantic dissemination of civic policy, and again we're debating civic policy instead of Adams tampering with elections.

Nah. Opposition whooped us. And if we're not vigilant they'll do it again in '12.

What about that Senator Avel Gordly though, huh? That woman has nads. She's devastating in a controlled debate. She zeros right in on any position and succinctly decimates her opponents before crushing them with unassailable logic. She needs to put down the pen for sure but she is one phenomenal speaker. Fantastic Conservative Democrat. Sure wish she'd stoop to City Council for a term just to nab Saltzman, but think of her in the Mayor's chair?! She was too often the only credibility either of these recalls had.

Mayor Adams, for his part, played this to a tee. From timing the press-release to arm-twisting since, he's not missed a cue. Opposition successfully deflected the debate. The DA had everything to lose handing down an indictment for statutory rape. Ignorant electorate being called upon to hold a bunch of special elections. And recall leadership that never rose above the rank of attention-whore. Not the way to get it done. If this trend continues through the next election, Adams will surely win again.

Gotta find somebody for the job. There's no real contenders yet even.

I disagree. This recall was always too little and mostly too late. Adams didn't have to do much to defuse it, because it was never a threat. Not many people listened to the opponents, because not many people got past yawning at the proponents.

Intentionally or not (I know what I think), Willy Week did the mayor a great favor with the way they timed the release of the story.

But he won't be re-elected. People are not going to forget what a sleaze he was, and seemingly still is. Plus, his administration will have little to show after four years except happy, shining slackers and 200 times as many p***ed-off grownups.

When a regular election cycle rolls around, there will be many candidates to replace Adams, and one of them will win.

That is, if he makes it for the full four years. I still sense that his term will end prematurely, for one reason or another. Just a hunch. He's a loose cannon with personal problems that will not stay out of the headlines for two years plus. Maybe he'll get in embarrassing trouble on one of his many weekends thousands of miles away.

Prediction.....THIS CITY WILL FACE SHORT FALLS SOONER THEN LATER, SAM is running out of people and things to tax....and you stupid idiots, have not a clue...not one clue what you have done.

Just so many of you can work in government, JP

Jack: In the paper this morning, "LA to lay off thousands."

Keep your ears out for some of the same here soon, there is a buzz about it. JP

I am reading "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis.
There are a lot of parallels.
Excuse me, while I retreat to my bunker....

"I still sense that his term will end prematurely, for one reason or another"

I predict it will be this.

SoWa has every public project 100s of % over budget and unfunded while Creepy is diverting 30 million in borrowed Urban Renewal Money from SoWa to the Milwaukie Light Rail project. A project with every single element a display of madness.

From the $250 million in lottery funds to the borrowed Urban Renewal $ in Portland, Clackamas and Milawukie skimming millions form Basic Services to TriMet slashing service as they go down the drain.

Creepy is as Creepy does.

I can tell you why the effort failed. A co-worker just heard something about recall on the radio while driving to work and was asking me about it.

-He barely knows who Sam is.
-No clue on what Sam did or does.
-Didn't know there was a recall effort going on.
-He had no clue what a recall was until I explained it to him.

This guy is the average voter I run into on a regular basis. That's why people like Sam keep getting voted in and re-elected.

Jack -

I wish I could be as confident as you about the outcome when Adams runs for re election.

I've posited these two political axioms before. I'll run the risk of repeating them.

A. You can't beat somebody with nobody.

B. The presence of money doesn't guarantee winning, but the absence of money guarantees losing.

If enough mid level wanna be's run against Adams in the "primary", he has a good shot, because of the name recognition, of gathering a majority, and is going to get a plurality.

So far, there isn't a voice / name on the horizon that is making any noise (Hey, Dave Lister, want a job?).

Though I predict that Amanda Fritz is going to run.

And for Adams, the developers sleze money will be there.

I hope that I am seriously wrong about Adams' chances for re election. B

But I don't think I am. And in this tow, outside the confines of this blog, nobody really cares about Adams. They care about bike boulevatds and soccer and other idiocy, and Adams is a master at pandering to that group, who dominate elections in PDX.

Jack, you need a nice house over here on the west side. You could bike to work. You should buy mine, 'cause I'm about ready too leave.

I'd love to see Amanda Fritz run, if nothing else, to watch the spectacle of her twisting Leonard's chain so bad he'll shriek and writhe and gasp and drown in his own froth.

But seriously, analysis wise, everyone is dead on. People don't like negativity, people don't know who the hell the mayor is, the recall support in terms of initial leadership, money, and volunteer workforce was inadequate to the task of an intensive collection effort, which faced a short deadline and regulations strongly favoring the incumbent. What would have vastly changed the outcome is is if the rules didn't allow for a six-month "time-out". What a preposterous idea- let's let everyone forget and move on, then they can pull themselves away from their TVs to express themselves later.

Finally, as my 10 year old said yesterday, "maybe people think that since they elected him, it would be bad sportsmanship to recall him." A thought which leads to the inescapable conclusion that we deserve who we got.

However, I know of a surprise that may be in the works, and my fingers are crossed, tightly.

Nonny Mouse: . . .But I don't think I am. And in this tow, outside the confines of this blog, nobody really cares about Adams. They care about bike boulevatds and soccer and other idiocy, and Adams is a master at pandering to that group, who dominate elections in PDX.
Jack, you need a nice house over here on the west side. You could bike to work. You should buy mine, 'cause I'm about ready too leave.

Could another reason that the recall didn't fly is because people are having to make plans to fly the poop, I mean fly the coop?

Some are not informed, therefore not engaged. Some are just beyond caring.
There is a "dumbing down and numbing" effect as well, been going on for how many years?

Some of the people are just stubborn and will not lay down and take what the "insiders" have dished out for our once beloved city, The City of Roses.
It has been good to know others on this blog who are aware and will speak out despite the scene. Thank you Jack for providing this forum.

For those who know the pattern of deception, control, and despair
and
and
(fill in the blanks):

Bobby "Blue" Bland - Cry Cry Cry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNrxz-A19WY

If enough mid level wanna be's run against Adams in the "primary", he has a good shot, because of the name recognition, of gathering a majority, and is going to get a plurality.

So far, there isn't a voice / name on the horizon that is making any noise (Hey, Dave Lister, want a job?).

I think Randy and Sam have a deal--Sam will get one more term, and then it'll be Randy's turn. That guy wants to be mayor in the worst way, and I mean that literally.

An apt song for Portland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByUOFV5TusE

Oh, this explains it

Actually it does trikdown, you have hit on something that needs to be said, this city has a mile wide "no accountability streak for anything", and that is a big part of this cities problem.

Having that problem, and the apathy that is well earned by people here that have dealt with Sam, and all the rest of them, I think now, knowing all of the elected here as I do, political types such as SAM, just had gas tossed on their fires.

Expect worse times financially, and Bogdanski should print out his well documented list of money insanity to come.

Chuckle.

I just noticed today that the Mayor's proposed budget still contains a line item for $ 200,000.00 to be given to the Oregon Symphony to journey to NYC to play at Carnagie Hall.

There is something, in the context of the City's financial situation, that makes that a perfect emblem for the insanity which grips Mayor and council