Remember this guy?
Remember this guy? Mike Davis

Sam Adams, who served as Portland's mayor from 2009 to 2012, has filed paperwork to run against Commissioner Chloe Eudaly in the May 19 primary election. According to City Elections Officer Deborah Scroggin, Adams' paperwork came in Wednesday afternoon.

In an email announcing his run, Adams writes, "I have ideas and deep passion for the issues, but since coming back to Portland full-time, I have been struck by how many Portlanders feel we are being run over by our challenges — how we are losing urgent opportunities to take on these issues in a way that improves the city we love."

"After a lot of thought and hundreds of conversations with my fellow Portlanders," he continues, "I believe that I have something to offer by rejoining the City Council."

Adams will be participating in city's public campaign finance program, Open and Accountable Elections.

Prior to entering the mayor's office, Adams spent four years as a Portland city commissioner and eleven years as former Mayor Vera Katz' chief of staff. Instead of running for a second mayoral term in 2012, Adams left the public sector to run Portland City Club. In 2014, Adams moved to DC to work on climate policy at the World Resources Institute.

Adams left his position in DC in December 2017, a month after former City of Portland mayoral aide Cevero Gonzalez accused Adams of sexual harassment during his tenure as mayor. In a statement sent to the press, Gonzalez alleged that Adams had expected him to assist in scheduling and setting up sexual encounters for Adams, and often asked Gonzalez sexual and inappropriate questions.

Since Gonzalez's allegations came after the state's statute of limitations on sexual harassment cases ran out, the claims were never investigated in court. The City of Portland also refused to investigate.

Adams did, however, hire a Portland law firm to investigate Gonzalez's claims. The final report, made public yesterday, claims that Gonzalez' allegations wouldn't have held up in court if he had brought them to trial. This conclusion was based on the opinions of retired Oregon judge Lyle Velure and Portland employment attorney Rebecca Cambreleng. Unlike an actual court case, this investigation did not rely on any evidence collected through legal discovery. Instead, the investigation relied solely on past news coverage, Gonzalez' public letter to media, and interviews with former city staffers conducted by the lawyers Adams himself had hired.

As mayor, Adams was celebrated for creating miles of new bike-friendly streets, championing a free TriMet bus pass for a Portland Public School, advocating for union employees, and slashing the city's diesel emissions. He was also the last (and, maybe, only) Portland mayor to fire a police officer for shooting and killing an unarmed Portlander. (That officer, however, was rehired two years later).

His tenure was also tarnished by scandal. In his campaign for mayor, Adams had denied having a romantic relationship with 17-year-old legislative intern Beau Breedlove. After winning the mayor's seat, however, Adams admitted to Willamette Week that he lied—but argued that the relationship hadn't become sexual until Breedlove turned 18 (Adams was 43 at the time). Adams dodged two recall campaigns before deciding not to run for a second term.

Adams had first hinted at a run for City Council last week, after Commissioner Nick Fish's mid-term death left an open seat in City Hall. Adams decision to face off against Eudaly—and five other candidates—in the race for City Commissioner, Position 4 gives him a smaller window of time to campaign, but it promises a complete four-year term.

Here's more from Adams' email:

"I am excited about a campaign that is about how we can address our challenges through a lens of equity and inclusion and sustainability — working better together, tackling our toughest issues, like housing, houselessness, the safety and gridlock of our transportation system, threatened neighborhood parks, and natural spaces, and public schools that need all of us to be full partners in their success.

Just as important, I believe we can strengthen the quality of the connection Portlanders have with their city government – a connection that too many feel it has been frayed or broken. Passion debate, yes, but City Hall needs to be a place where we could work things out."