A GROUP OF RENOWNED Oregon conservatives appears to be
closing in on the second effort to recall Mayor Sam Adams, after a
grassroots effort led by political science student Jasun Wurster failed
to gather the necessary signatures by October 5. The new effort has
asked for an estimate from the same right-wing signature gathering firm
that used convicted sex offenders to gather signatures for 14
conservative initiatives this summer [“Think Twice,” News, Aug 13].
“We were contacted by somebody representing themselves as from the
second recall campaign,” says Ross Day, with Voice of the Electorate
(VOTE), the signature-gathering firm. “We sent them a contract about
three weeks ago, but we haven’t heard back yet.”
Day says the representative was a regular client of his, and that
VOTE’s bill for gathering the 50,000 targeted signatures to put another
Sam Adams recall on the ballot “could be anywhere between $150,000 and
$300,000.”
“There’s a lot of variables, the weather, the availability of
circulators, and so on,” he continues.
Day established VOTE earlier this year along with two other
nonprofits operating under the shared name of Common Sense for Oregon,
with his ally, former right-wing gubernatorial candidate Kevin Mannix.
The Portland Tribune also linked Mannix’s long-term adviser Jack
Kane to the second recall late last week.
Mannix’s statewide political efforts have run the gamut from
“anti-obscenity” measures, to reducing taxes for the rich and
corporations, to mandatory minimum sentences for drug addicts without
the option of treatment. If he is indeed backing the new recall effort,
then he will have some strange political bedfellows: Wurster launched
the first campaign to recall Adams in the wake of the Beau Breedlove
scandal, but has now taken a back seat to former State Senator Avel
Gordly, who announced her role as spokesperson for the new effort in
the Oregonian in late October.
Wurster told the Mercury, “I’m just the volunteer
coordinator,” and repeatedly refused to answer questions about Mannix
and Kane’s involvement in the new effort when contacted by phone last
week. “I’ve gotta go,” he said, ending the conversation.
Other would-be members of the new recall effort have all been
conspicuously press shy over recent weeks. Mannix’s assistant told the
Mercury he was “out of town” when we called his Salem office
this week. Gordly did not return repeated voice messages for comment,
either. Meanwhile, Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle and auto dealer
Ron Tonkin have also said they would be involved, but both were
unavailable for comment by press time.
It seems like a recall effort using paid signature gatherers could do without a ‘volunteer coordinator’. Somehow I doubt it will be an unpaid position, looks like Jasun is getting compensated for his previous efforts.
siiigh… & when this latest effort is tossed out on it’s butt, the teabaggers will try & put forth a 3rd effort. Meanwhile, nobody cares except [literally] a handful ov obsessed lunatics & the business ov the city continues as usual…
The other day I heard that Wurster is broke and looking for a job.
All need to keep the pressure on that bumbling fat little homophobe for what he did to our city and Sam Adams. It is all of that little republican baby Bill Sizemore wanna-be has-been’s fault that we have not moved on. Good job Matt and littlebeirut for calling bullshit on him.
Good luck getting a job Wurster. I hope you live a long life working a crappy job at the bible superstore.
WOW! – Is it possible Matt for you to show any more bias in this article? – Cannot possibly see how your pontifications should remotely be in the “news” section.
According to a past girlfriend, “Wurster comes up short and is a failure in other areas as well”. He acts all nice in public but is really a closet arch conservative. Years ago he was in bed with the police ratting people out at critical mass rides.
@ Grouchy Adam
Why so grouchy? If you can’t tolerate living in a city with a Gay mayor, you can always move to Silverton. NO, WAIT!
So now Jasun doesn’t want to talk? It seems like he’s spent months telling people to call him and listen to his arguments. How about next time you ask him what its like to be involved with a campaign being run by known homophobes?
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t support Adams because he’s gay. In fact, I hate gay people. It’s just that I love terrible, terrible mayors, and frankly, I think he’s the one that can take Portland into a new level of awfulness. It’s like someone let their toddler play SimCity:
“Honey, that bridge is collapsing. Don’t you think you should fix it? Wait, did you just click the ‘buy soccer team’ button?”
@grouchy adam
I don’t think the Portland Mercury pretends to be unbiased; they’re pretty unabashed about it, which is nice, because you know where they stand, and can you can read other publications to get the other side of the story.
Fuck you critical Mass. Fuck you Kevin Manix. Fuck you Jasun Wuster.
But mostly Fuck you Sam Adams. You could have been good for Portland but now, because he could not leave a teenage piece of ass alone, Randy Leonard is running the city (into the ground).
I’ll vote yes on recall not matter who is running. It’s not about the scumbags running the campaign, and the are scumbags. IT’S ABOUT THE SCUMBAG MAYOR.