If you want to know who is behind the Recall Sam Adams movement don’t bother looking at their website. You’ll only find one name: Jasun Wurster. Other supporters of the effort to recall the mayor want to remain anonymous. But in a democratic society those who want to influence the political system need to be held accountable and so they must be known. Cowards hide behind anonymous web sites, hoods and masks.
The campaign is now starting to collect money and Wurster wants to help make it easy for his supporters to remain hidden in the dark shadows. KGW reports him today as saying:
Organizers are planning to accept donations only from this geographic region with a $1,000 limit per donation.
If donors want to remain anonymous there is a way to do it.
“If you don't want your name to show up because you fear retaliation from Sam Adams donate 99 dollars and 99 cents or less and that will not be part of public records,” organizer Jason Wurster said.
How much do you want to bet that those who do contribute enough to be counted resemble a list of contributors to the last anti-gay ballot measure in Oregon. Wurster claims that he supports equality for gays and lesbians but he’s hanging out with a hateful crowd.
Sam Adams should resign. He lied to begin with and few believe he is telling the truth now. Other politicians consider him toxic (witness that Oregon’s Congressional delegation didn’t invite the mayor of Portland to a press conference announcing how much money the city of Portland would receive out of the stimulus package). He is ineffective and has lost his way. Sam Adams has put his own personal interests ahead of the city he loves. We thought he was better than this.
I suspect that Wurster and his anonymous supporters will fail in their efforts. First, they aren’t professional or seasoned enough and they aren’t plugged into Portland’s progressive community (for some reason most of those who have publically supported the recall live outside Portland... like Washington State resident Lars Larson). But the effort itself will do more damage than any possible good. It will tear Portland apart.
My advice: don’t sign the petitions. Instead, keep putting pressure on Mayor Adams to resign.
It is also time for Portland’s politicians to step up to the plate and say in public that Mayor Adams must go. President Nixon was the only person in the United States who didn’t understand he’d lost the presidency until a group of fellow politicians from his party came to tell him it was time to leave the White House. Members of the City Council and the County Board, along with other area elected officials and community leaders, need to deliver the same message now to the mayor. Otherwise, we will be in for an ugly recall effort that will further distract a city that has much more pressing problems.
