Politicians and scandal: a Portland-area tradition

The OregonianNeil Goldschmidt celebrates after his election as governor in 1986. He admitted in 2004 that he had sex with a 14-year-old neighbor when he was mayor in the 1970s. His bodyguard, Bernie Giusto (right), resigned as Multnomah County sheriff last year in the face of accusations that he lied about what he knew in the Goldschmidt sex-abuse scandal.

Move over, Mayor Adams. You've got company.

Sex and lies aren't so easy to cover up nowadays: Jump in the feathers, and someone is going to talk. Give out a tall tale, and someone knows otherwise.

Just ask former Sheriff Bernie Giusto and former Mayor and Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, both forced into the annals of political scandal and tarnished forever by their deeds and cover-ups.

For now, Sam Adams is hunkered down, trying to weather the scandal and a state criminal investigation brought about by admitting to a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old legislative intern in 2005 and then lying about it in the run-up to his campaign for mayor in 2007.

And the city is caught in the middle, trying to figure out whether Adams will stay or fall to a recall effort that can't get started until six months after he took office Jan. 1.

Scandals that have done in elected officials in Portland's past have mostly revolved around graft and corruption, frequently in connection with gambling, prostitution and other vice rackets.

Jewel Lansing, former city auditor and author of "Portland, People, Politics and Power, 1851-2001," says it's too soon to tell where the Adams affair will fit in the historical spectrum.

But she said the bad economy may distract people from the Adams' saga. In 1932, Mayor George Baker survived a recall attempt that may in part have been prompted by the Great Depression.

"People get mad about other things," Lansing said.

She said another factor that might work in Adams' favor is there doesn't appear to be anyone willing to publicly lead a recall effort or to run for the job if he is removed from office.

"That makes a difference," Lansing said. "I think people are concerned about who would step into the void."

Voters established the recall in 1908, and it has been used six times in Portland, with only two commissioners — and no mayors — removed from office. Lansing says a number of other efforts failed to get enough signatures.

Multnomah County voters have successfully used the recall four times. The entire county commission was removed in 1924, and Sheriff Mike Elliott was recalled in 1949.

Maybe they were just scoundrels, mere scofflaws by today's standards. But Lansing is clear about one thing: Goldschmidt was the worst.

The former governor resigned in 2004 as president of the state Board of Higher Education after admitting that he sexually abused a 14-year-old neighbor while he was mayor.

"As scandals go, it's pretty hard to beat that," Lansing says.

So as Adams ponders his place in Portland's history, here's a look at some politicians who earned a spot in the annals of scandal:

1914: Mayor H. Russell Albee, elected on the Progressive Party ticket, faced a recall petition that charged him with violating the city charter by retaining his insurance company executive job and dismissing city employees without just cause.

But underlying political issues played a role: a decision to locate an auditorium on the west side instead of the east side of the Willamette River; the mayor's handling of a dock workers' strike; and the push to install meters for all water customers.

1924: All three county commissioners were indicted and recalled by voters for "gross irregularities" in the award of contracts for construction of the Burnside and Ross Island bridges. All three were supported by the Ku Klux Klan, and their downfall helped deflate the Klan's influence in Portland.

1932: On the same day that recall petitions were filed against Mayor Baker and city Commissioners John Mann and Earl Riley, the three began standing trial for taking bribes in connection with a planned public market on the waterfront.

The charges were ultimately dismissed.

The OregonianMayor George Baker survived a recall election in 1932. He was accused of giving aid to "denizens of the underworld."

The recall petition against Riley failed to garner enough signatures. The petition against Baker said he gave aid and comfort to "denizens of the underworld and to official graft and corruption connected therewith." The petition against Mann claimed he had "used his position of trust as a means of private profit."

Baker asserted that the grand jury had spent four months investigating him and found nothing. Mann said in his ballot defense: "The real reason is that I have refused to bow to the wishes, the coercion, the threats and the demands of an unscrupulous group of self-seeking malcontents and schemers, and they, therefore, wish my removal in favor of a man who will bow to their wishes."

Voters removed Mann, but Baker survived.

Riley was later elected mayor and served two terms before being defeated in 1948 by reformer Dorothy McCullough Lee.

A scathing City Club report described the "wide open" gambling, prostitution and bootlegging going on in clubs that paid for police protection. Much of the protection money was said to be skimmed off by Riley and stored in a special vault in his City Hall office.

1934: Mayor Joe Carson faced a recall attempt during a dock strike that embroiled the West Coast. The recall petition cited Carson's support for industrial use of the electricity generated at Bonneville Dam, his use of violence against the longshoremen and a failure to cut taxes as promised. The recall effort failed to gain enough signatures.

1949: Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Elliott, attempting to grab some of the anti-vice headlines that Mayor Lee was getting, staged raids against taverns and confiscated pinball machines.

The Oregonian exposed Elliott for false statements he made about his military record and the college he claimed to have attended.

Voters recalled Elliott after nine months in office. Terry Schrunk, a fire captain and future mayor, was appointed sheriff.

1952: City Commissioner Jake Bennett faced a recall. Reasons cited on the ballot included that he was "discourteous, abusive, uncouth, insulting, with personal scandalous attacks, insults, ridicule, and abuse towards respectable citizens of the city."

Bennett's cause was not helped by the fact that KGW radio began broadcasting the council sessions recorded earlier in the day, and the public heard his outbursts.

Voters approved the recall by 58 percent. Bennett ran for mayor on the same ballot as the recall, but drew only 5 percent of the vote.

1957: Mayor Terry Schrunk was indicted for bribery and perjury. He was accused of taking a bribe during a gambling raid at a North Portland nightclub in 1955 when he was Multnomah County sheriff, then lying about it to the grand jury.

The OregonianSheriff Terry Schrunk shows how he took a lie detector test in connection with a corruption investigation. Although Schrunk failed the test, he was acquitted after a 1957 trial when he was mayor.

The allegations emerged during a corruption scandal sparked by The Oregonian's Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of Teamsters' involvement in the vice rackets.

Schrunk vehemently denied taking a bribe and offered to take lie-detector test, which he failed.

Robert Kennedy, who was investigating the union-organized crime connection as a counsel for a U.S. Senate committee, testified for the prosecution during Schrunk's trial, and almost caused a mistrial when he reached up and shook the judge's hand after he testified.

After the two-week trial, the jury deliberated for less than two hours before acquitting Schrunk. He served as mayor for 16 years. His son, Michael, is Multnomah County district attorney.

--James Mayer; jimmayer@news.oregonian.com