It looks like Portland Mayor Sam Adams will not be resigning from office. The mayor is embroiled in a scandal relating to a relationship he had with an 18 year-old intern named Beau Breedlove, and is currently being investigated by the Attorney General's office. Though the relationship was said to have taken place after Breedlove's 18th birthday, in an interview with the Oregonian, Breedlove states that he and the mayor kissed on two occasions before he turned 18.
"I saw it as a friendship that had crossed the line a couple of times,
but I saw it as a friendship. When I say cross the
line, I don't mean as an unwarranted or unwanted affection. I just
didn't see it as something with any potential. … I saw it as that was
the line that we had crossed a couple of times, was 'friends' to
'friends with benefits.' "
Step down or stay in office? What do you think?
– Andy
Picture courtesy of The Oregonian/Rob Finch
What’s the age of majority in Oregon and/or Portland? If it’s 18, step down. If it’s 17 or below, leave the man and his boy toy alone.
Is there really a gay person named “Beau Breedlove”? Sounds more like a porn star to me
As bad as it sounds, he ought to leave office. Obviously not for the nature of the affair (friends with benefits as beau claims, something a PR person should have prepped him NOT to qualify it as that), but instead because Adams was MAYOR and Beau was an INTERN.
By definition, this is sexual harassment. Even if Beau were receptive, the disparity of power suggests that having a mutual relationship was impossible. The age of majority in Oregon is 16, so this was not a statutory rape case. Regardless, it remains a sexual harassment case. And something it should be noted, Mayor Adams should have been well enough informed to know better.
I absolutely sucks that this will be used as fodder for the wacka-doo right as proof that gays cannot keep their hands to ourselves and we aren’t trustworthy enough to hold office. But he needs to do the honorable thing and step down with a major mea culpa.
Everyone should know you don’t get your meat where you make your bread. Given all the sex scandals in politics; this Mayor should have had the good judgement to have stayed away from this young tenderloin. If this Mayor doesn’t demonstrate good judgement in this “no brainer” situation; how can you expect him to demonstrate good judgement in more difficult situations. He gave into to lust for a young and impressionable teenager. He should step down.
I don’t think he should, It was a mistake but elected officials are allowed to make mistakes. If it’s not illegal, and the ethics are debatable, he should stay on.
Although this is a clear case of poor judgement, nothing illeagal happened. What everyone needs to remember is that the intern was 18 at the time of the affair, it was concentual, he was not Sam Adams’ intern, and it happened 4 years ago when Sam Adams was not mayor or even thought to be a candidate. It was poor judgement, but I don’t believe there is anyone out there that has not been guilty of poor judgement at times, including elected officials. This was a mistake, but not something that prevents Adams from being a good mayor. I’m glad he’s not stepping down.
Thanks for mentioning that Trixter – Beau was not Sam’s intern or even an intern in the same city Sam worked in, Sam was not mayor at the time, and it did happen four years ago.
My problem, however, is that Sam not only lied about the relationship and asked Beau to lie about it, but when the question was asked during his campaign, he dismissed it as nasty rumors created to hurt his candidacy.
Personally, I don’t care if Beau was 17 or 18 when they first had sex. I do care that Sam made the decision to lie about it later several times and only was truthful about it when it was obvious there was no alternative.
For that reason, I think he should step down.
Judge a person on how he does his job, not his private life. The press strikes again. Not only should he keep his job, he should dig up as much dirt on whoever started this vendetta.
There’s gotta be more to this story, something we don’t know… Why did this come out in first place? Someone set Sam up, why would he have admitted to it otherwise? Someone knew and was going to spill…
The posts are all interesting- mostly for showcasing how poorly gay folk in particular can spell and punctuate the language we speak. Using semicolons for commas (Chet); mixing up the person in a sentence (“proof that gays cannot keep their hands to ourselves”, by righthandman); poor spelling even though Manhunt has spell check in most versions (“concentual”, by trixter93). This whole issue is ridiculous, because as has been pointed out, the age of consent is 16 in Oregon, and you can bet that if it were a girl the colleagues would all be giving the guy the high sign for sure, and it would not be such a big deal. Privacy is key here, and though Sam may have been wrong to lie about it, that unfortunately is usually the first thing we think of in such a situation. The two men certainly had a right to a relationship, even if the state doesn’t recognize such things yet (I am SO glad to be living in Massachusetts). And all you supposedly intelligent and educated folks out there- size isn’t the only thing that matters; good diction, good grammar, and good spelling also really count for something. It’s our language- don’t be so careless with it!