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Sam Adams survives smears to take Portland
Adams
US votes in its first gay mayor of a major city
"Adams also survived a potentially career-wrecking smear campaign that tried to link him with a 17-year-old intern"
The first openly gay mayor of a major American city has been elected in Portland. He is called Sam Adams, he grew up in grinding poverty and he has survived smears - and all comers! - to take his place at the head of the Oregon city coucil with an impressive mandate, having captured 58% of all votes cast.
The 44-year-old candidate is thought to have won on very specific policy points including a promise to work on reducing High School drop-out rates and making Portland one of the most environmentally-friendly cities in north America. Adams also survived a potentially career-wrecking smear campaign that tried to link him with a 17-year-old intern. The campaign, surprisingly, was orchestrated by a fellow gay politician Bob Ball.
Adams insisted that he had been mentoring the young man and went so far as to issue an open rebuttal of any wrongdoing. "I have in the past, and I will in the future, respond to people who reach out to me for help and advice," he said in an open letter to the people of Portland. "I remember when I was a teenager and I had no one I felt I could talk to at a time when I desperately needed someone to give me advice and perspective about coming to terms with being gay... I didn't get into public life to allow my instinct to help others to be snuffed out by fear of sleazy misrepresentations or political manipulation.
