Skip to main contentLess than two months after taking office, two of Oregon's brightest political stars from 2008—Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Attorney General John Kroger—are linked in a way that can't make either happy.
Kroger is in a tough spot, in charge of investigating Adams, the first openly gay mayor of a large American city. But the two Democrats share more than brains, ambition and the current investigation. They also employed the same political strategist, Mark Wiener, to win their 2008 races.
Wiener is a 52-year-old Brooklyn native whose past clients have included City Commissioner Erik Sten and U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick. A gradudate of Reed College, Wiener has also worked on measures including the 2003 Multnomah County income-tax surcharge.
After Adams' Jan. 19 admission that he had lied when he said he'd only "mentored" 18-year-old Beau Breedlove, Wiener called Adams "a fucking moron" in a Time magazine story about what actually happened in 2005 between Adams and Breedlove—a sexual relationship (see "Why Adams Confessed," WW, Jan. 21, 2009). Yet Wiener, who has been interviewed by Kroger's office, continues to advise Adams.
And Wiener's connections don't end there. He also advises two other key players in the Adams saga: City Commissioners Dan Saltzman, who has staked out a puzzling position in support of Adams, and Randy Leonard, an Adams ally-turned-foe. As Kroger's investigation enters its second month, here are the many ties that bind the players together, all of them through Wiener's office.
Sam Adams
Wiener and Adams' relationship stretches back nearly 20 years to when they worked as legislative staffers. In 2004, Wiener ran Adams' successful campaign for City Council. And in 2007, when WW and The Oregonian began reporting on Breedlove, Adams asked Wiener to coach the young man. Wiener collected $10,000 from Adams in the 2008 mayor's race. (A protégé, Jennifer Yocom, collected another $27,000 as Adams' campaign manager and is now on Adams' staff.) Wiener says he talked to Breedlove "once or twice," but he insists Breedlove and Adams lied to him in 2007, telling him their relationship was platonic. After Adams' admission last month, Wiener was identified in a Jan. 27 Time piece as Adams' "former campaign adviser." Turns out there's nothing "former" about the relationship at all. Wiener acknowledges that on the weekend of Jan. 24, Adams came to Wiener's house for advice. Wiener denies that his comments to Time and similar remarks to other publications are disingenuous. "There is nothing inconsistent in anything I've said or done," Wiener says. "You can be mad at somebody and still talk to them."
John Kroger
A former staffer for President Clinton and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Kroger ran successfully for AG in 2008 on a pledge to shake up Oregon's cozy power structure. He also paid Wiener $52,000 for campaign advice. That tie has led to questions about whether Wiener, coincidentally a former Schumer staffer himself, could influence Kroger's investigation of Adams. Kroger spokesman Tony Green says that while Kroger will not explicitly wall himself off from the investigation, there should be no question of his independence. "Mark was a consultant in John's primary campaign, which ended in May. John has had no contact with [Wiener] since taking office," Green says. "Oregonians should be assured this investigation is being handled by professionals."
Randy Leonard
A Wiener client since his election to City Council in 2002, Leonard in September 2007 helped Adams and Wiener crush real-estate developer Bob Ball, a then-friend of Leonard's who had raised questions with Leonard about Adams and Breedlove. Since Adams confessed to lying about Breedlove, Leonard has been the mayor's chief critic on the council. That, in turn, has raised questions about whether Leonard wants the mayor's job. He says he's unsure of his plans should Adams resign. "I just don't know what I would do," he says. "I think I'm more effective in my job than I could be as mayor, but we're faced here with a whole new set of circumstances."
Dan Saltzman
Saltzman, first elected to City Council in 1998, is a longtime Wiener client. His former chief of staff, Aisling Coghlan, is also Wiener's wife. Saltzman is providing valuable cover for Adams in two ways. First, he agreed to become police commissioner last year after Adams took back his earlier choice of Leonard. Mayors usually keep the Police Bureau. And Saltzman's willingness to manage the bureau spared Adams the FBI background check typically required of Portland police commissioners. (Interestingly, former Mayor Neil Goldschmidt, who also had some secrets, did not command the police.) A check might have uncovered the truth earlier about Adams and Breedlove's relationship. Saltzman has also offered valuable, if surprising, support for Adams continuing as mayor. That is counterintuitive because Saltzman did nothing to help Adams win election. And in 2002 and 2008, Saltzman (with Wiener's help) promoted the city's Children's Investment Fund ballot measures, raising more than $100 million for kids' programs. More than one-third of that money goes to mentoring and after-school programs. Now that Adams has made "mentoring" a joke, Saltzman is in an awkward spot. "I don't know that there is a way to reconcile those things," Saltzman says. He denies his support for Adams stems from a fear that Leonard—a frequent adversary—might replace Adams. "Reports of our relationship being strained are much exaggerated," Saltzman says.
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