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As U.S. Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) fights for his political life, a favorite topic of conversation in political circles is trying to identify whom the Democratic Party might support to challenge him in a primary next year. Some of the most often mentioned names are Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries Commissioner Brad Avakian; state Sen. Suzanne Bomamici (D-Beaverton) and former state Rep. Greg Macpherson (D-Lake Oswego).
There's no doubt recent revelations have badly damaged Wu. But so far the news has not been nearly as serious as the allegations of sexual assault that enraged many of Wu's constituents in 2004.
Just before the 2004 election The Oregonian published a compelling story that detailed allegations that Wu attempted a "date-rape" of a girlfriend while he was an undergraduate at Stanford. Wu survived that story, easily defeating Republican Goli Ameri to win re-election. In the aftermath of that election—as is happening now—talk quickly turned to whom Democrats could find to mount a primary challenge to Wu in the following election.
One name bubbled up above the rest: the Portland Development Commission's then-chairman Matt Hennessee. Hennessee possessed tremendous attributes for a potential candidate: he was handsome, charismatic, highly visible (he was a sometime escort of Condoleezza Rice) and well-connected through his work experience under former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt and at Nike. He was also a minister, who gave the invocation at the 2003 inauguration of his former boss, then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
Here's an excerpt from WW's Murmurs column from April 20, 2005:
But before Hennessee could decide whether to challenge Wu or pick lower-hanging political fruit, The Oregonian reported in November 2005 he'd sexually abused a young female relative in the early 1990s. The story was enough to scuttle Hennessee's professional and political careers.
Today, Hennessee is the minister at Portland's Vancouver Avenue Baptist Church. Although he never got the chance to challenge Wu, he's still keeping an eye on world events as this recent Facebook post shows:
WWeek 2015