And So It Begins: Paperwork Filed To Try Recalling Mayor Sam Adams (UPDATED with signature sheets OK'd for circulation)

Aiming to pull off the first successful recall in Portland since 1952, the group trying to recall Mayor Sam Adams filed its paperwork (PDF) today with the city clerk.

The law requires would-be recallers to wait six months after a person takes elected office to start gathering signatures. And chief petitioner Jasun Wurster told a gaggle of TV cameras and reporters this morning that he hopes now to start mobilizing hundreds of signature-gathering volunteers once the city auditor approves the paperwork.

The group hopes to collect 50,000 signatures over the next 90 days — to ensure it has 32,183 valid signatures from registered Portland voters.

Wurster, joined by lawyer Erin Fitzgerald, told reporters outside City Hall that the recall will provide citizens with the "opportunity to reclaim our democracy," and said Adams had lost his "public trust and political capital."

"It will be the people — not the lawyers that will clear Sam Adams," Wurster said, referring to Attorney General John Kroger's recent report concluding there was "insufficient evidence" to prosecute the mayor. "I feel extremely confident that the citizens of Portland will step up and gather the signatures."

Asked later what he would do if enough signatures were gathered to put a recall question on the ballot, Adams said he'll deal with that scenario "when we come to it."

UPDATE: The city Auditor's office announced later Tuesday that it has approved the recallers' signature and cover sheets for circulation.

For more on the recall effort, pick up tomorrow's WW.