What's going on with my congressman David Wu?...

[cascadiance]

Sounds like he has a revolt within his office, and that he's a bit unhinged about something (or some things)...

Having moved here a couple of years ago from San Diego where I had to live in a district that had been the now in prison Duke Cunningham, I'm sensitive to what's going on with my congressman. Now then, it was potentially a valuable opportunity for Democrats to grab that seat of Cunningham's in San Diego, which they were never able to capitalize on, but this one here I'm worried about what could happen in subsequent months with Wu. I'd HATE having to deal with a Republican congressman again! I wonder if he had earlier thought that there he would benefit from an additional congressional seat to Oregon, which appears to have gone to state of Washington instead.

Wu hasn't excited me as much as say someone like Peter DeFazio might if he were my congressman, but I did call his office to thank him for voting against the tax bill, even though I'd lost my job earlier that week to send him a message that even the unemployed aren't blind to the messes on capital hill now.

Check out the comments here in an article in the Oregonian.

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/01/us_rep_david_wu_loses_staffers.html

U.S. Rep. David Wu loses staffers, political team amid complaints of public behavior


By Charles Pope and Janie Har

Since the November election, U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., has lost at least six staffers plus the leadership of a veteran campaign team that guided him to a seventh term amid complaints about his public behavior.

The exodus includes Wu's longtime chief of staff, Julie Tippens, and communications director, Julia Krahe, both in Washington, D.C. Krahe left without securing a job while Tippens took a similar position with a lawmaker with far less seniority.

In addition, Wu has lost virtually his entire political team -- people who have been with the Democrat for more than a decade -- including his chief fundraiser, Lisa Kurdziel, and chief pollster, Lisa Grove, who told The Oregonian she wouldn't work for him again.

"It is highly unusual for successful campaigns to change teams after the election," said Michael Meehan, a veteran Democratic consultant who was a senior adviser to Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

...

[BlueIris]

1. Any updates on this?

I was shocked to read about all of this last month.

[oregonjen]

2. Wow, here's an update

http://www.katu.com/news/local/116524403.html

[BlueIris]

3. Yikers.

Pardon me, but that's fucked up.

I'm glad he's getting help, but I expect better from my Oregon Dems. A lot better.

[dem3550]

6. +100

[cascadiance]

4. I'm wondering if Obama met with him personally last Friday when he visited the Intel plant...

... in Wu's district. I was in the area of one of Intel's office in Hillsboro, but didn't see a lot of activity there at the time. Must have been at one of the other plants that Obama passed through. His plane apparently landed at the Hillsboro airport not far from where I was then.

After I posted this thread initially, I saw that Wu was one of Obama's guests at the dinner he had for the Chinese premier when he was visiting Washington a few weeks ago. Given that Wu has been an activist wanting more freedom for Chinese, etc., I'm wondering if that was also a strain on him, in addition to his marital problems, etc. He publicly took issue with Rush Limbaugh's charade trying to parody the Chinese premier in a racist fashion.

[BlueIris]

5. Based on Wu's recent actions, I kinda cringe thinking about him interacting with the president.

A lot.

Here's hoping the Congressman continues to get the help he needs.

[Rabblevox]

7. If Wu voluntarily stepped down would Kitzhaber appoint his replacement? nt

[cascadiance]

8. If it's like California, you'd have a special election...

I think the appointment only applies to senators. Though he'd have to resign before a certain date or the seat would just be left open until the 2012 election came then, presumably because not enough time would be left for them to do an election or for the rep to do much before the coming election after that.

Republicans like those kid of elections. We went through one in my district when I lived in San Diego when we had to replace Duke Cunningham some years back. Hopefully though, with our district's makeup, we'd still get a Democrat winning, though one never knows. The gentleman that ran in the primaries against Wu, David Robinson, seemed to be a decent enough guy, and might be able to do well in a special election. I just sensed he didn't have anough different policies from Wu to warrant voting against Wu then.

I also heard rumors from the Dem running against Duncan Hunter in a neighboring San Diego district (the older one) some years back that he was being investigated and potentially going to be indicted, but that the prosecutor's office was holding off because the Republicans would rather have had him replaced in a special election later instead of having him put out of action or under indictment before the election, having been successful in getting in Brian Bilbray in a special election to replace Duke Cunningham. Then of course right after the election, Carol Lam of that local prosecutor's office got fired (in one of Bush's famous firings) and had her hands full just to get a number of other high profile indictments filed before she left office near Valentine's day (Dusty Foggo, Brent Wilkes, John T. Michaels, and Thomas Kontogiannis), so Duncan Hunter got "off the hook" and probably google bombed himself from getting further scrutiny by running for the Republican nomination for president after that (which everyone knew was a losing battle).

Thankfully Oregon doesn't have any voting machines int this state and has vote by mail instead to avoid the games that the Republicans played in swearing in Bilbray before all of the votes were counted in an election that there was going to be a challenge to do a recount, but wasn't allowed because of that premature swearing in, which a local judge claimed he had no jurisdiction over to counteract.

http://electiondefensealliance.org/8_24_09_fight_back_against_election_nullification_in_san_diego

Much like Scott Walker, the Republicans would pull out all of the funky stops to grab a seat with dirty tricks like this, especially now that Boner is Speaker of the House much like Hastert was then.

Here's some other speculation who might replace Wu if he resigned that seem a tad right wing leaning, though there's notes here that he's already filed to run in 2012...

http://oregoncatalyst.com/7635-who-will-fill-wus-shoes.html

Just earlier today, it would appear that Wu is still saying he will not resign...

http://www.katu.com/news/116981663.html

[BlueIris]

9. Based on the OPB radio interview I heard the other day, Wu has no intention of stepping down.

Even I think it's too early to expect him to do that, especially since he did face up to the inappropriate nature of his behaviors during the campaign. I hope he's able to stay focused from now on.

[cascadiance]

10. Now Pelosi's having Wu investigated for inappropriate sexual relations

So it sounds like there was a lot more going on then than just him acting a little "crazy" then... It also appears that he's just announced he won't seek re-election in 2012. No indication on whether he will resign at this point though.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/25/998363/-OR-01:-In-face-of-sexual-assault-allegations,-Wu-will-not-seek-re-election

Now, didn't Dennis Kucinich say that he was considering to move to Washington state to run for congress when his district got squeezed out in Ohio and they added a district in Washington? I wonder if he's considering moving up here if we might be able to draft him to run for Wu's seat instead. I'd absolutely LOVE to campaign for him in our district here. The demographics might be better for him in Wu's district here than the newer open one up in Washington state, though I haven't checked yet. Kucinich is a guy I could work many hours for here!

I would think he'd love working in a neighboring district next to Pete DeFazio's. Those guys would make a GREAT team up here to plan the people's revolution up here in the Northwest!

Still wondering what's going on with Mr. Wu! Sad to see this happening to him now. I hope I didn't bring a jinx with me, since Duke Cunningham used to be my rep when I lived in San Diego earlier. In that case I WANTED to see the bum go (but not have someone like Bilbray take his seat). Don't want a Repub taking Wu's seat. Kucinich would get the base fired up here, and might turn the west side of Portland to be more liberal.

However, if Wu were to have to resign though, we might need to get someone else, as I don't think that Kucinich would necessarily want to move up here now before his term's up in Ohio in his old district.