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Faux Congressman-W.Week Photo |
“If Congressman Wu is having some problems I hope he gets help,” said Meredith Wood Smith, chair of the state Democratic Party. “I still think that the 1st District is in good hands and that it will continue to be.”
As his kids reportedly put in an email to a Wu staffer,
“My Dad says you’re the best because not even my Mom put up with him for [REDACTED: #] years and you have. We think you’re cool.”

No single event appears to have prompted staff to conduct the two interventions. Instead, a snowballing series of events in the days before Wu handily defeated GOP challenger Rob Cornilles 55 percent to 42 percent combined to cause staffers to worry about the congressman’s judgment and the possible root cause of his problem, say close observers on Capitol Hill and in Portland.
The emails do not offer a definitive account of why Wu’s aides fled the congressman’s office in significant numbers just after his sixth successful re-election campaign. They do reveal that Wu’s staffers apparently had confronted the congressman about his drinking.

…employees deliberately hid him from public view during the last three days of Wu’s campaign even as his Republican opponent furiously fought for votes across Oregon’s 1st Congressional District.