Ameri pummels Wu over incident

Allegations of sexual assault in the forefront of congressional race

By Don Hamilton

The Portland Tribune, Oct 22, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Goli Ameri isn’t hesitant anymore about the 28-year-old sexual assault allegation faced by her opponent, Rep. David Wu.

Ameri, the Republican candidate in the 1st Congressional District, stayed away from the issue in the days after Oct. 12, when a newspaper reported the episode involving the three-term Democrat.

But now it sits front and center in her campaign, first in a joint appearance with Wu last week, again on Monday in skipping an offbeat candidate’s forum, and especially this week when she directly addressed the matter in an aggressive new ad on Portland television stations.

The accusation against Wu and Ameri’s response have dominated the debate in the closing stage of what has become one of the hottest congressional races in the country. The race pits two American immigrants against each other. Wu, of Hillsdale, was the first Chinese-American elected to the House while Ameri, of Tigard, could become the first Iranian-American elected to Congress.

Last week, Wu admitted that while a student at Stanford University in the 1970s, he had “a two-year romantic relationship with a fellow college student that ended with inexcusable behavior on my part.” His admission came on the day The Oregonian published its story, which said that Wu tried to force his girlfriend to have sex with him.

He apologized but has not provided any specifics of what happened. He told the Tribune last week, though, that he has seen his former girlfriend several times at Stanford reunions and the encounter damaged their relationship.

“It was definitely affected,” he said.

Ameri’s stark new commercial uses no voices. But words from the newspaper account and from a report on CNN.com appear on a black screen while a soundtrack that sounds like slowly crashing waves or a gathering thunderstorm plays in the background.

Ameri took several days to decide whether to use the allegation in her campaign, said her campaign manager, Hap Hinman.

“I cannot stand here and pretend that violating the most fundamental human right, a woman’s safety, is merely wrongdoing,” Ameri said in a forum with Wu at Hillsboro’s Liberty High School on Oct. 15, three days after the article appeared. “We need a higher standard for our leaders.”

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