Posted on 06/26/2002 8:42:43 AM PDT by ThreeYearLurker
For the past few years, a California business has been a major donor to Oregon Democratic causes, giving about $60,000 since 2000.
What the campaigns didn't know, however, is that the money came from one of the largest gay adult video companies in the nation.
It arrived through a well-known political activist, so no one thought to question the source of the money.
On Tuesday, however, the campaign manager for gubernatorial candidate Ted Kulongoski vowed to return the cash after being told by The Oregonian that they'd accepted profits from adult videos and a related Web site business.
But the chairman of the Democratic Party of Oregon, Jim Edmundson, said he saw no problem with money coming from a legal company and had no plans to return it. He stressed that it came to the party through a nationally respected supporter.
The company, Conwest Resources Inc., so far this election cycle has given $15,000 to Kulongoski, $2,000 to the Democratic Party and $500 to Beverly Stein, another Democratic candidate for governor in the May primary. Conwest was tied as the fourth-largest contributor to Kulongoski as of April.
During the 2000 election cycle, Conwest and a related company donated more than $40,000 to Oregon campaigns.
The connection between the California companies -- which were owned by Charles Holmes of San Francisco -- and the Oregon campaigns is Terry Bean, a Portland real estate broker and investor with longtime political connections. For a decade, Bean has been an active contributor to Democratic causes, supporting gay rights with tens of thousands of dollars.
Before Holmes died in 2000 at age 55, he asked his friend, Bean, to be the executor of his estate and carry on his contributions. Holmes had grown wealthy from the gay adult videos created and sold by his companies. In turn, he used the money to give millions to causes ranging from AIDS research to gay rights to Democratic politicians.
Bean, 53, serves as a trustee of Holmes' trust and is affiliated with the Charles M. Holmes Foundation, which controls Conwest Resources. In addition to Conwest, contributions also have been made to Oregon campaigns by Continental American Industries Inc., another Holmes business listed at the same address as Conwest.
"His direction to me was to try to use the foundation and Conwest to try to continue to make the world a better place for gays and lesbians," Bean said.
Bean said that when he wants to make a Conwest contribution, he contacts John Rutherford, the company's president, to get approval. Then Bean's accountant makes out the check.
Conwest Resources is a diversified business.
Bean said his understanding is that the adult video portion -- primarily Falcon Studios -- is less than half of Conwest's business, although he could not provide specifics or estimates of the company's overall revenues. Rutherford could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
"Conwest does produce some male erotic videos," Bean said. "It also does a lot of other post-production things and documentaries in other arenas."
Like Bean, Holmes was a national figure in gay politics. The two served together on the board of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights organization that Bean helped found. Bean also helped form the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which helps lesbian and gay candidates get elected, and Holmes served on the board.
Holmes also contributed to Amnesty International, the Sierra Club and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center that opened this year carries his name after his foundation contributed $1 million.
Having started his adult video business in the 1970s, the nature of Holmes' operation stirred up controversy at times. He has been referred to as a "porn king," and health activists earlier criticized his company for failing to use safe-sex techniques.
At least a year before Holmes died in early September 2000, Bean said Holmes asked him to continue his giving.
Bean's political connections were well-known. In addition to meetings with President Clinton, he hosted House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., at a 1998 fund-raiser for Rep. David Wu, D-Ore. A fund-raiser with Tipper Gore followed in September 2000.
In the two months after Holmes' death, Continental American contributed $25,000 to the Democratic Party of Oregon, $2,000 to Democrat Mitch Greenlick's legislative campaign, and $15,000 to Basic Rights Oregon No on 9, which opposed an Oregon Citizens Alliance ballot measure that would have prohibited public schools from promoting homosexuality.
When The Oregonian contacted Kulongoski's campaign Tuesday, campaign manager Sean Sinclair knew only that the $15,000 had come through Bean. Kulongoski's staff had not inquired further about the source and was not aware of it coming from a company involved in adult video.
"We're going to return the contributions because we don't want this to become a distraction to the campaign," Sinclair said.
The campaign for Kevin Mannix, Kulongoski's Republican opponent, commented on the Democrat's handling of the money.
"It's not like the campaign did anything wrong," said Mannix spokesman Mike Beard. "It's not even that there's anything wrong necessarily even in accepting the money. It's just that there's this perception that it's tainted, and I guess that's the unfortunate thing."
I would venture to say, had the donation been to the Republican Party, the response would have been the same, and rightly so.
If money from gay porno producers is "tainted" and a "distraction", what does that say about the activities depicted in the videos? I'm shocked that Oregonians don't welcome and encourage gay prono money in the interest of tolerance and diversity.
Those Oregonians must be a bunch of backward yokels....< /sarcasm>
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