On March 1, 1992, U.S. Senator Brock Adams ends his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate. The announcement follows publication of a Seattle Times article alleging that he sexually harassed and molested eight women. Adams, who has served in the Senate for five years and previously served in the House of Representatives and as Secretary for Transportation for President Jimmy Carter (b. 1924), strenuously denies the allegations. Democrat Patty Murray (b. 1950) will run successfully for his seat the following November.
In 1964, Adams was elected as a Democrat from Washington's 7th District to the U.S. House of Representatives and he served in Congress for the next 12 years, becoming chairman of the new House Budget Committee. He criticized the Vietnam War and was an early supporter of the presidential campaign of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D. NY). Adams was credited with almost single handedly restructuring the East Coast railroad system after the collapse of the Penn Central Railroad. He also helped establish Amtrak, the national passenger rail carrier. He was regarded as "gifted, often brilliant" at politics and Speaker of the House Tom Foley (D. Wash.) called him the "Golden Boy" and "the young prince of politics" (The Seattle Times). In the 1980s he supported AIDS research and opposed restarting a Hanford reactor for bomb-grade plutonium production at a time when "down-winders" were raising the issue of past nuclear contamination.
Allegations
In 1987, 26-year-old House aide Kari Tupper told police that Adams had drugged and molested her. Police in Washington D.C., referred a criminal prosecution against Adams, but the Office of the United States Attorney declined prosecution, citing lack of physical evidence and terming Tupper's credibility as a witness, "totally meritless." The story did not break until more than a year later and Adams denied the allegations calling them "horrible lies" (The Seattle Times). Adams admitted that Tupper, an old family friend, had spent the night in his home while his wife was out of town. The story dogged Adams for the next three years and placed his re-election in doubt.
In February 1992, Adams formally announced his bid for re-election to the Senate. But on March 1, 1992, just before the Democratic political caucuses, The Seattle Times published a story detailing allegations from eight women who were not named but were reported to have signed or agreed to sign statements supporting the allegations, plus more women who had refused to sign statements, that since the early 1970s Adams had sexually harassed or molested them, with one saying he had raped her. The Times reported interviews with "dozens of people" that it said supported the claims.
Adams unequivocally denied all the allegations, and strenuously denounced the Times story. However, he announced that he would not continue his run for re-election. He left the Senate when his term ended in January 1993.
