Oregon lawmaker’s aides urged mental help

PORTLAND – Senior staffers of U.S. Rep. David Wu were so alarmed over the Oregon Democrat’s erratic behavior just days before the November election that they demanded he enter a hospital for psychiatric treatment, a newspaper reported Friday evening.

The Oregonian, citing interviews with a number of anonymous staff members, reported on its website that Wu was increasingly unpredictable on the campaign trial and in private last fall, and had several angry and loud outbursts and sometimes said “kooky” things to staff around potential voters and donors. The Willamette Week newspaper carried a similar report Friday on its website.

The fact that Wu was in the middle of a difficult re-election campaign from his Portland-area district made his behavior particularly worrisome to staff who organized a meeting with the congressman at his campaign headquarters on Oct. 30, with a psychiatrist joining by speaker phone.

“This is way beyond acceptable levels and the charade needs to end NOW,” wrote Lisa Grove, a senior and long-serving campaign pollster, in an e-mail to colleagues the day of the meeting. “No enabling by any potential enablers, he needs help.”

Wu was defiant and left the meeting, saying he was going to a movie, sources told the Oregonian.

The newspaper said its account was based on interviews with multiple sources who worked for Wu in his congressional office and his campaign. Wu’s office provided a statement late Friday saying the congressman hasn’t always been at his best with staff and constituents and that he has sought professional medical care.

“Some of my stress was derived from a very tough campaign, but I was also dealing with raising two children alone and the death of my father,” Wu said in the statement. “I fully acknowledge that I could have dealt with these difficult circumstances better.”

After the Oct. 30 meeting, the campaign essentially shut down, the newspaper said. Since the election, which he won, Wu has lost at least six staffers.