Former Oregon governor admits sex with girl, 14

By Harry Esteve and Gail Kinsey Hill
Newhouse News Service

Neil Goldschmidt

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In an extraordinary and emotional 50-minute confession to The Oregonian, Goldschmidt said he has lived for 30 years with the "enormous guilt and shame" of the nine-month relationship. He said deteriorating health — heart arrhythmia and blocked arteries — and knowledge that media accounts of the sex scandal were about to unfold, made him come forward.

"I'm just living with this personal hell," said Goldschmidt, 63, occasionally choking back tears. "The lie has gone on too long."

His sudden withdrawal from public life, just months after being named president of the state Board of Higher Education, throws into disarray a planned overhaul of the state's university system. He has resigned from the board and taken a leave of absence from his consulting firm, Goldschmidt Imeson Carter.

It also complicates the proposed sale of Portland General Electric. Goldschmidt, who would have been the chairman of the state's largest utility, said he is stepping away from the deal.

Goldschmidt, who was married at the time of the relationship, said he agreed to a financial settlement with the woman, who is now 43. He did so after being contacted by the woman's lawyer.

According to Oregon laws in effect in 1975, sexual intercourse with a girl under age 16 constituted third-degree rape, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The statute of limitations at that time was three years from the commission of the crime.

Asked whether he had thought about the legal ramifications, Goldschmidt said he didn't think there are any.

The revelations dramatically end the career of one of Oregon's most influential public figures. At age 32, he became the nation's youngest big-city mayor, going on to become transportation secretary for the Carter administration and Oregon governor from 1986 to 1990. He was an executive with Nike and has been a successful international trade consultant since the early 1990s.

Throughout his political career, rumors of extramarital relationships circulated around Goldschmidt. He tacitly acknowledged yesterday that the rumors had merit.

"If people work hard enough, I think you'll find indiscretions," he said, "but nothing as ugly as this."
 
He chose not to run for a second term as governor after his first marriage fell apart.

Goldschmidt acknowledged that his past behavior will forever taint his political legacy, as well as put at risk others associated with his work, including his longtime friend, Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Yesterday , with wife Diana Goldschmidt at his side, Neil Goldschmidt quietly gave details of the secret he kept quiet for three decades. Holding little back, he said the girl was a neighbor and the daughter of a woman who worked on his mayoral campaign. He said they would meet "off and on." No one knew about the relationship except the girl's mother, he said.

The relationship began in 1975 and ended sometime in 1976. He did not say why it ended. He said he had little if any contact with her until after he became governor.

Goldschmidt said a rumor about the relationship surfaced during his 1986 gubernatorial campaign, but didn't affect the race. However, after he took office, he heard that she had been talking openly about it .

She was "in a public establishment, and I would presume, not entirely in great shape, telling the world she had had a relationship with me," Goldschmidt said. At that point, he said, he arranged to meet with her. He continued to see or talk to her intermittently, but always either on the phone or with others in the room.

He said she never asked for money or any kind of specific help. Then, in 1994, her lawyer, Jeff Foote, of Portland, contacted Goldschmidt.

"She wanted two things — an apology and help starting her life over," Goldschmidt said

A conservatorship was established as part of a legal settlement. He said he had to borrow money to fund it.

Foote yesterday confirmed the sexual relationship while Goldschmidt was mayor and the financial settlement reached in 1994.

Goldschmidt said he never believed the settlement would end the risk of the relationship becoming public. "This day has been a long time coming," he said.

A large measure of the guilt he feels is because of how much he believes this will hurt his family, friends and political associates.

Margie Goldschmidt, his wife at the time of the relationship, declined yesterday to say when or how she learned of it. The Goldschmidts' 25-year marriage ended while he was still governor in 1990, their separation shattering re-election plans.

But Margie Goldschmidt said the relationship was not the precipitating factor.

"These are things that are private between Neil and I," said Goldschmidt, 60. "I made a decision there are some things that really aren't anyone else's business. I know people are curious, but I don't feel the need to answer those questions."