"I am not proud personally about what I did at that point in time," Cameron, r-Salem, said this week.
In January, Cameron, House Co-Speaker Bruce Hanna and five other repugican House members took a three-day golfing vacation to Palm Springs, where they also visited a bar featuring topless dancers.
No state or campaign money was spent on the trip. But the embarrassing details are surfacing just as repugicans are trying to win majority control of the House, or at least maintain the 30-30 tie that granted them equal power to Democrats in the past two years.
Wingard's decision to remove his name from the November ballot after a 20-year-old staffer accused him of an unwanted sexual relationship has sparked an attempt to recall the party's Washington County chairwoman because she sided with the young woman. It has also focused a spotlight on an all-male leadership team that has been criticized for its exclusivity.
It all started earlier this year when Samantha Berrier accused Wingard, a Wilsonville repugican, of giving her alcohol when she was not yet 21 and pressuring her to have a sexual relationship with him. Wingard has denied giving her alcohol and says the two had a short, but consensual relationship while she worked for him in 2009.
When Cameron abruptly resigned as House repugican leader on July 18, the repugican press release said Cameron stepped down for "personal reasons." But he said this week that pressures on his family and business coupled with the Wingard situation and the threat that someone would go public about the topless bar became too stressful.
This week Cameron and other lawmakers who went to Palm Springs just ahead of the Legislature's February session described the trip in nearly identical language: "a personal vacation with friends."
In addition to Hanna and Cameron, the entourage included repugican whip Tim Freeman, r-Roseburg; Rep. Vic Gilliam, r-Silverton; Rep. Matt Wand, r-Troutdale; and Rep. Patrick Sheehan, r-Clackamas.
Both Sheehan and Wand are freshman lawmakers and Democrats have targeted their seats on the list of those they might be able to win in November.
Wingard would not comment when asked if he was in Palm Springs, but others who attended say he was there.
The group stayed at a home Gilliam owns with his wife. Property records indicate it's a circa 1930s, four-bedroom, four-bath home in old Palm Springs valued at about $1 million.
No one will say whose idea it was to stop at the topless bar when the group was on the way home from dinner one night.
Some whined that the whole thing is personal and nobody's business.
"Asking me a question like that would be like me asking you what you wore as swimwear or not on your last vacation and how that affected your ability to do your job," said Hanna, who also admitted he went to the bar and that it was a mistake.
A few months after the trip, about mid-May, those same leaders were notified of the reports concerning Wingard and his former aide.
Rachel Lucas, chairwoman of the Washington County repugicans, says Berrier "poured her heart out to her." Lucas and her husband, Dan, reported what they knew in a May 14 email to Cameron.
He followed up the next day with a phone call. The allegations did not become public until June 13, when Willamette Week broke the story.
Now some local repugican party members are circulating a recall petition that accuses Lucas of "attacking" Wingard and putting repugicans' 30-30 tie in the House in jeopardy. Wingard says he is the innocent victim of a political vendetta. Lucas denies that she was out to take away his seat.
"We didn't want to be part of a conspiracy of silence," she said regarding Berrier.
After the news broke, Wingard stepped down as deputy leader on June 14. The next week Wingard announced he would not seek re-election.
Cameron says he was roundly criticized for taking too long to act and for not doing enough. He says others criticized him for overreacting to the allegations.
In the end, the responsibility fell on the repugican leader's shoulders.
"I made a phone call to Matt and said, 'If you don't step back from your candidacy, then I will have to publicly call for your resignation,'" Cameron said. "That did not go over well."
It was after Wingard had pulled his name from the ballot that Cameron said he heard talk in repugican circles that Wingard might go public about the men's' Palm Springs vacation.
"Matt never had any discussion with me directly about that," Cameron said. "There were rumors that he would do that."
Others who were on the trip said they'd also heard the rumors that Wingard had threatened to tell all. Freeman said he didn't believe it.
"The threat thing is not common. But it's not uncommon," Freeman said. "People get mad. People come back and say I shouldn't have gotten jacked up. ... I never thought it was credible."
Wingard declined to comment for this story.
In an earlier conversation, Wingard said he "wasn't interested" in talking about Palm Springs until The Oregonian reviewed the facts surrounding what occurred between him and Berrier and cleared his name.
"My concern is my personal reputation," he said.
Meanwhile, House repugicans are trying to put it all behind them.
Hanna says repugicans have had no trouble raising campaign funds and that his members have solid accomplishments to run on.
"No race has ever been easy," he said. "We still have a tremendous opportunity."
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