Terry Doyle Schrunk was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 politician who served as the mayor for the city of Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, from 1957–1973, a length tying George Luis Baker who also served 17 years (1917–1933). Prior to becoming mayor, he had been the sheriff of Multnomah County

Multnomah County, Oregon

Multnomah County is one of 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. Though smallest in area, it is the most populous as its county seat, Portland, is the state's largest city...

 since 1949. In his 1956 campaign for mayor, he advocated for urban renewal

Urban renewal

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...

. Schrunk beat incumbent Fred L. Peterson

Fred L. Peterson

Fred L. Peterson was an American politician and businessman in the state of Oregon. A native of Minnesota, he grew up in Portland, Oregon, where he served as mayor from 1953 to 1956.-Early life:...

 by 17,000 votes in a nine-person primary, but did not get an absolute majority, and then beat Peterson in the fall run-off election.

Mayor

In mid-twentieth-century Portland, gambling dens, brothels, and unlicensed bars operated virtually uninhibited by police as long as vice racketeers paid scheduled kickbacks to key city law enforcement officials.

Schrunck was elected mayor with Teamsters union support, allegedly in part because the incumbent Republican Mayor, Fred Peterson offended the union when he wouldn't oust Police chief J. Bardell Purcell. The Teamsters felt that Purcell impeded their drive to open a wider vice business in Portland.

An allegation against Mayor Schrunk soon landed him before the special Senate committee

United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management

The United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management was a select committee created by the United States Senate on January 30, 1957, and dissolved on March 31, 1960...

 headed by Arkansas Democrat John McClellan investigating U.S. labor racketeering in March 1957. While still sheriff in September 1955, Schrunk and his deputies had raided the 8212 Club, a gambling and after-hours drinking joint financed by Portland Racketeer James B. Elkins

Jim Elkins (Oregon criminal)

James Butler Elkins was a famous crime boss in Portland, Oregon in the mid-20th century.Elkins was involved in numerous illegal activities for several decades in the mid-20th century, running gambling rackets and nightclubs like the 8212 Club, and was known for his brutality...

. Elkins testified that the manager, Clifford Bennett, told him he had paid Schrunk $500, and the sheriff had gone away without causing any more trouble—except for arresting a few drunks. Although Bennett refused to testify, several others confirmed pieces of the story. Schrunk flatly denied having taken bribes from Bennett. But he did admit that his deputies had raided the 8212 Club, seen liquor being illegally served after hours, spotted gambling equipment all over the place—and that he had gone away without taking further action.

Robert Kennedy, then the lead attorney for the Senate committee, came to Portland to testify against him. Jurors acquitted Schrunk in less than two hours.

Three years later, Kennedy was managing his brother, Senator John F. Kennedy's, presidential campaign, with Oregon one of seven primaries that JFK entered. Kennedy's pursuit of Schrunk had angered enough Oregon Democrats that some of JFK's key supporters persuaded Kennedy operative Joseph S. Miller to ask Senator Kennedy to keep his younger brother out of Oregon. Although JFK largely accepted the advice, Miller's bluntness angered both brothers. Continued resentment by Schrunk and his supporters was seen as a contributing factor to Robert Kennedy losing the Oregon Democratic Primary to Eugene McCarthy in May 1968.

Schrunk suffered a heart attack in October 1972 while at City Hall and was taken to the hospital where he survived.

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