U.S.

John Kitzhaber Resigns as Governor of Oregon

By 
Gov. John Kitzhaber in Portland, Ore., in 2014. Don Ryan/Associated Press 
SEATTLE — Gov. John Kitzhaber, long regarded as a wily survivor of Oregon politics, resigned Friday amid a spiraling crisis that included a criminal investigation of the role that his fiancée played in his administration as well as crumbling support from his Democratic Partycolleagues.
It was a steep and rapid fall for Mr. Kitzhaber, 67, a former emergency room doctor who won an unprecedented fourth term as governor in November. His resignation means that Kate Brown, the Oregon secretary of state and a fellow Democrat, will become governor, in accordance with the succession plan in the state Constitution.
Even during the recent election, Mr. Kitzhaber had been plagued by questions about his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, with whom he lived, and whether she had violated ethics rules or criminal laws in advising him about clean energy issues while serving as a consultant on the topic. Before November’s election and after, he repeatedly denied any wrongdoing by Ms. Hayes, 47, or his office, and pledged cooperation in the various inquiries, including one initiated this month by the state’s attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, who is also a Democrat, which could result in criminal charges.
But in the last few days, some senior Democrats in the heavily Democratic state abandoned him and called for his resignation. Ms. Brown, 54, the secretary of state, was among those who distanced herself, releasing a statement on Thursday describing what she said was a “bizarre” meeting she had had with Mr. Kitzhaber — saying that he had asked her to rush back to Oregon from a conference in Washington, D.C., this week to speak privately with him. But once in the meeting, Ms. Brown said, she found him confused or uncertain about why she had come.
“This is clearly a bizarre and unprecedented situation," Ms. Brown said in her statement. “I informed the governor that I am ready, and my staff will be ready, should he resign.”
Ms. Brown, a lawyer who practiced juvenile and family law before entering politics, is not a stranger to state government. She served in the state House and Senate before her election as secretary of state in 2008 and is regarded as a liberal – though that covers a wide range of positions in Oregon. She will also be the state’s first openly bisexual governor.
Mr. Kitzhaber rose through the state legislature before first winning the governor’s office in 1994. He served two terms then, and subsequently made a comeback for a third term in 2010, becoming a signature presence for a generation of Oregonians — with an urban cowboy style of jeans, boots and a sport jacket with no tie that became a kind of personal brand.
But with his opponents preparing to collect signatures for two recall petitions this summer, the attorney general’s looming investigation and, perhaps most crucially, a vacuum of support from the Democrats who control the state legislature, Mr. Kitzhaber decided he had had enough.
In a statement released by his office, Mr. Kitzhaber said he would be exonerated. “I am confident that I have not broken any laws nor taken any actions that were dishonest or dishonorable in their intent or outcome," he said. “That is why I asked both the Ethics Commission and the Attorney General to take a full and comprehensive look at my actions – and I will continue to fully cooperate with those ongoing efforts.”
Mr. Kitzhaber added, “I am equally confident that once they have been concluded Oregonians will see that I have never put anything before my love for and commitment to Oregon.”
But he also took a vehement swipe at the media, and erstwhile allies who had not stuck by his side. “It is deeply troubling to me to realize that we have come to a place in the history of this great state of ours where a person can be charged, tried, convicted and sentenced by the media with no due process and no independent verification of the allegations involved,” the governor said. “But even more troubling — and on a very personal level as someone who has given 35 years of public service to Oregon – is that so many of my former allies in common cause have been willing to simply accept this judgment at its face value.”
His resignation takes effect on Wednesday at 10 a.m.