State's largest newspaper calls for resignation of Oregon's Democrat governor

[PaintMyHouse]

Cronyism is a way of life in Oregon. The only ones punished are the minority party reps, and those that live outside Portland, Salem, and Eugene.

Just how incompetent a boob was the Republican candidate that he couldn't slam dunk the guy who pissed away a billion dollars of taxpayer money?

AND has a girlfriend scandal dropped into his lap?

Just how big a doofus was this Republican candidate that he could not stroll right into the Governor's mansion with that kind of ammo. He should have been able to go all Rambo on Klutzenjammer.

I'm telling you, it doesn't matter who it is, when it comes to a statewide election the Dim is going to win in this state.

So I guess Kitzhaber's response to the press is going to be, "Suck my flaccid dick."

We have drugs for that, don't they have Obamacare?

 

[g5000]

So I guess Kitzhaber's response to the press is going to be, "Suck my flaccid dick."

We have drugs for that. don't they have Obamacare?

The Governor pissed away their ObamaCare insurance exchange. He totally blew it. It never got off the ground.

So, yeah. Flaccid it is, flaccid it will stay.

 

[PaintMyHouse]

So I guess Kitzhaber's response to the press is going to be, "Suck my flaccid dick."

We have drugs for that. don't they have Obamacare?

The Governor pissed away their ObamaCare insurance exchange. He totally blew it. It never got off the ground.

So, yeah. Flaccid it is, flaccid it will stay.

Well American politics is filled with limp dicks, so he's in good company.

 

[g5000]

I don't care how blue Oregon is, if you have a Governor this disastrous, you have to be a full on retard not to be able to beat him.

Or else the voters have seven pounds of brain damage.

I've seen the way they drive in Portland. I'm going with seven pound brain damaged voters.

Dumbest drivers on the planet. And I say that as someone who has been all over the planet.

Cows are better drivers than Oregonians.

 

[PaintMyHouse]

I don't care how blue Oregon is, if you have a Governor this disastrous, you have to be a full on retard not to be able to beat him.

Or else the voters have seven pounds of brain damage.

I've seen the way they drive in Portland. I'm going with seven pound brain damaged voters.

Dumbest drivers on the planet. And I say that as someone who has been all over the planet.

Cows are better drivers than Oregonians.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

His announcement that Hayes would no longer have a role in his office came after media reports she earned $118,000 in previously undisclosed consulting fees in 2011 and 2012 from the Washington-based Clean Economy Development Center while advising the governor on energy policy.

Kitzhaber did not disclose Hayes’ income on his annual economic interest statements despite disclosing other revenue she had received via consulting contracts. He has said the couple did not feel it was required to be reported.

The Oregonian reported this week that two people involved with Kitzhaber’s 2010 campaign had helped Hayes find work with organizations looking to influence state policy.

“Suffice it to say there's a pattern, and the person who bears the responsibility for allowing it to form and persist is Kitzhaber, who should know better,” the Oregonian said. ”After all, as he pointed out during Friday's press conference, he's been serving in public office on and off since the 1970s.”

Oregon s largest newspaper calls for Governor Kitzhaber to resign - Yahoo News

 

[koshergrl]

It wont happen. Dems have set the bar really high on resigning over ethics issues.

In this state if you have a "D" after your name on the ballot, and it's a statewide election, you're going to win, and it wont matter what you've done, there won't be the public pressure to get you to resign.

Thanks to Eugina and Portlandia. What a bunch of dicks, and they try to tell the rest of us what to do.

We mostly ignore them

 

[paulitician]

Probably too late. They shouldn't have helped him into power in the first place. Shame on em.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Democrats abandon Oregon governor in scandal

Democrats leave Oregon governor isolated in controversy

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Facing the biggest crisis of his decades-long political career, Gov. John Kitzhaberfinds himself increasingly isolated.


Few of Kitzhaber's fellow Democrats are sticking up for him as he confronts a barrage of criticism, calls for his resignation and, potentially, a recall petition.

After simmering for months, influence-peddling allegations boiled over on Kitzhaber last week, when an editorial by the Oregonian newspaper calling for his resignation shined a national spotlight on the controversy. On Friday, another newspaper, the Yamhill Valley News-Register in McMinnville, followed suit, saying Kitzhaber has "ardently resisted coming straight."

"While you have enjoyed many successes, your once-admirable legacy has become soiled by your refusal to recognize and rectify wrong turns," the newspaper's editorial team wrote in a letter to Kitzhaber.

Unlike the Oregonian, which endorsed Kitzhaber's re-election bid last year, the McMinnville paper had endorsed Kitzhaber's Republican rival, Dennis Richardson.

A series of newspaper reports since October have revealed that Kitzhaber's fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, did paid consulting work for organizations with an interest in Oregon public policy. During the same period, she worked as an unpaid adviser in the governor's office on some of the same issues. Kitzhaber has said repeatedly that he and Hayes took care to avoid conflicts, and a state ethics commission will decide whether conflict-of-interest laws were broken.

Kitzhaber's troubles overshadowed the first week of the legislative session as Democrats moved aggressively to advance some of their top priorities, including a measure to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions that Kitzhaber and Hayes strongly support.

In response to questions about the growing controversy surrounding Kitzhaber, legislative leaders demurred.

"This session is off to a productive start," House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, said in a statement. "As the Oregon Government Ethics Commission does its job, we must remain focused on our job as legislators, which is to serve Oregonians by advancing policies that improve people's lives and strengthen our state."

Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, offered his compassion, but he also said he's focused on his own job. Spokespeople for Courtney and Kotek declined to say whether the leaders believed Kitzhaber could effectively govern after the Oregonian editorial said he could not do so.

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, called the allegations "very serious" and "troubling" and said she's exploring her legal options. A spokesman for Secretary of State Kate Brown, also a Democrat, declined to make her available for an interview.

Kitzhaber did get praise from one former rival, former Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, a Democrat who lost to Kitzhaber in the 2010 primary for governor. Bradbury told The Associated Press that the controversy has been "really quite overblown."

"He's going to be able to move forward effectively, and it's just going to take a while to get over these humps," Bradbury said. "He's a hell of a good governor, and he's going to continue to perform."

Democrats leave Oregon governor isolated in controversy - Yahoo News

 

[zed42]

Well you have to look at it this way concerning Kitzhaber getting re-elected. Obama got elected then re-elected, so it appears that Oregonians west of the Blue's are just as dumb as those that voted for Obama.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Situation very fluid today. Looks like a resignation is imminent. Dim state leaders just met with Kitzhaber today and asked him to step down. Kitzhaber's chief of staff just resigned.

State Secretary of State who will be the one to act as governor in the event of a resignation was called back from D.C. where she was attending meetings.

So far Kitzhaber is refusing.

I doubt he'll last the week.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

The increasingly bizarre scandal involving Oregon’s governor and first lady, explained

1. Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber (D) is embroiled in a growing corruption and influence-peddling scandal involving his fiancee Cylvia Hayes.
2. While serving as first lady of Oregon and advising Kitzhaber on energy issues, Hayes was paid over $200,000 in consulting fees — much of it from companies and nonprofits with an interest in energy policy.
3. At least two state investigations into Hayes' actions have been launched, and the FBI is reportedly looking into the matter too.
4. Kitzhaber reportedly intended to resign this week, but changed his mind. Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown, who would succeed Kitzhaber as governor, released a statement alleging odd behavior from Kitzhaber, and called the situation "bizarre and unprecedented."
5. On Thursday, two of Kitzhaber's top staffers — his chief of staff and legislative liaison — resigned, according to Anna Canzano of KATU News.

The controversy: The first lady's consulting money

MORE: The increasingly bizarre scandal involving Oregon s governor and first lady explained - Vox

 

[koshergrl]

It's not any more bizarre today than it was yesterday. A bunch of corrupt democrats, cannibalizing each other. Those of us who know these pigs for what they are aren't surprised.

SSDD.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Cops gather outside Oregon governor's house

Washington (CNN)Oregon state police gathered outside Gov. John Kitzhaber's house on Thursday afternoon as he faced mounting calls to resign, over a scandal concerning his fiancee's consulting and policy work took.

Kitzhaber has been under criminal investigation by the state attorney general. The Oregon attorney general's office declined to comment on the growing police presence outside his home, which local press chronicled on Twitter.

Cops gather outside Oregon governor s house - CNN.com

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Okay, he's resigned.

Oregon Gov. Kitzhaber announces his resignation amid scandal

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned Friday, giving in to mounting pressure to abandon his office amid suspicions that his fiancee used her relationship with him to land contracts for her green-energy consulting business.

In a lengthy statement, the state's longest-serving chief executive insisted he broke no laws. He said the resignation would be effective Wednesday.

"Nonetheless, I understand that I have become a liability to the very institutions and policies to which I have dedicated my career and, indeed, my entire adult life," he said.

The decision capped a wild week in which Kitzhaber seemed poised to step down, then changed his mind, but ultimately bowed to calls from legislative leaders that he quit the state's top elected position.

The announcement is a stunning fall from grace for a politician who left the governor's office in 2003 and then mounted a comeback in 2010 and won back his old job.

In this Oct. 10, 2014, file photo, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber speaks during a gubernatorial debate i …

Secretary of State Kate Brown, a Democrat like Kitzhaber, was expected to assume the office and become the first openly bisexual governor in the country. Unlike most states, Oregon does not have a lieutenant governor, and the state constitution puts the secretary of state next in line.

In addition to the written statement, Kitzhaber released audio of himself reading from it. At the end, his voice trembled, and he seemed to be choking back tears.

His statement was defiant, saying it was "troubling" that "so many of my former allies" had chosen to "simply accept" that he had done something wrong, referring to Democrats who had abandoned him.

"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.

"I have always tried to do the right thing, and now the right thing to do is to step aside," he said.

State and local police patrol outside the home of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber in Portland, Ore., Thur …

Kitzhaber called Brown back to Oregon from a conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this week. People close to Kitzhaber say he asked her to return after deciding to resign but then changed his mind. That led to a Wednesday meeting between Kitzhaber and Brown that she described as "strange."

By Thursday, the leaders of the state House and Senate said he had to go. Other top officials in the overwhelmingly Democratic state also said Kitzhaber should resign.

"I finally said, 'This has got to stop,'" Senate President Peter Courtney said after he met with Kitzhaber. "I don't know what else to do right now. It seems to be escalating. It seems to be getting worse and worse."

Kitzhaber handily won re-election in November to a fourth term after surviving the botched rollout of Oregon's online health care exchange, which turned into a national embarrassment.

But the allegations surrounding the work of his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, work were more harmful, dominating headlines in the state following his victory.

Media gather around Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek during a news conference in her office at the Ca …

A series of newspaper reports since October have chronicled Hayes' work for organizations with an interest in Oregon public policy. At the same time, she was paid by advocacy groups and played an active role in Kitzhaber's administration, a potential conflict of interest.

The spotlight on Hayes led to her reveal that she accepted about $5,000 to illegally marry a man seeking immigration benefits in the 1990s. Later, she admitted she bought a remote property with the intent to grow marijuana.

Though questions about Hayes have swirled for months, the pressure on Kitzhaber intensified in recent weeks after newspapers raised questions about whether Hayes reported all her income on her tax returns. She has not publicly addressed the allegation and Kitzhaber has declined to. Earlier this week, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said she was launching a criminal investigation.

Kitzhaber has consistently maintained that he and Hayes worked hard to avoid conflicts between her public and private roles.

A fiercely private person, Kitzhaber has been forced to answer embarrassing and personal questions about his relationship. In response to questions at a news conference last month, Kitzhaber told reporters that he's in love with Hayes, but he's not blinded by it.

In this Jan. 12, 2015 file photo, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber kisses fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, after he …

Kitzhaber, 67, met Hayes, 47, before the 2002 election, when he was governor and she was a

Oregon Gov. Kitzhaber announces his resignation amid scandal - Yahoo News

 

[NYcarbineer]

He's resigned and is being replaced by a gay Democrat. lol

 

[DigitalDrifter]

There's no lieutenant governor in Oregon, so yeah the next in line is the sec of state.

 

[The Rabbi]

 

[The Rabbi]

He's resigned and is being replaced by a gay Democrat. lol

She's not gay. She's bisexual. And a tool of corporate interests. Of course being a Democrat she might get away with it.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Thanks to a grifter, who is 20 years younger than him, he let his little man do his thinking for him.