He deserves that. First elected to the Oregon House in , Kitzhaber moved to the Oregon Senate two years later and served as its president through He was elected governor in , , and again in His final term was plagued from the start with questions about Hayes' consulting contracts and Kitzhaber's handling of them, an issue that first came to light in an October investigation by Willamette Week.
As the controversy escalated, the governor was slow to release government records and reluctant to answer questions about Hayes' role in his office. Late last week, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum opened a criminal investigation into Kitzhaber, 67, and Hayes, 47, who were also named in three ethics complaints filed last year with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.
At a Jan. Yet behind the scenes, the governor's attorneys were arguing that the case should be dismissed because Hayes was not a public official. On February 11, local and national media speculated that Kitzhaber could resign from office.
The head of Friends of Trees, Scott Fogarty, noted that the plans were tentative and saw no connection with ongoing ethics concerns. Late in the day on February 11, Kitzhaber issued an official statement denying that he had any intention of resigning: "Let me be as clear as I was last week, that I have no intention of resigning as Governor of the state of Oregon.
On February 12, multiple outlets reported that Kitzhaber told aides on the 8th that he would resign, requested Brown's return to Salem and met with legislative leaders on the 10th before reconsidering resignation on the 11th.
Brown issued a statement in the mid-afternoon on February 12 saying that her return to Oregon on February 11 was requested by Kitzhaber but that when she returned and met with him, he asked her why she had returned to the state.
She described this back-and-forth as "bizarre. He asked me to come back to Oregon as soon as possible to speak with him in person and alone. I got on a plane yesterday morning and arrived at in the afternoon.
I was escorted directly into a meeting with the Governor. It was a brief meeting. I asked him what he wanted to talk about. The Governor told me he was not resigning, after which, he began a discussion about transition.
I informed the Governor that I am ready, and my staff will be ready, should he resign. Right now I am focused on doing my job for the people of Oregon. Wheeler made the following statement to The Oregonian:.
He has accomplished many great things during his long career, and history will be kinder to him than current events suggest. Unfortunately, the current situation has become untenable, and I cannot imagine any scenario by which things improve. Oregon deserves a Governor who is fully focused on the duties of state. I hope the Governor will do the right thing for Oregon and its citizens. A records request by Willamette Week and The order, sent by executive assistant Jan Murdock, asked for all messages in Kitzhaber's personal email to be removed from servers.
Several supervisors at the Department of Administrative Service's Technology Support Center refused to comply with the order. Any personal emails used to discuss government business would be considered public records according to the state's open records laws. On February 12, Rosenblum ordered Hayes to deliver personal emails related to state business to The Oregonian following a public records request by the newspaper on December 29, Attorney Whitney Boise, speaking on behalf of Hayes, argued to Rosenblum that his client's emails were private because she was not a public official.
This claim was rejected by Rosenblum's office, which issued the order based on the fact that Hayes worked "extensively on government matters. Kitzhaber announced his resignation from the governor's office on the morning of Friday, February His resignation became effective on Wednesday, February In a statement to the media, Kitzhaber stated:. It is not in my nature to walk away from a job I have undertaken — it is to stand and fight for the cause.
For that reason I apologize to all those people who gave of their faith, time, energy and resources to elect me to a fourth term last year and who have supported me over the past three decades. All rights reserved About Us.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Ad Choices. Fact-first journalism when you need it most.
Subscribe to OregonLive. Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber issues his resignation statement John Kitzhaber began his public service as a state representative in He was later elected to the state Senate, serving as Senate President. He was elected to a record fourth term as governor in November.
He is resigning effective Feb. I promise you that I will continue to pursue our shared goals and our common cause in another venue. I must also say that 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.
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. It is something that is hard for me to comprehend — something we might expect in Washington, D. I do not know what it means for our shared future but I do know that it is seriously undermining civic engagement in this state and the quality of the public discourse that once made Oregon stand out from the pack.
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.
As a former presiding officer I fully understand the reasons for which I have been asked to resign. I wish Speaker Kotek and President Courtney and their colleagues on both sides of the aisle success in this legislative session and beyond. And I hope that they are truly committed to carrying forward the spirit of bipartisanship and collaboration that has marked the last four years in Oregon.
On February 12, federal prosecutors issued a subpoena to the Department of Administrative Services for emails and records from Kitzhaber, Hayes and other members of the outgoing administration. The subpoena also sought records of payments to Hayes and her firm, 3E Strategies. All subpoenaed documents were presented to a federal grand jury scheduled to convene on March On June 16, , federal prosecutors ended the investigation into Kitzhaber and Hayes without pressing criminal charges.
The investigation involved the U. On June 20, , the Oregon Government Ethics Commission restarted its investigation, which had been suspended in February In November , the ethics commission released a preliminary report outlining four counts of state ethics violations. Commissioners rejected the agreement 7 to 1.
On January 5, , the ethics commission unanimously voted that Hayes violated state ethics laws 22 times. The Oregon Government Ethics Commission released a second report on February 14, , expanding Kitzhaber's violations of state ethics laws from four to seven counts of conflicts of interest, three counts of misuse of office for financial gain, and one count of improper gift receipt. On February 16, the ethics commission voted unanimously that Kitzhaber committed 10 of the 11 ethics violations detailed in the report.
Before the commission's vote, Kitzhaber acknowledged responsibility for 10 out of 11 alleged violations but disputed that he had used his public office for personal gain. An appeal would go to the state Office of Administrative Hearings. If the results were still disputed, an appeal would go to the Oregon Court of Appeals and then to the Oregon Supreme Court. Following a single term in the lower House, Kitzhaber was elected to the first of what became three Senate terms.
During his legislative tenure, he was elected Senate President in and used his position to draft and pass the Oregon Health Plan. Kitzhaber made his first bid for elected office in when he campaigned successfully for a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives. In December , Kitzhaber declined to enter Oregon into the federal health-exchange system established under the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as "Obamacare," in favor of setting up a state-based system.
The exchange is an online marketplace for citizens to purchase health insurance. Kitzhaber believed that Oregon's death penalty laws were "compromised and inequitable," and he favored giving murderers life sentences without possibility for parole.
In December , during his third term as governor, Kitzhaber, determined to recommit to his initial pledge, issued an order to delay the execution of twice-convicted murderer Gary Haugen. Haugen rejected the reprieve and brought the matter to court. In August , Circuit Court Senior Judge Timothy Alexander ruled that Haugen was not obligated to accept Kitzhaber's pardon, due partially to its impermanence; the reprieve would only remain in effect for as long as Kitzhaber held the office.
Oregon has twice outlawed the death penalty and twice legalized it, most recently in In pushing this case, the governor sought to provoke a "public re-evaluation" about the death penalty, which could have led voters to initiate a ballot measure for its repeal, but the case had the unintended consequence of probing the boundaries of the governor's authority.
According to Tim Raphael, Kitzhaber's spokesman, gun control was on the governor's agenda for He's directed staff to research a range of options for him to consider on firearms regulation, mental health, and school safety measures that could be the basis for a comprehensive approach to the problem," Raphael stated. A June analysis by The Business Journals ranked 45 governors based on the annual private sector growth rate in all 50 states using data from the U.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kitzhaber was ranked number The five governors omitted from the analysis all assumed office in Kitzhaber ran for re-election to the office of Governor of Oregon. Kitzhaber won the Democratic nomination in the primary.
The general election took place on November 4, Incumbent John Kitzhaber previously served as Governor of Oregon from to and was running for a fourth non-consecutive term in He highlighted taxes and job creation. Kitzhaber also drew criticism over potential conflicts of interest by first lady and advisor Cylvia Hayes. Richardson echoed these concerns. Kitzhaber requested an investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission into whether Hayes leveraged her role in the governor's office to improve her consulting business.
The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties.
0コメント