Oct. 10, 2014, file photo, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber speaks during a gubernatorial debate in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)
Disgraced Democrat Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has announced his resignation amid an ethics scandal and reports of “strange” and “bizarre” behavior.
In a statement obtained by PPD, the governor said he is resigning, effective Feb. 18, or next Wednesday. Kitzhaber met with members of his staff late Friday morning to brief them on his plans, after hiding from the public for two days.
“What should be a day of celebration (for Oregon) is turning into a day of reflection and mourning,” Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli told a crowd of people who had gathered at the state capitol from the Oregon Wheat Growers League. “We appear to be nearing the resignation of our governor and the investiture of a new governor.”
Secretary of State Kate Brown, who admirably told the bizarre story of Kitzhaber’s prior behavior, will take post.
Original Story…
Scandal-laden Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber faces mounting pressure from top Democrats to resign on Thursday, with some questioning his mental health. The state’s No. 2 official issued a statement characterizing Kitzhaber’s behavior as “strange,” contradictory and “bizarre.”
The calls to resign come after months of revelations involving his fiancée Cylvia Hayes, a green-energy consultant charged with influence-peddling. As PPD previously reported, Hayes came under fire for a number of other questionable dealings from her past, including being paid to enter into a fraudulent marriage in 1997 to help an Ethiopian immigrant remain in the United States, and partnering with a man to buy land intended for an illegal marijuana growing operation, which she blamed on an abusive relationship.
The evidence and witness testimony, however, indicated it was Hayes who was the abuser and manipulator in the relationship. But it is the governor’s behavior that is garnering attention this week.
Senate President Peter Courtney said that he and House Speaker Tina Kotek have asked for Kitzhaber to step down.
“I finally said, ‘This has got to stop,'” Courtney said after he and Kotek met with the governor. “I don’t know what else to do right now. It seems to be escalating. It seems to be getting worse and worse.”
His remarks came after Secretary of State Kate Brown, who is next in line to succeed Kitzhaber if he steps down, issued a statement calling this a “bizarre and unprecedented situation.”
While she was attending a conference in Washington Wednesday, Secretary Brown was summoned back to Oregon by the governor, which fueled speculation that the governor was planning to resign.
Cylvia Hayes, fiancee of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, speaks at a news conference in Portland, Ore. on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014. Hayes has admitted that she violated the law when she married an immigrant seeking to retain residency in the United States. She said she was “associating with the wrong people” while struggling to put herself through college and regrets her actions. (AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka)
Sources say he had decided to step down amid the ethics controversy involving his fiancée, but in an unexplainable action, changed his mind before Brown even made it back to Oregon.
“He asked me to come back to Oregon as soon as possible to speak with him in person and alone,” Brown said. However, when she arrived and was escorted to the governor, he sang a different tune. “He asked me why I came back early from Washington, D.C., which I found strange.”
Following reports detailing Brown’s meeting with the clearly disturbed governor, Oregon’s state treasurer also joined in the call for Kitzhaber to step down.
“Unfortunately, the current situation has become untenable, and I cannot imagine any scenario by which things improve,” said Treasurer Ted Wheeler, also a Democrat. “Oregon deserves a governor who is fully focused on the duties of state.”
Meanwhile, the four-term governor who handily won re-election in November, issued a strange and obscure statement Wednesday claiming he was not resigning.
“I was elected to do a job for the people of this great state, and I intend to continue to do so,” Kitzhaber said, a statement he’s made several times in the past two weeks.
Republicans have called on him to leave office over the allegations involving his fiancée, but widespread scrutiny has increased since the election. Newspaper editorial boards have also piled on the governor after a series of reports underscored her work for organizations with an interest in Oregon public policy. At the time, she was serving as an unpaid adviser in the governor’s office.
Kitzhaber has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he and Hayes took steps to avoid conflicts of interest. The pressure on Kitzhaber continued to build in recent weeks after newspapers raised questions about whether Hayes reported all her income to on her tax returns.
In early February, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said she was launching a criminal investigation.
Kitzhaber has been forced to answer embarrassing and personal questions about his relationship. he’s not blinded by it.
steve schmidt / February 15, 2015
what the media isn’t reporting…liberals knew of this scandal for almost a year before the election yet fully supported Kitzhaber. Even after the election liberals fully supported him. It wasn’t until Kitzhaber held several meetings with Oregon liberal newspaper editorial boards to get on the same page to promote his agenda, and then publically warned democrats to not try and pass $15 an hour minimum wage or any of the rest of their economy killing agenda, did our liberal newspapers throw him under the bus and force him out. Up until then he enjoyed their full support.
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