All Oregon wants for its birthday is a new governor

Oregon is celebrating its anniversary of statehood tomorrow and could very well have a new governor by then.
The Cliff Notes version: Gov. John Kitzhaber barely won an unprecedented third term in 2010 (he stepped aside for a few years after his first two terms) and ran again last year. There were several high profile missteps, including the botched Cover Oregon health care fiasco. But the Republican challenger, Dennis Richardson, wasn't exactly the strongest challenger.
Last October, stories started coming out about the governor's fiance' doing some unethical things, most notably taking advantage of her position to secure sweet contracts worth big money. In spite of that, Kitzhaber won pretty handily, thanks largely to Portland voters.
Since then, the scrutiny has continued to mount. Two weeks ago Kitzhaber held a press conference in which he acknowledged questions about his fiance' were legitimate, but most who watched or attended that conference agree it was a disaster. Last week The Oregonian -- which had lukewarmly endorsed Kitzhaber in early October and stuck with the endorsement, even in light of mounting questions -- called for him to resign. Things have reached a fever pitch this week with many top Democrats in the state now calling for the same thing.
Since Oregon has no lieutenant governor position (one of only five such states), the Secretary of State would be next in line. She was in a conference in D.C. this week. According to her, the governor called her and asked her to return to Oregon at once. She did and met with the governor, only to be asked why she had returned.
I'll try to post some links later, but needless to say this has been quite the bizarre month so far in Oregon.

 

Here is a timeline of some of the highlights:
Timeline of ethics issues surrounding Oregon governor | KOIN.com

Oregonian's lukewarm endorsement in October:
Re-elect John Kitzhaber: Editorial Endorsement | OregonLive.com

Oregonian's call four months later for Kitzhaber to resign:
John Kitzhaber must resign: Editorial | OregonLive.com

The Willamette Week story that opened the floodgates in October:
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-23203-first_lady_inc.html

 

No Politics Please

 

Those hippie fuckers get the best political intrigue stories. From Packwood to Goldschmidt to David Wu to the Portland mayor and his boy toy to this -- and also throwing in the Oregonian's editorial page editor who was caught dead with a woman you wouldn't want to be caught dead with -- it's just a gold mine for sex and shadiness.

 

It will have one, Kitzhaber resigns, flies out of office with his own wings. Happy 156th birthday to us. Democrats got what they wanted to, the new gov, who nobody really knows a anything about because who cares about the sec of state, positions herself to win in 2018 because the GOP will probably run another empty suit who has no chance promoting a socially conservative agenda in a state that hasn't elected a Rep. to statewide office in nearly 30 years.

I voted for the guy four times so I hope he enjoys waking up every morning next to a con-artist nut job who cost him the state house. His image was always better than his accomplishments and at the very least it's one less Ivy League guy in our state government.

 

You guys are burying the lede here: Kate Brown becomes the first openly bisexual governor.

Kate Brown Becomes Governor After John Kitzhaber Resigns - The Atlantic

 

No big deal out here. Two-thirds of the voters are too baked to care and the other 1/3 are out looking for black helicopters.

 

Bisexual? Hmm, there has to be a way to use that to promote Oregonian tourism.

 

Kitzhaber with the femme fatale:



I think it's pretty clear that Kate Brown's first night as governor will not be the first night she has spent in the governor's bed.

 

Kitzhaber was a good governor, but I think he thought he had more friends than he did. He didn't handle the situation well. The fiancee isn't the first significant other of a politician to suddenly notice an uptick in business due to their relationship. The problem was Kitzhaber tried to play it both ways, he referred to her as an advisor, while she was also getting outside money from non-profit policy groups. I imagine her business won't be quite so popular anymore.

 

I think one of the worst results is that The Oregonian will no doubt sprain its shoulder patting itself on the back for its role in this, when it was the Willamette Week (again) that shined the light on things. After that, The Oregonian just used its superior manpower.

Vulture journalism.

 

For sure, the Willamette Week kicked The Oregonian's butt with its coverage, going back to October and continuing through this week. WW keeps breaking the big stories, including yet another one yesterday.
Meanwhile, the paper in Ashland, Oregon had an interesting photo on the front this morning.
http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/pdf19/OR_DT.pdf