Democrat Kitzhaber Resigns As Oregon Governor Amid Ethics Scandal

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) announced Friday that he would resign from office amid an ethics scandal that has plagued him and his fiance.

His resignation will take effect next Wednesday, Feb. 18. Secretary of State Kate Brown will succeed him.

Kitzhaber and his fiance Cylvia Hayes face allegations that aides to the governor helped find Hayes employment at public policy organizations in Oregon, sometimes paying six figures, while she was still informally advising the governor.

“It is not in my nature to walk away from a job I have undertaken – it is to stand and fight for the cause,” he said in a statement. “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.”

“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,” Kitzhaber continued. “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.”

“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. “As a former presiding officer I fully understand the reasons for which I have been asked to resign.”

The editorial board of The Oregonian, the state’s largest newspaper, called for Kitzhaber to resign last week as the scandal grew. On Wednesday, the word leaking out of Oregon was that his resignation was imminent.

Then Kitzhaber surprised those watching the situation when he announced Wednesday that he was staying in office. According to multiple reports, he was planning to step down but changed his mind after a meeting with Hayes and his personal attorney.

Brown said Thursday that the governor had asked her to return from a trip to Washington, D.C., seen as a prelude to his resignation. But when Brown arrived, Kitzhaber asked why she had come back in what she described as a “strange” meeting.

Over the last 24 hours, major Democratic officials in the state urged the governor to resign. Willamette Week, which helped uncover some of the initial allegations, then reported Thursday evening that Kitzhaber’s office had tried to delete thousands of email records las week.

Kitzhaber had previously served as governor from 1995 to 2003. He returned to the office in 2011 and was re-elected again in November, to a fourth term, taking an even 50 percent of the vote.

“This is a sad day for Oregon. But I am confident that legislators are ready to come together to move Oregon forward,” Brown said in a statement after Kitzhaber’s decision was announced. “I know you all have a lot of questions, and I will answer them as soon as possible. As you can imagine, there is a lot of work to be done between now and Wednesday.”