I feel sorry for
John Kitzhaber—the soon to be ex-Governor of Oregon. He’s accomplished a lot, he loves this great
state of ours and he seems like a decent enough guy.
I’m not saying I
agree with him politically—I ran against him as the Green Party nominee for governor
in 1998—or that he shouldn’t have tendered his resignation. But he is taking the fall for a media-driven “crisis”
that owes more to stupidity than corruption.
Kitzhaber is an
interesting political character. A
former ER physician, his trademark accomplishment was creating the Oregon
Health Plan; a state-based forerunner of the Affordable Care Act established long
before “Obamacare.” In his third term,
he also refused to enforce the death penalty.
But there’s a lot about Kitzhaber’s tenure that is not as laudable. For example, he’s been far too cozy with the
timber industry and, back in his first term, he signed a bill to re-criminalize
the possession of small amounts of cannabis.
(Shortly after Kitzhaber signed the bill into law, it was overturned by
the voters). Prior to becoming governor,
Kitzhaber served in the Oregon House and as the President of the Oregon Senate. This past November, he was elected to an
unprecedented fourth term as governor—though, per Oregon law, the terms were
not consecutive. In short, he has
enjoyed as fairly remarkable political career; the stuff of which legacies are
made.
His downfall
came fast and furiously.
A rule of thumb
in politics is to avoid the appearance of impropriety. One should avoid not only impropriety but
even the appearance of it. And that’s
where the Governor blew it.
The accusations
against him center around what some have labeled “influence peddling.” The amounts in question—less than a couple of
hundred thousand dollars—are laughable especially when compared to, say, the $889
million dollars the Koch brothers are
reported to be planning on spending legally
in the next presidential election. The “influence”
was in the form of consulting contracts his companion Cylvia Hayes had with
non-profit organizations which were promoting sound public-interest public
policy.
It was
unquestionably stupid of the Governor and Ms. Hayes to blur so many lines of
public and private roles. Especially
when it could be argued that “the private”—advocating for cleaner energy and
greater sustainability—was really in the public interest. But it gets back to that old “avoiding even
the appearance of impropriety” thing and the Governor and Ms. Hayes, seemingly
through a mixture of recklessness and arrogance, clearly failed to do
that. They provided more than enough
fodder for The Oregonian, a
once-mighty, now shrinking and rightward-drifting publication, to call for
Kitzhaber’s resignation. Once The Oregonian did so, it pounded a
continual drumbeat which became hard for the political establishment to ignore.
Interestingly,
the story about Ms. Hayes’ consulting contracts was first broken by Willamette Week. In fact, The
Oregonian has a history of being scooped on scandals and big stories. It’s one-time motto—“if it matters to
Oregonians, it’s in The Oregonian”—was
spoofed by the Washington Post when
the Post broke the Bob Packwood scandal a couple of decades ago and recast the
motto as “if it matters to Oregonians, it’s in the Washington Post.”
Willamette Week “broke” the story just this past
summer. Ms. Hayes had been seemingly
blurring public and private roles throughout the entirety of the Governor’s
third term. So where the hell was Oregon’s
press corps for the previous three years?
So much for investigative journalism and the Fourth Estate.
John Kitzhaber
was just re-elected in an election where Oregonians famously legalized cannabis
and not so famously denied drivers’ licenses to undocumented individuals who
pick the grapes for Oregon’s fabled Pinot Noir.
That election also saw a ballot initiative to protect consumers by
requiring the labeling of GMO food products.
That initiative lost by a mere 837 votes—but only after a recount and
after Monsanto, DuPont and friends spent a record-breaking $19 million to flood
airwaves and mailboxes with propaganda in opposition. That’s not a crime. But it should be.
Yes, the
Governor let us down. But so did the
press who let this go unreported for so long.
And in comparison to the legalized bribery that passes for “campaign
finance,” the financial aspects of the Governor’s or Ms. Hayes’ transgressions
amount to chickenfeed.
Oregon’s
Secretary of State Kate Brown will be sworn in as our new governor on
Wednesday. I like Kate. She has taken steps to expand voter
participation and has been open to protecting and expanding the role of
independent political parties. She will
have to run in a special election in 2016 in order to stay on as governor. On Wednesday, she’ll have to hit the ground
running and it won’t be long before she has to stand for election on her
own. But she can do two important things
during that brief period of time. One,
she can appoint a successor Secretary of State who shares her commitment to
opening up the political process to all Oregonians. And two, she can take the lead in protecting
our democratic process from the pernicious effects of private money which
drowns the voices of public citizens.
