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The Kitzhaber-Hayes Affair Oregon’S Four-Term Governor Falls to an Environmentalist Scandal

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The Kitzhaber-Hayes Affair Oregon’S Four-Term Governor Falls to an Environmentalist Scandal GREEN WATCH BANNER TO BE INSERTED HERE The Kitzhaber-Hayes Affair Oregon’s four-term governor falls to an environmentalist scandal By Jim Pasero Summary: Four-term Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber first came to the state’s highest office by ruthlessly forcing a fel- low Democrat, the incumbent, out of the position. But two decades later, when an epic scandal forced him out, he publicly wept for the state’s loss of pleasant “public discourse.” This is part one of a two-part report on a “green” scandal that reaches from Oregon to surrounding states, to the Governor John Kitzhaber and environmental consultant Cylvia Hayes, nation’s capital, and to other countries. seen at his swearing-in and with Bill Clinton, were Oregon's power couple. [Editor’s note: Whatever you think discourse that once made Oregon of his politics, you have to view John layers of corruption and cronyism that stand out from the pack. Kitzhaber as one of Oregon’s most make up the modern environmental successful politicians. He was an emer- movement. —SJA] Among those who helped push him out of gency room physician who became a n February 13, just a month into office—the leaders of his party, including state representative and president of the his fourth term, Gov. John Kit- Secretary of State (and now Governor) state Senate, the creator of a healthcare zhaber (D-Oregon) resigned. In Kate Brown, State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, rationing “death panel” scheme that was O Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, his resignation letter, he explained that he a precursor to Obamacare, the longest- was a victim. and Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek— serving governor in his state’s history, the letter may have evoked pity or sadness. and one of the fathers of policies that, I must say that it is deeply troubling to But to those who saw him as a colossal even after his departure from public of- me to realize that we have come to a political figure, the governor’s tone was fice, promote a radical “green” agenda place in the history of this great state whiny and pathetic. Kitzhaber was no in Oregon and far beyond. of ours where a person can be charged, longer the powerful and historic four-term tried, convicted and sentenced by the governor. He was just another politician Yet across the country the Governor media with no due process and no who, with his career in ruins, felt sorry for will be remembered most of all for his independent verification of the al- himself and couldn’t accept that his situa- ultimately disastrous relationship with legations involved. But even more tion was his own fault—the kind of loser Cylvia Hayes, a woman who commit- troubling—and on a very personal who, as he headed out the door, asked state ted immigration fraud, bought land for level as someone who has given 35 employees to delete his e-mails. an illegal marijuana farm, and, while years of public service to Oregon—is on the payroll of billionaire-backed that so many of my former allies have environmentalists, pushed Kitzhaber to been willing to accept this judgment November 2015 pursue anti-taxpayer schemes ranging at its face value. from a hidden gasoline tax to an “index It is something that is hard for me of well-being” that hid governmental to comprehend – something that we The Kitzhaber-Hayes Affair failure from the voters. might expect in Washington, D.C., Page 1 The Kitzhaber-Hayes scandal resulted but surely not in Oregon. I do not in his resignation and in an FBI investi- know what it means for our shared Green Notes gation still active as this is written. The future, but I do know that it is seri- Page 8 probe has subpoenaed tens of thousands ously undermining civic engagement of documents and is peeling back the in this state and the quality of public Nigel Jaquiss of the alternative weekly Wil- out and he was in. She would be not be America (40 million citizens without lamette Week is the reporter credited for set- seeking a second term, he informed her. It health insurance) . yet the Clinton ting the scandal in motion. “John Kitzhaber was a coup that was engineered with the Administration ignores him. So he resigned last week,” Jaquiss wrote, “amid help of Gerry Frank, Oregon power broker stays in Oregon, in his cowboy boots allegations his fiancée, former first lady and longtime chief of staff to U.S. Sen. and on his rivers. It is no great loss of Oregon Cylvia Hayes, improperly used Mark Hatfield (R). to him, but it is a loss to the country.” her access to him to influence policy while Kitzhaber managed to win an impressive And throughout the 1990s, front page benefiting financially. From 2011 to 2013, victory in the general election, defeating New York Times stories have discussed Hayes collected more than $220,000 from five-term U.S. Congressman Denny Smith, what a genius Oregon’s governor is for private consulting contracts she landed whose father, Elmo, had been governor of having conceived and implemented while working as an adviser to Kitzhaber. Oregon in the 1950s. That happened de- this innovative health plan. In 1998, Her dealings have sparked state and federal spite the fact that it was a very good year for the Oregon timber industry gave him criminal investigations.” the GOP—the year that Newt Gingrich and a remarkable and unlikely unanimous How did it come to this? How did a rock the Republicans took the U.S. House for the endorsement for his efforts to keep the star in Oregon politics with the rugged first time in 40 years. Gov. Ann Richards Coho salmon from being listed as an aspect of a cowboy—“Oregon’s Marlboro (D-Texas) lost to George W. Bush. Closer endangered species. With these inter- Man,” they called him—become the first to home, the Speaker of the U.S. House, national and national credentials, what governor in the history of the state to resign Rep. Tom Foley, Democrat of Spokane, state wouldn’t be ecstatic to have such due to corruption allegations? lost his congressional seat to Republican a brilliant man as their chief executive? newcomer George Nethercutt. Foley was John Kitzhaber was born in 1947 and raised the first sitting Speaker to lose re-election Opposition legislature in Eugene, Oregon. His father, Albert since 1862. And surprisingly, Republicans Kitzhaber hadn’t counted on having a hos- Kitzhaber, was an English professor at the captured the Oregon legislature. tile legislature in his first term as governor. University of Oregon. His mother, Annabel He’d been good at legislative strategy as Reed Kitzhaber, was an educator, author, When Kitzhaber first took office as gover- nor in January 1995, he was seen as a leader, Senate president, but he had never been and president of the Oregon League of open to ideas from others, especially from Women Voters. Kitzhaber attended Dart- an innovator and a preserver of all things cherished by West Coast environmental- the other side of the aisle. That was a trait mouth College in the 1960s and later earned that would only worsen in coming years. his medical degree from Oregon Health & ists. He was smart and good-looking, an Science University. He began his medical emergency room doctor and a dedicated fly Like President Obama, Kitzhaber did career as an emergency room physician in fishermen, always with beautiful women not work well with the opposition. He Roseburg, Oregon. In 1978, he won a seat on his arm—the latest, who became his considered himself smarter than everyone in the Oregon House. Two years later he second wife, Sharon Lacroix, a physical else. Facing an unresponsive Republican moved to the Oregon Senate, becoming and nutritional therapist from Hawaii. The legislature led by Senate President and Senate president in 1985. Kitzhaber persona was so Western, so New soon-to-be-U.S. Senator Gordon Smith, Age, so iconically the “new Oregon.” Kitzhaber quickly found himself on the He was ruthless. One day in 1993, Senate defensive during the 1995 Oregon legisla- President Kitzhaber walked into the office I was the publisher of an Oregon business tive session. The new governor would end of Barbara Roberts, a governor of his own and executive lifestyle magazine, Brain- up vetoing a record 95 bills. party, and informed her coldly that she was stormNW, which covered the charismatic governor and which noted the expectations Perhaps the most contentious veto was over that surrounded him during his first term in Editor: Steven J. Allen a measure passed by the Republican Legis- office, when everything about him seemed lature that would have loosened restrictions Publisher: Terrence Scanlon almost magical. on Oregon’s iconic land-use laws. These Address: 1513 16th Street, NW Few governors in the history of the laws are the most restrictive in the country, Washington, DC 20036-1480 state have taken office with the ex- modeled after the former West Germany’s Phone: (202) 483-6900 pectations, praise and hope that John land use laws, and have often been so E-mail: [email protected] Kitzhaber did in January 1995. He’d extreme that building a new house on 75 Website: CapitalResearch.org been feted by the international maga- acres of farmland was prohibited. No other zine, The Economist, for his Oregon American state chose to implement Or- Green Watch is published by Capital Health Plan, because while serving as egon’s version of land-use planning, which Research Center, a non-partisan education Oregon’s senate president, Kitzhaber was passed in the 1970s during the era of and research organization classified by the had the guts to introduce medical Gov.
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