GREEN WATCH BANNER TO BE INSERTED HERE

The Kitzhaber-Hayes Affair ’s four-term governor falls to an environmentalist scandal

By Jim Pasero

Summary: Four-term Oregon Governor 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 , 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 , 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. Tom McCall (D), an environmentalist IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Reprints rationing—via the Oregon Health icon. Twenty years later, by the mid-1990s, are available for $2.50 prepaid to Capital Plan—to the United States. Wrote tension was building over the laws. Or- The Economist, “Dr. Kitzhaber has egonians In Action, a local property-rights Research Center. lightened one of the blemishes on group that had won an important decision

Page 2 Green Watch November 2015 before the U.S. Supreme Court, Dolan v. Brady Adams, the Oregon Senate president self-pity. Jeff Mapes, longtime political City of Tigard in 1994, chose to mobilize in the 1997 session, described Kitzhaber’s reporter for , examined a protestors at the governor’s veto ceremony leadership style in similar fashion, noting set of recently released e-mails that were for the “Eco-Take Bill” in July 1995. that Kitzhaber would constantly take notes written by Kitzhaber during his second during meetings, but not actively partici- term. They show the governor in full pout Kitzhaber chose Portland’s historic Wash- pate. “He doesn’t come as a participant, because things had not gone his way during ington Park for the veto ceremony. With but merely to take notes. After he’s heard the second term, and his reputation was the Governor surrounded by World War II our views, he tells us that he needs to talk diminished, something he couldn’t handle. veterans, things became tense that July day. to his staff and think it over, and usually Here are excerpts of Mapes’ quoting Kit- Both sides swaggered in, as BrainstormNW that’s the end of it,” he said. reported some years later. zhaber’s reflections from the e-mails: Similarly, Phil Keisling, a Democrat and ► “What a sad way to finish my political “I was at Washington Park that day,” Oregon’s secretary of state during Kit- career.” says Kerr (a World War II veteran zhaber’s first run as governor, described brought in by Oregonians In Action ► “I am ready for this all to be over. It Kitzhaber as aloof during consideration of to protest the veto), “and the governor is a bitter way to end a 22-year career in the state’s historic “Vote By Mail” plan. made a speech saying that he had to public service. But it is another reminder (In Oregon today, almost all voting is by veto the bill because it would bankrupt that our current governance structure and/ mail, effectively eliminating the protection the state, and then he asked the 40 or or political system are incapable of ef- of a secret ballot.) “The governor never so of us that were in attendance if we fectively dealing with our problems. The weighed in during the ‘Vote-by-Mail’ de- had any questions. Well, you bet I did. private sector leadership of the State is not bate,” said Keisling. “He looked at it once at all engaged. Such hypocrisy and cyni- “I was standing only ten feet away it passed. We talked on the phone about cism and apathy. How very disillusioning.” from him and asked the Governor if the bill . . . If I were to sit around waiting ► “Perhaps my future should not be about he had taken an oath to defend the for him to call and ask my opinion about trying to solve public policy issues.” Constitution, and he made an arrogant a subject, it would be months between gesture with his arm at me. And then phone calls.” In one speech that fall, he called the state I said, ‘Then why are you violating it “ungovernable.” It reminded some people On the other hand, there’s the view of the now?’ Then he turned his back on me of the hapless President Jimmy Carter, who current Senate president, Peter Courtney— and retreated to the park’s pagoda, and complained about the American people’s a Democrat who would, after the Kitzhaber- that’s when the booing started. It lasted “malaise,” and of Carter’s defenders who Hayes scandal broke, personally ask the for two or three minutes.’ suggested that, in the modern world, no Governor to resign. In the ’90s, when one could govern successfully as president. Kitzhaber told the Oregonian his ver- Courtney was minority leader, he defended sion, that the veto ceremony had “been Kitzhaber as “a private man, shy. People That year, he campaigned for a candidate a mistake. I got called a communist misinterpret that as cold and elitist.” for the state House, Cylvia Hayes. She lost and a fascist right there at the news handily in a strongly Republican district conference. I mean, I just don’t do In November 1998, Kitzhaber won a re- and, even before the election, was look- in-your-face politics.” sounding victory for re-election, defeating ing for another way to climb the political Republican tax activist Bill Sizemore by 64 ladder. After the disastrous ceremony, the governor percent to 30 percent. But he again faced began to view Republican critics as cranks a Republican legislature, and by the end An aide to Kitzhaber during his first term and relished holding himself aloof, above of his second term in 2002, an economic in office once commented that “there the fray. downturn hurt the Oregon economy and was always drama around the women in brought a budget deficit of $2 billion. [Kitzhaber’s] life.” He soon divorced his In the ’97 legislative session, Kitzhaber’s second wife and became romantically contempt for Republicans and the ideas On June 21, 2002, he said he had “disen- involved with Hayes, 20 years his junior. of others ran up against Senate Majority gaged from my staff and the process” as he Hayes would tell friends that when she met Leader Gene Derfler. Derfler’s reputation felt the “inability to do anything.” in the state capitol was that of a thought- Kitzhaber in 2002, she found him a broken ful legislator who helped Oregon pass and “Partly because of the insular nature of our man. According to Hayes, she picked administer one the country’s most effective governmental structure—and partly due to him up and reinvigorated him, giving him welfare reform measures. Of Kitzhaber he other factors—people have come to ex- new energy, more or less saving his life. said, “I find him very difficult to work with. pect the government to solve problems for During this period, Kitzhaber founded He doesn’t share information. He won’t tell them,” he wrote on July 13, 2002. “They the Archimedes Movement, a health care you his positions on issues. And neither is elect leaders who tell them what they want advocacy group, and, in September 2009, his staff up front with us on their positions. to hear, not what they need to hear in order announced he would seek a third term as I told him bluntly he was a poor communi- to solve problems.” governor of Oregon. cator, and I could see the hair stand up on The end of John Kitzhaber’s second full In November 2010, Kitzhaber narrowly the back of his head.” term in office found him caving into defeated his Republican opponent Chris

November 2015 Green Watch Page 3 Dudley, a former center for the Portland they controlled both chambers of govern- What if we added up the positives of Trail Blazers basketball team. The margin ment, so Kitzhaber no longer faced an economic growth and subtracted from was 22,000 votes, 49 percent to 48 percent. intractable or hostile legislature. (The them the clear negatives, so we had Kitzhaber had been elected to his first term only limitation on Democrats’ legislative a better picture of whether we were in a tough year for Democrats (the year of authority was that, in the Senate which was headed in the right direction? the Gingrich Revolution) and he made his split 16-14, there was a moderate Demo- The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) comeback in another tough year (the year cratic Senator who sometimes voted with does exactly that. With 26 indicators, of the Tea Party). Two months later, with Republicans.) the GPI consolidates critical economic, Hayes by his side, he was sworn in for a Despite the fact that, for the first time, he environmental and social factors into third term. had a legislative majority of his party, Kit- a single framework in order to give a From the beginning of that term, there were zhaber at the end of his third term stumbled more accurate picture of the progress— issues, especially concerning Oregon’s new over a series of policy issues. He presided and the setbacks—we have made. First Lady, Cylvia Hayes. The Governor over the failed launch of Cover Oregon, From the costs of crime, pollution, appeared more relaxed at public events, the state’s “Affordable Care Act” Obam- commuting and inequality to the value but legislative leaders worried about Hayes’ acare insurance exchange website, which of education, volunteer work, leisure involvement in the Kitzhaber administra- cost taxpayers somewhere in the area of time and infrastructure, the GPI helps tion. She seemed to understand or care $300 million. He was unable to deliver a us understand the true impacts of our little about ethical boundaries. Kitzhaber new interstate bridge between Oregon and policies and will lead us on the path to- and Hayes weren’t married, and, although Washington, the Columbia River Crossing, ward a genuinely sustainable economy. because of opposition from the Washington few cared about their private relationship There are 26 separate indicators that State Senate and the local government in as such, their nonmarital situation, together comprise the Genuine Progress Indi- Clark County. Struggling to cope with with her status as the Governor’s closest ad- cator. visor, raised serious issues such as whether a weak economy, he recommended that Hayes would be considered a member of Oregon “weatherize” its school buildings The Left loves GPI, which, if adopted as a the Kitzhaber household for purposes of as a way to encourage economic recovery. way to measure the success of government the state’s ethics law. Kitzhaber led the effort to abolish the policies, would allow politicians, bureau- crats, left-wing academics, and the media Was she Oregon’s First Lady, filling a 148-year-old elected position of Oregon to pronounce policies as successful, even mostly ceremonial role? Was she a paid Superintendent of Public Instruction, and if they destroy jobs and prevent economic consultant hired to lobby the governor on he hand-picked, as Oregon’s first Chief growth. “climate change” issues? Was she a member Education Officer, a man named Rudy of the governor’s staff? When Kitzhaber Crew. The appointment of Crew, former John Fund, in a National Review Online staff members, particularly the governor’s chancellor of the New York City Board of article entitled, “Energy Isn’t the Only chief of staff, Curtis Robinhold, tried to rein Education, was much heralded but proved Thing That’s Green When You’re Push- her in, she would retaliate and often did so to be both short lived and disastrous; he left ing the Clean-Energy Agenda,” noted the in very clumsy ways. During a speech she after a year, and controversy arose over his involvement in Oregon’s politics of the made at Portland State University in April frequent out-of-state trips on personal busi- left-wing group Demos [about which, see 2014, Hayes described how she blithely dis- ness and his attempts, against state rules, our sister publication Organization Trends, missed the early concerns that Kitzhaber’s to be reimbursed for first-class air travel. July 2014]: staff had about her ambiguous role. Sarah Then there was the Genuine Progress In- Then there was Demos, a New York- Gilman of High Country News reported dicator. GPI is an alternative measure of based left-wing group normally promi- this quote from Hayes: “One of [the staff how we as a people are doing, to replace nent in attacking voter-ID laws. But in members] said, ‘You know you work for traditional, relatively objective measures Oregon, Demos persuaded Hayes and the governor…’ And I said, ‘I don’t work such as Gross Domestic Product (or, as one Kitzhaber to consider using a “genuine for the governor, I work for the Earth.’” leftist described it with disdain, “how many progress indicator” as a substitute for From 2011 to 2013, Hayes collected more widgets we’re making”). The main entity traditional GDP models of growth. In than $220,000 from private consulting pushing GPI is a project of the Center for a 2013, Governor Kitzhaber and Hayes contacts she landed while working as an Sustainable Economy and the Institute for accepted the invitation of Demos ex- advisor to Kitzhaber. Policy Studies, a Marxist think tank [about ecutive Lew Daly to accompany him which, see our sister publication Founda- to the Himalayan nation of Bhutan to A new beginning tion Watch, February 2011]. The GPI study the “genuine progress indica- In 2011, the legislature was a friendlier website described the measure this way: tor” concept. The next month, Hayes place for Kitzhaber than in his first two What if we defined success not by the landed a $25,000 consulting contact terms. Democrats controlled the Oregon money we spent and the goods we with Demos. Within days, in viola- Senate, while the Oregon House was evenly consumed but by the quality of life we tion of the law, she held a meeting to split between the parties. After the 2012 create not only for ourselves but for ev- promote Demos’ concept at the state- election, it was even better for Democrats; eryone with whom we share the planet? owned governor’s mansion.

Page 4 Green Watch November 2015 If Kitzhaber needed a measurement indica- jor threat: reporter Nigel According to Willamette Week, recently tor in 2014, other than GDP, to gauge the Jaquiss. released emails show that “Kitzhaber’s state’s well-being, he had good reason. A staff was especially alarmed by Hayes’ role Writing in USA Today just days after Kit- column in the Portland Business Journal in the governor’s office after she signed at zhaber’s resignation, John Reider detailed early that year chronicled his economic least $85,000 worth of consulting contracts why Jaquiss proved a formidable obstacle record in Oregon. with three nonprofit advocacy groups in to the governor: In 1995, when Kitzhaber began his 2013.” The paper also said “emails re- If Nigel Jaquiss had stayed in the first term as governor, the state ranked vealed that Hayes told Kitzhaber in late oil trading business or pulled off the 22nd in per capita income. The aver- 2013 that she wanted to further leverage transition to novelist, John Kitzhaber age Oregon resident made 95 percent her access to his office into ‘lucrative work,’ might still be governor of Oregon. Un- of what a Washington resident made. including an official state position, paid fortunately for Kitzhaber, Jaquiss made Now, 19 years later and 11 years into speaking appearances, and book contacts.” a mid-career switch to journalism. Kitzhaber’s leadership, the state ranks Jaquiss’ reporting in the alternative And then a day later, October 9, the gover- 33rd in per capita income, and aver- Willamette Week on Kitzhaber’s ethical nor was apparently blindsided by another age Oregonians make just 85 percent blinders regarding his fiancée triggered revelation. Hayes tearfully admitted to a of what Washingtonians make. That’s the governor’s resignation. . . . reporter that in 1997 she was paid $5,000 to quite a decline, at least if you measure marry an 18-year-old Ethiopian immigrant GDP in dollars, not happiness. [Jaquiss] won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 seeking to stay in the United States. Be- for reporting that former Oregon The feeling throughout the state was that cause the statute of limitations had passed, governor and ex-Cabinet official Neil she was not prosecuted. When she told Kitzhaber had become lazy, arrogant, and Goldschmidt, a revered figure in the frozen in his thinking, that he was imped- Kitzhaber about the marriage, Hayes said, state, had had a long-term relationship “He was stunned, and he was hurt.” ing the state from moving. Many hoped with a teenage babysitter. he wouldn’t run again, so new political Revelations kept coming. Britain’s Daily Then in 2009, Jaquiss disclosed that talent could emerge. Democrats often Mail reported: then-Portland Mayor Sam Adams had mentioned State Treasurer Ted Wheeler as had a sexual relationship with a teenage Oregon’s First Lady took a month- a replacement. legislative intern . . . long trip to Siberia with the lover she planned to run a pot farm with–just Yet despite Oregon’s having dropped 11 Jaquiss’ most recent scoop centered four weeks after she was secretly paid places in per capita income, and despite the on an influence-peddling scandal in- $5,000 for a green card marriage to an fact that more than one-third of children in volving the dual roles of Kitzhaber’s Ethiopian immigrant. rural Oregon were living below the poverty fiancée and first lady, Cylvia Hayes. line, and despite the way Portland metro Hayes, who has a consulting business, In a dizzying timeline involving three region’s household income had dropped also served as an unpaid advisor to men in a matter of months, Cylvia $4,400 since the beginning of the 2008 Kitzhaber. Jaquiss reported that Hayes’ Hayes, 47, had her divorce from her recession—despite all of that dreary news, firm had received private contracts second husband finalized in May Kitzhaber in 2014 asked Oregon voters for from groups trying to influence state 1997, married Ethiopian Abraham B. a historic fourth term in office. policy. “The governor’s weakness was Abraham in July 1997, and travelled Many in the Oregon media, as well as in his unwillingness to hold her to ethical to Siberia with her lover Karl Topinka the business community, considered his standards,” Jaquiss says. in August of 1997 . . . re-election a certainty, despite his poor On October 8, just weeks before John The illegal pot farm was to be in Washing- record. The dysfunction of the Oregon Kitzhaber was to be re-elected, Willamette ton state near the Canadian border. Hayes GOP had much to do with that view. But Week reported that the governor’s fiancée said the plan never came to fruition, al- not everyone was certain 2014 would be used taxpayer resources to aid her green though a subsequent owner of the property a simple deal for Kitzhaber. The region’s energy consulting business. said that there was evidence that it had. most respected pollster, Tim Hibbitts, also Despite the growing scandal, Gov. John saw cracks in the Kitzhaber mystique. Hib- At first, Kitzhaber use the War-on-Women Kitzhaber was re-elected to a historic fourth bitts observed, “It’s a myth that he is at his defense, suggesting to the news media that term in office in November 2014, defeating highest ever level of popularity. When he it was “sad that in this day and age there his Republican opponent by a comfortable was governor in the 1990s, his approval were some who just were still threatened five-and-a-half percent. Democrats actually ratings were in the 60s. Today . . . his by a professional woman making a living.” picked up a seat in the state senate, mean- numbers are not so good, if the GOP had a Across the state and even in the media, ing that they no longer had to worry about credible candidate.” people took offense at the way the Gover- nor sought to distract from his and Hayes’ that maverick Democratic Senator who While Kitzhaber’s opponent Dennis Rich- ethical lapses by citing prejudice against sometimes sided with the opposition. For ardson and rest of the Oregon GOP may not women. a moment, it looked like Kitzhaber would have been a credible threat to Kitzhaber’s survive the scandal, his power enhanced by hopes for a fourth term, there was one ma- His answer didn’t pass the smell test. the Senate shift. November 2015 Green Watch Page 5 But the surprises just didn’t stop. It This week Oregon Gov. John Kit- Oregon? A Kitzhaber campaign ad- turned out there was more money for zhaber, a Democrat, leaves office, viser, Dan Carol, helped arrange the Hayes—$118,000 more—and this time having resigned under the cloud of a funding following Kitzhaber’s election funded by Tom Steyer, the hedge fund cronyism and corruption scandal. A in 2010 … Carol consequently landed billionaire who is the sugar-daddy for U.S. attorney has subpoenaed ‘records a position within the Kitzhaber admin- the Global Warming cause. “The San that are a catalog of Kitzhaber climate istration. That position, Willamette Francisco-based Energy Foundation gave and economy-related initiatives,’ Week has reported, pays more than Hayes $40,000 in 2013 to create a green- centering on money given to Mr. Kit- $165,000, making Carol Kitzhaber’s energy communications strategy,” wrote zhaber’s fiancée Cylvia Hayes. Ms. highest paid aide. John Fund. “The foundation also funded Hayes served a curious triple role of Horner summarized the e-mails uncovered almost two-thirds of her $118,000 CEDC “first lady,” adviser to the governor through the Washington State government: [Clean Economy Development Center] on energy policy and well compen- fellowship. Although much of the funding sated consultant for the ‘clean energy’ According to the emails, the parties is obscure, one of the Energy Foundation’s industry. discuss “Dan’s concept.” Deploying the governors’ offices in a coordinated most prominent backers is Tom Steyer, the Any such investigation must not stop at push for the “climate” agenda would California billionaire who last year poured Oregon’s borders. This is not because require paying outside parties as well, millions into Democratic campaigns and the ‘clean energy’ industry seems which would be funded by “major fighting the Keystone pipeline.” unique for its associated scandals in re- environmental donors” including cent years, or the prevalence of wealthy Investigators began to examine Kitzhaber’s Michael Bloomberg and Mr. Steyer. Democratic donors getting even richer records. The Governor tried to shield the This would “serve as a standard setting from it. Of course, some of those First Lady from scrutiny, announcing that left flank.” she would no longer serve as an advisor same supporters, such as Tom Steyer, Specifically, the plan includes “a na- and suggesting that she was not a public provided Democrats a financial surge tionally coordinated, multi-year states official, therefore exempt from ethics laws. on a par with a longtime force, the teacher’s unions, in 2014, expressly for strategy focused on driving outcomes On February 4, the Oregonian editorial the purpose of advancing the “climate” contemplated by the president’s cli- board called for the governor’s resigna- agenda, transferring taxpayer money to mate action plan, resilient infrastruc- tion. Two days later, Kitzhaber fired his uneconomic “clean energy” schemes. ture and international treaty objectives communications director after she criticized Instead, a broader look into the depth at scales.” Hayes. That week, he ordered his e-mails of this ingrained collusion reveals Using green-group slang, the emails be destroyed. State workers refused to that Mr. Kitzhaber enlisted others to refer to President Obama’s push for comply. Democratic leaders, led by the use their governor’s office to “spread windmills and solar panels to supplant Senate president, called for his resigna- climate coordination and collaboration our existing network of electricity tion. On February 11, Oregon Secretary of to a larger group of governors across generation and distribution, and to the State Kate Brown, next in line to succeed the U.S.” underwritten by Mr. Steyer. Kyoto II treaty expected to be reached Kitzhaber, returned abruptly from a confer- in December. ence in Washington, D.C., telling the press Horner described the scheme Steyer funded that she now questioned the governor’s (uncovered via an 11-page email thread The parties sought to arrange a private mental stability. obtained from Washington State’s freedom White House dinner “to create buy- of information law) as an orchestrated in” among the same crowd, to “signal Two days later, February 13, Kitzhaber campaign beginning with the California and where funders should support filling resigned, penning a bitter letter against his Washington governors’ offices, a private holes in missing capacity we need to fellow Democratic leaders and accusing environmentalist law firm, and the Obama pull off the multi-state strategy to keep them of trying to convict him in the court White House. outcomes and momentum moving on of public opinion. top of the public approach,” wrote “The scheme was to recruit other governors Mr. Carol. The FBI came in to investigate Kitzhaber to use their offices in the same way,” Horner and Hayes, to examine what may have wrote. The plan was led by Dan Carol, an According to the emails, Special As- been done as part of a cover-up (including aide to Kitzhaber, and, according to the sistant to the President for Energy the attempted destruction of the governor’s Oregonian, the central figure in Kitzhaber’s and Climate Change Dan Utech liked e-mails). resignation. the idea. Sam Ricketts, director of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s D.C. Steyer’s project Here’s how the Oregonian summed up the office, also assured his colleagues that The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s smoking gun evidence against the governor “(Council on Environmental Quality) Chris Horner has helped put the spotlight and Hayes: staff were interested and felt White on the connection between Kitzhaber and How did Hayes end up with a fellow- House’s David Agnew (Counselor to billionaire Tom Steyer. On the week of ship funded by an organization with the President) John Podesta et al,” Kitzhaber’s resignation, Horner wrote: an interest in clean energy policy in would be interested as well. Page 6 Green Watch November 2015 About the planned White House meet- around 111d regulatory challenge, and that, therefore, critical decisions must ing, they suggested “select Governors, sub-national climate action, resilient be made by a corps of well-credentialed senior White House officials, Tom infrastructure outcomes.” experts. Progressives believe: We (or, at Steyer, (Michael) Bloomberg, and a Around that time, Carol was meeting least, our Progressive leaders) are smart; couple of other major environmental with Dan Utech, the special assistant everyone else is stupid; people need us to donors”: “The Ask to Funders at that to President Obama for energy and make decisions for them, in order to protect Meeting: Support right now the hiring climate change, and Rohan Patel, them from themselves. of a ‘grown-up’ in each state, trusted the White House’s deputy director To Progressives, the normal back-and-forth and recommended by each engaged of intergovernmental affairs, emails of public debate is bothersome. Hence, their governor who is capable and commit- show. He was also working to recruit preference for government by executive ted to developing and managing an Steyer as the figure who, with his deep order and bureaucratic rule; their disdain for integrated and multi-issue climate out- pockets and established political infra- “bitter clingers,” for working-class people, comes campaign through Paris 2015.” structure, could unite disparate state small-business-class people, and those In an article entitled, “How Tom Steyer, and federal administrators, and infuse people’s elected representatives; and their the White House, and a Scandal-Plagued the effort with the political, policy, belief that the democratic process is hope- Operative Paved the Way for EPA Regula- and business backing needed to sell it lessly corrupted by the likes of Fox News tions,” Lachlan Markay of the Free Beacon to a skeptical public and their elected and the Koch Brothers, so we need “true described how the White House, statehous- representatives. democracy” that eliminates those influ- es, and nonprofits backed by Steyer worked Most of the national accounts focused on ences—the First Amendment be damned! behind the scenes to create a network to the machinations behind the White House Once you accept the premise of Progres- promote the so-called “Clean Power Plan,” and Steyer efforts that helped drive Kit- sivism, behavior like that of Kitzhaber and the President’s plan to shut down coal-fired zhaber from office—the story of a “clean Hayes is acceptable. It’s ethical to hide a power plants and increase the price of energy” conspiracy that, to this date, goes Global Warming tax in a “clean fuels” plan, electricity in the name of fighting Global underreported in Oregon, where the focus thus getting around the legal requirement Warming. [For more on the “Clean Power has been on the idea of Cylvia Hayes as the of a legislative supermajority to pass a tax Plan,” see Green Watch, February 2015.] Eve who corrupted poor Adam. increase. It’s ethical to change the way we Markay wrote: It’s a sad story, how Cylvia Hayes, Dan measure the success of government poli- The strategy to win support for the Carol, and others, with their greed and po- cies, away from such factors as whether the regulation, which critics call onerous, litical agenda, played John Kitzhaber for a economy is growing and whether incomes began in late 2013 when aides to Kit- puppet, turning his remarkable two-decade are rising, to create a new system that mea- zhaber, Oregon Gov. Jay Inslee (D.), political dominance of Oregon into tragedy. sures success as Progressives see it. And, and California Gov. Jerry Brown (D.) But, of course, none of it could have hap- if you need to set up special-interest tax opened talks with the White House pened without the unwavering arrogance breaks and grants and mandates and, with it, regarding EPA’s regulations of carbon of the man himself. In the end, he was the a complex system of money pass-throughs emissions from power plants, which cause of his fall. And the fact that he was that effectively conceals how much all this were being drafted at the time. humiliated by a woman he loves makes the costs and who’s getting the money—well, Emails in December 2013 dub the plan story even more human, and even more that’s justified, because you’re saving the “Dan’s concept.” That is a reference to appalling. world, after all. Dan Carol, a former Kitzhaber cam- Jim Pasero, a public relations consul- In next month’s Green Watch, we’ll take paign operative and then the highest tant in Oregon, is a former publisher a look at how the environmentalist move- paid member of his administration. of BrainstormNW magazine. He was a ment—a complex web of government of- Carol got that job after he landed a speechwriter for U.S. Senator Dave Duren- ficials, activists, and “consultants”— turned fellowship at the Clean Economy De- berger (R-Minn.) and served as director of “green” into green, funneled money to Cyl- velopment Center for Cylvia Hayes, speechwriting for the Republican National via Hayes, created the scandal that brought Kitzhaber’s fiancé, even as she acted Committee. down Gov. Kitzhaber, and, despite being as an informal adviser to the governor. ―――――― caught red-handed, won anyway. Carol was a central figure in the ensu- GW ing scandal that in February forced Afterword Kitzhaber to resign. Internal commu- By Steven J. Allen The Capital Research Center nications described White House meet- Why is it important whether a public official is a watchdog over politicians, ings on Carol’s “concept” as “a useful like John Kitzhaber is aloof or elitist? Be- bureaucrats, and special inter- and frank discussion about how a group cause, at the core of 21st Century Progres- ests in Washington, D.C., and of engaged Governors (not just from sivism—the view that currently dominates in all 50 states. Please remem- the West) could work with the WH our government—is the belief that people ber CRC in your will and estate on transformational multi-state work are too stupid to manage their own lives, planning.

November 2015 Green Watch Page 7 GreenNotes Paul Jenkins of the Anchorage Daily Planet reports on the decades-long struggle of the people of King Cove, Alaska, “to get a short medical evacuation road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.” The Agdaagux Tribe of King Cove, the Native village of Belkofski, and others sued, but a federal judge ruled that Interior Secretary Sally Jewell had the legal power to kill the road, “a 9-mile, single-lane, gravel emergency medical evacuation road— with barricades on either side, mind you—through the refuge to the 10,415-foot, all-weather runway at Cold Bay. . . . For now, King Cove remains the victim of a bureaucracy that could not care less about federal trust responsibilities to Alaska Natives, a bureaucracy that values migratory ducks and eel grass more than human life. . . . Nobody checked with villagers when the 300,000-acre refuge was rammed down their throats in 1980. Road opponents seem uncon- cerned that more than 40 miles of roads already exist in the refuge. Nobody minds that waterfowl hunting is allowed— encouraged—in the refuge.” Locals say that some 19 people have died over the years during medevacs or waiting for evacuation. In the September 2014 Green Watch, we reported on the effort by radical “greens” to rig government nutrition guide- lines that are used to set meal plans in schools, military facilities, prisons, and federal cafeterias as well as SNAP (a.k.a. “food stamp”) benefits. Their plan was to emphasize so-called “sustainability” and anti-Global Warming efforts, and to force veganism (no meat, fish, eggs, or dairy) and vegetarianism over sound nutrition principles. The relevant govern- ment panel was packed with supporters of the plan. Yet the Secretaries of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services have now declared that, while the environment is important, they “do not believe that the [nutrition guidelines] are the appropriate vehicle” for dealing with such issues. Why the shift? The effort faced a furious backlash from farmers and supporters of affordable food. Now the left-wing Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is complaining that “Big Ag’s beef-loving cowboys just lasso[ed]” the guidelines. The group reports that approximately three-quarters of the 30,000 “public comments” supported the plan. [Regarding the “public comments” scam, see last month’s Green Watch.] NRDC claimed that, according to some experts, more could be done to fight Global Warming “by cutting beef from our diet than . . . by ditching our cars.” NRDC accused the plan’s opponents of “caricatur[ing] advocates for dietary shift” as “an insurrectionist army of vegetar- ian Carrie Nations, hell-bent on taking away the right of patriotic Americans to enjoy a hot dog during their Fourth of July barbecues.” Yep, that just about says it. The New York Post reports that “Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-New York) wasn’t taking any chances that there might be empty seats at a speech he delivered [in October] on climate change—so state workers were summoned on the taxpayer dime to fill the audience. . . . The workers said they left their jobs in the middle of the day Thursday and were paid their full salaries to hear Cuomo at Columbia University announce the state was joining a global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. ‘I’d rather be at the park,’ said one of the workers, who is employed by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and who has no connection to climate issues.” Interviewed on 60 Minutes, President Obama deflected criticism that he created a leadership vacuum in theMiddle East and thereby fostered the development of a Russia-Iran-Syria axis. “If what Russia’s doing in the region is lead- ership,” Obama said, “then we’ve got a different definition of leadership. My definition of leadership would be leading on climate change, an international accord that potentially we’ll get in Paris.” (An international Global Warming agree- ment, funneling trillions of dollars to kleptocrats and Third World dictators and to the solar and wind industries, is to be finalized in Paris in December. SeeGreen Watch, February 2015.) Earlier, Mr. Obama declared at a town hall event in Johannesburg, South Africa, that “the planet will boil over” if people in Africa are allowed to use inexpensive sources of energy to run air conditioning, automobiles, and big houses. Apparently Mr. Obama will “lead,” while Africans hunker down in the village and sweat in their huts. How should Christians approach the Global Warming issue? How do we protect the world’s poor from Warmer greed? The Cornwall Alliance has produced a documentary on the topic, Where the Grass is Greener: Biblical Stewardship vs. Climate Alarmism. Among the experts featured in the film: physicistsDr. Will Happer and Dr. S. Fred Singer, climate scientists Dr. Roy W. Spencer and Dr. David R. Legates, engineers Dr. James H. Rust and Dr. Hal Doiron, theologians Dr. Jay Richards and Dr. James Tonkowich, public policy experts Elizabeth Yore and Marc Morano, and economists Dr. David Kreutzer and Dr. G. Cornelis van Kooten. For more information, visit CornwallAlliance.org.

Page 8 Green Watch November 2015