Strike Three, Dr. Kitzhaber, Yer Out!

"First Lady" or First Crony?

Most readers of PNG know by now that the four-time Governor of Oregon was forced to resign because of allegations his girlfriend failed to disclose $118,000 in salary paid to her as a fellow of the "Clean Economy Foundation", a San Francisco-based group connected to Tom Steyer, a Democratic Party deep pocket. The organization lost its tax exempt status in 2014 for failing to file returns for three years. He is the only Oregon governor to resign because of scandal.  Less you think Oregon politics are overly righteous, consider that the girlfriend/fiancée acted as an official "unpaid" advisor to the Governor and was installed in offices at the mansion and state capitol. The couple's perhaps deliberately ambiguous marital status proved not too objectionable in socially liberal Oregon, where alternative lifestyles are displayed like a badge of honor. Frankly, Cylvia Hayes, 47, who has what one northwest activist called a "grifter's history", made hay from her official perch. Failed as a politician in her own right, she collected over $200,000 during her tenure as an energy advisor. John Kitzhaber, 67, hired the man who arranged Hayes' fellowship as his highest paid political advisor at $162,720 annually. Hayes married three times prior to meeting Kitzhaber. She last married an 18-year-old Ethiopian immigrant,and admitted accepting $5,000 in return for marrying Abraham B. Abraham*. In 1997 four months after being married she jointly bought Washington property near the Canadian border with a boyfriend. Her admitted intent was to illegally grow marijuana there.

More importantly, the resignation comes against a background of overly generous state tax subsidies to businesses for supposed "green energy" projects, and software giant Oracle'sridiculous failure to properly set up Oregon's health care exchange website, "Cover Oregon". The website never worked properly and was forced to close down after at least $248 million in federal money had been thrown at the company to get it running. Congress is now investigating the mess, and a fraud suit has been filed by Oregon against Oracle. (Comedian John Oliver had a field day with this one.) Former Governor Kitzhaber told media prior to his 2014 re-election that he was responsible for the failure since he hired Oracle, and that as Governor "the buck stops with me", paraphrasing President Harry Truman. The buck stopped with stunning suddenness in the first month of the legislative session. Imminent delivery of federal criminal subpoenas in Salem and an executive order to destroy e-mails were the precipitating causes of his reluctant resignation. A federal public corruption investigation of the Governor proved to be too much of an embarrassment even for his party colleagues who control the legislature. The state GOP, despite a long history that includes prominent politicians such as Senator Mark Hatfield, is practically impotent. Thus, US Person 'plains to you dear reader why a small town doctor turned egotistical career politician was able to serve three complete terms as Oregon governor despite the crony capitalism that has severely marred the state's progressive image.

*Ethiopian Abraham Abraham was enrolled at Greensboro College, North Carolina at the time of the marriage. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in mathematics in 2001. They were divorced five months later. Admittedly, the couple never lived together since Hayes moved to Bend, OR alone shortly after the nuptials. She told journalists she was broke and lived in her car on BLM land. However, court records show December 1999 as their date of separation. Abraham reportedly lives in the Washington DC metro area. Sham marriage for the purpose of obtaining immigration status is a federal offense for both parties. In 2002 Hayes ran as a write-in candidate for the Oregon legislature and lost to an incumbent.