The Oregonian‘s editorial board, the opinion arm of the state’s largest daily paper, called on Governor John Kitzhaber to resign this afternoon—unable to stomach the latest burst of of headlines in a long-simmering scandal over his fiancée’s private business dealings during her time serving as first lady and an unpaid state advisor.

The editorial board’s proclamation comes after a story this morning detailing how a pair of Kitzhaber campaign advisers found work for first lady Cylvia Hayes with nonprofits looking to shape state energy policy. Both advisers eventually landed jobs in Kithzaber’s administration.

It also slightly one-ups this week’s Willamette Week cover story on Kitzhaber, which didn’t explicitly call for the governor’s resignation but ripped Kitzhaber for further losing his grip on the state after a disastrous press conference last Friday while strongly suggesting that the unfolding conflict issues around Hayes’ work could lead to criminal charges like the ones successfully brought against convicted former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.

Kitzhaber has repeatedly deferred to the state’s ethics commission—pleas that WW reported increasingly aren’t sitting well with the governor’s should-be allies in the Legislature. (Kudos to Nigel Jaquiss for spending several hundred words on a sidebar accusing WW‘s publisher Richard Meeker’s wife, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, of “ducking the Kitzhaber-Hayes case.”)

The apparent troubles with the scandal’s distraction the perception of inefficacy are hammered home in final two paragraphs of the O‘s editorial:

The questions about Kitzhaber’s judgment and competence ask themselves. Is he so oblivious that he had no idea that campaign advisers were helping his girlfriend line up employment marked by ethical red flags? Is he really so clueless that he had no idea how much money Hayes collected through her fellowship, which would explain his apparently incomplete ethics filings? Or, alternatively, did he know and fail to act? Both possibilities are damning, and it’s difficult to imagine alternatives that are not.

Whether through gross inattention or complicity, Kitzhaber has broken faith with Oregonians. His career in Oregon politics is one of great accomplishment, but his past success does not excuse the mess he has made of the office with which Oregonians entrusted him. He is now less a governor than a source of unending distraction. He can no longer lead Oregon effectively and should resign. His constituents deserve better.

Will the editorial board get its way? They were in front of former Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen’s resignation over a revealed affair with a subordinate that then led to questions (but no criminal charges) about Cogen’s use of county resources and his influence.

But the editorial board also levied a lot of the same criticisms about leadership (and worse) at then-Portland Mayor Sam Adams in 2009, calling on him to resignless than a month after his term began after WW broke the news that Adams had lied about his sexual relationship with teenager Beau Breedlove. Adams refused and eventually managed to be mostly effective by the time his term ended in 2012.

Denis C. Theriault is the Portland Mercury's News Editor. He writes stories about City Hall and the Portland Police Bureau, focusing on issues like homelessness, police oversight, insider politics, and...

10 replies on “John Kitzhaber Should Resign as Governor, Says the <i>Oregonian</i> Editorial Board”

  1. Kitzaber is full of good ideas, but he’s clearly not a competent manager – hence the Hayes scandal and Cover Oregon debacle. Maybe he should resign, but we’d be losing a capable leader in other areas.

    Maybe Oregon should create an office of Lieutenant Governor that’s responsible for overseeing agencies, while the regular Governor provides leadership.

    Or, maybe Bill Bradbury should have been elected instead.

  2. That last paragraph tells me that the Mercury isn’t quite ready to call for Kizthaber’s resignation. OK. Maybe this will all fade away like a bad dream. Maybe K will be “mostly effective” again at some point. Maybe this is all a Kafkaesque misunderstanding (and who *hasn’t* forgotten about $88,000 occasionally?)…

    …

    …

  3. 4 1/2 years too late. A lot of damage was already done. Too bad no one didn’t take the allegations back in September 2010 seriously.

    Azure – Bradbury? He’s just another incompetent hack.

  4. are you kidding?! this guy is toast — and once upon a time i was huge fan. i would be perfectly happy – nay, joyful, to have kate brown or ted wheeler instead.

  5. Tough One.
    I voted for him before, twice, but couldn’t bring myself to vote for him again because of the Cover Oregon debacle.
    One that point alone he should have not run again, in my opinion.
    I don’t think a truly honorable man would have, and took responsibility.
    He’s an old guy in love, and making bad decisions.
    I am mostly angry with her though, for dragging him through this mess.
    She should resign.

  7. frankieb and Todd: That bit wasn’t so much about directly comparing the relative sins of the men involved. I actually don’t think the substance of the scandals is similar at all.

    It was just about noting how sometimes politicians ignore resignation calls from editorial boards. It comes down to what their allies can stomach instead. Cogen lost his colleagues, Adams didn’t and soldiered on despite relentless piles of bad press. What Kitzhaber’s scandal has in common with Cogen’s is the blending of the professional—money and influence—with the personal, which may tip the governor toward the same fate.

  8. Between CoverOregon and the CRC, the state spent about half a billion dollars for LITERALLY NOTHING. A website that never existed and a bridge that was never built.

    I voted Kitzhaber for two reasons this past election:
    Dennis Richardson was still a Neocon shithead.
    I was hoping Kitzhaber would be ousted early in his term and Oregonians might get at least one major candidate I’m not completely ashamed to vote for.

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