The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
There are questions. Of course there are questions. A governor doesn’t resign amid scandal without leaving behind questions that will take months or years to answer.
You know, like “Did John Kitzhaber still buy a Valentine’s Day card for Cylvia Hayes?” OK, OK, that might not be the most important inquiry as Kitzhaber leaves office not long after being elected governor of Oregon for the fourth time. But admit it — that’s what the barstool talk is about. How could a seemingly smart man allow the most insufferable of gold diggers to egregiously use their relationship for personal gain? How could an official who has succeeded in the political arena for the better part of three decades be so oblivious to the Medusa who is his fiancée?
Not that Kitzhaber is willing to admit any of this. Friday, as he released an unapologetic apology, he went to great lengths to blame the media for his predicament. “I must also say that it is deeply troubling to me to realize that we have come to a place in the history of this great state of ours where a person can be charged, tried, convicted and sentenced by the media with no due process and no independent verification of the allegations involved,” he wrote. Never mind the fact that he has been neither charged nor tried. Yet. Never mind the fact that he has been neither convicted nor sentenced. So far.
By all means, when you are stuck in quicksand up to your neck, blame the media for your missteps. Instead, Kitzhaber would have been wise to heed the words of President Richard Nixon, who once said, “Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.” And Nixon knew a thing or two about scandals.
How was he re-elected?
Kitzhaber’s political demise played out like a Greek tragedy over the past couple of months, and among the issues it pointed out — in a roundabout way — is the benefits of a top two primary. As the scandal surrounding Hayes and Kitzhaber was percolating, being piled atop the disaster that was the Cover Oregon health care exchange, the governor was re-elected with 50 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Republican Dennis Richardson.
Now, scandals have no party boundaries, but elections in this part of the country do. Kitzhaber’s victory in November marked the eighth straight gubernatorial election in Oregon that was won by a Democrat, and most of those have been about as close as a Ducks-Huskies football game.
That is rather typical on the Left Coast. Among Washington, Oregon and California, there is exactly one sitting Republican who has been elected by statewide ballot — Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman. Governors, U.S. senators, attorneys general, etc. — they’re all Democrats except for Wyman. So, when Kitzhaber was facing a Republican who was unelectable in the minds of Oregon voters, most residents held their nose and voted the party line.
It’s hard to say whether Kitzhaber could have defeated a qualified fellow Democrat, but it is a question worth pondering. Then again, Oregon voters last year defied all common sense and soundly rejected a ballot measure to adopt a top two primary. Shows what they know.
Now those voters are left to stumble over the wreckage of a failed governorship. And that has implications for those of us on this side of the river. Thousands of Clark County residents, for example, work in Oregon. Hundreds of Clark County business owners, for another example, conduct daily business with vendors or customers from the state to the south. And any proposal for a bridge across the Columbia River points out the need for the states to work together.
As much as we attempt to deny it, the reality is that Clark County is culturally and economically tied to Portland and its environs. What happens there matters here, and yet we are left in the comparatively enviable position of being voyeurs to the salacious doings in Oregon.
So pull up a barstool. There are plenty of questions to ponder.
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