Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown, set to become the US’ first openly bisexual governor on Wednesday, is a liberal Democrat known for her struggles to expand voting and her push for greater campaign finance transparency.
Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber on Friday resigned his post amid influence peddling allegations involving his fiancee that have triggered a criminal corruption probe and led to criticism from prominent fellow Democrats.
Also on Friday, the US Attorney’s Office issued a subpoena demanding records and electronic communications pertaining to Kitzhaber and Cylvia Hayes in the first acknowledgement of a federal investigation into the pair.
Photo: Reuters
“This is a sad day for Oregon, but I am confident that legislators are ready to come together to move Oregon forward,” Brown told reporters in brief remarks outside her office in Salem after Kitzhaber said he would resign.
The subpoena — served to the state Department of Administrative Services — demands records not pertaining only to the pair, but also to 15 others. They are individuals involved with the Kitzhaber administration and with companies Hayes did business with as a consultant while she was also working as an adviser to the governor.
The subpoena orders the agency to produce documents for a US federal grand jury before March 10.
Department spokesman Matt Shelby said the subpoena was received on Friday afternoon. He said the agency would provide whatever requested records it has.
The Oregon attorney general said that she would continue a criminal investigation of the governor and Hayes.
Kitzhaber’s resignation gives Brown, whose job is to oversee elections, audits and business registrations, the gift of incumbency in a special election next year. She had been weighing a bid for governor in 2018 anyway, Oregon media outlets reported.
Brown is also set to be the second woman to hold Oregon’s top elected office. She has commented publicly about her bisexuality and lives in Portland with her husband.
She was appointed to the state House of Representatives in 1991 when another legislator resigned, and in 2004 became the first woman to serve as Senate majority leader, a state profile showed.
Brown has touted her work to create an online database for campaign donations and in passing comprehensive civil rights and domestic partnership laws.
Critics accused her of partisanship when she delayed a 2012 election for labor commissioner, the Oregonian newspaper reported.
“Her first goal is going to be just to step in and keep moving the state forward, which I think she’s uniquely qualified to do,” Multnomah County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury said.
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