By Lars Larson
Oregon just sent a message about government ethics and it’s not good.
The state loves to brag about the clean nature of its politics but that’s not the history. We’ve had a governor who raped a child for years, we’ve had a major mayor caught up in a sex scandal.
Now, we have a former governor, re-elected four times…who let his girlfriend peddle influence from inside the governor’s office. John Kitzhaber resigned in disgrace just one month after his inauguration three years ago. An investigation found he violated ten different ethics laws. Girlfriend Cylvia Hayes was worse.
They both made big bucks. The state ethics commission staff wanted to let Kitzhaber off for a paltry thousand bucks.
That didn’t fly.
The maximum penalty was 50-thousand dollars and they should have thrown the book at him. But instead, he only has to pay 20-thousand bucks in fines. Not bad when you made hundreds of thousands.
And that’s the message…when you’re a popular Democrat, violate any laws you want.
