LOS ANGELES — Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown will become the state's next governor Feb. 18 after the resignation of Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber under pressure from his own party's leaders.
An FBI investigation prompted by allegations that the governor's fiancé Cylvia Hayes, a green energy lobbyist, was misusing the governor's office to gain contracts for her company brought Kitzhaber's downfall.
Reports came out early last week that Kitzhaber was going to resign on Tuesday and that he had called Brown back from Washington, D.C. He initially balked at resigning, but then followed through on Friday with the resignation.
"It is not in my nature to walk away from a job I have undertaken — it is to stand and fight for the cause," Kitzhaber said in his
An emergency-room doctor, Kitzhaber has served as a state representative, state senator, senate president and governor.
"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," Kitzhaber said. "But even more troubling — and on a very personal level as someone who has given 35 years of public service to Oregon — is that so many of my former allies in common cause have been willing to simply accept this judgment at its face value."
He conceded, however that he had "become a liability" acknowledging comprehension of why the state leadership had asked him to step down.
Brown ascends to the governor's seat in Oregon's succession plan because the state does not have a lieutenant governor.
She released a brief statement on Friday regarding her new role.
Tony Green, her spokesman, said Tuesday that since a transition that normally takes several months has to take place within three days, Brown didn't have time to comment more fully.
In her statement, Brown deemed it a sad day for Oregon, but said she "is confident that legislators are ready to come together to move Oregon forward."
"I know you all have a lot of questions, and I will answer them as soon as possible," she said.
Brown, a Democrat, was elected to her second, four-year term as Secretary of State in 2012.
Her political career began in 1991 when she was appointed to the state House of Representatives. She was elected to two more terms in the House, before seeking and winning a state Senate position. While in the Senate, she was named Senate Democratic leader; and then in 2004, became the first woman to serve as Senate Majority Leader.
