OR: The Oregonian asks Kitzhaber to resign

[Skill and Chance]

I believe the resignation triggers a 2016 special?  In theory it would be a great opportunity for the OR GOP, but it also pushes the election into a presidential year.

[Pandaguineapig]

I believe the resignation triggers a 2016 special?  In theory it would be a great opportunity for the OR GOP, but it also pushes the election into a presidential year.

The only person who could make this race competitive already has a cushy job leading the Nrcc

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I believe the resignation triggers a 2016 special?  In theory it would be a great opportunity for the OR GOP, but it also pushes the election into a presidential year.

The only person who could make this race competitive already has a cushy job leading the Nrcc

Walden's not the only top-tier possibility. There's also Fmr. Sen. Gordon Smith and 2010 nominee Chris Dudley.

[Pandaguineapig]

I believe the resignation triggers a 2016 special?  In theory it would be a great opportunity for the OR GOP, but it also pushes the election into a presidential year.

The only person who could make this race competitive already has a cushy job leading the Nrcc

Walden's not the only top-tier possibility. There's also Fmr. Sen. Gordon Smith and 2010 nominee Chris Dudley.

True but I think Smith is a lobbyist now

[BaconBacon96]

What the hell this is ridiculous.

[Vega]

I still don't know why he needs to resign. I feel like this happens all the time and it's never discovered.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Kitzhaber's seemed kind of off to me for a while now.

[Lief 🗽]

What is with Oregon and their weird candidates who get into weird scandals and are then re-elected but resign like a month later?

[Joe Republic]

Question for the spergs out there with too much time on their hands:  Has there ever been another time previously when two adjacent states had governors with the same last name?


nm: I just answered my own question... Bev & Sonny Perdue

[Panda Express]

Interesting side note to all of this: Brown will be the first openly bisexual governor in US history.

omg that's so hot!!

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Question for the spergs out there with too much time on their hands:  Has there ever been another time previously when two adjacent states had governors with the same last name?


nm: I just answered my own question... Bev & Sonny Perdue

And Kathleen Brown is a quite similar name to Kate Brown. That's Jerry's sister who was the 1994 Democratic nominee.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Interesting side note to all of this: Brown will be the first openly bisexual governor in US history.

If I'm not mistaken, the first LGBT governor of any stripe to not come out and resign in the same speech.

[Vega]

Kitzhaber's seemed kind of off to me for a while now.

I've seen a few mentions - none of them necessarily credible, I should add - that Kitzhaber has been showing symptoms of dementia since the second half of his previous term.

Not buying it unless you post link(s) to the claims. I remember someone saying the same thing about Neil Abercrombie and I could never find it anything.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Kitzhaber's seemed kind of off to me for a while now.

I've seen a few mentions - none of them necessarily credible, I should add - that Kitzhaber has been showing symptoms of dementia since the second half of his previous term.

Not buying it unless you post link(s) to the claims. I remember someone saying the same thing about Neil Abercrombie and I could never find it anything.

There was a politician in Kentucky who used to be great. But then a few years ago, he began acting bizarrely. He was only in his early 60s. I suspected he was suffering from dementia. Not long after, he died.

I haven't seen anything that suggests Kitzhaber has dementia, although he is slightly older.

[publicunofficial]

Kitzhaber's resignation feels a lot like Spitzers: Not a massive scandal to start with, but one with big consequences only because Kitzhaber has no friends in Salem to back him up at this point. Without allies, the smallest infraction can kill a career.


Kate Brown's tenure will be interesting. Unlike Kitzhaber, Brown is much more of a Portland liberal and as such is more vulnerable to the urban/rural divide that the Republicans like to run on in the Pacific Northwest to varying success. She's less friendly to the forest industry, and more forgiving to teachers unions. Because of this, Republicans have been able to make competitive races against her. Hers was the only competitive race in 2012, and the Oregon media almost exclusively endorsed her opponent. Conventional wisdom about Oregon being a blue state aside, Republicans will and should make this a race.


That being said, I do doubt the Republicans ability to do in 2016 what they couldn't in 2014 or 2012. And while Brown is likely to not be perfect, I do generally think she's a good politician. Her term as SoS has been great, and Oregon has a lot of progressive election laws (Like easier registration and the ORESTAR program) that are due to her. I think if Brown can surpass a somewhat hostile press (Especially The Oregonian) and keep her approvals up, she should be able to remain Governor for a while.

[The Other Castro]

Kitzhaber's resignation feels a lot like Spitzers: Not a massive scandal to start with, but one with big consequences only because Kitzhaber has no friends in Salem to back him up at this point. Without allies, the smallest infraction can kill a career.


Kate Brown's tenure will be interesting. Unlike Kitzhaber, Brown is much more of a Portland liberal and as such is more vulnerable to the urban/rural divide that the Republicans like to run on in the Pacific Northwest to varying success. She's less friendly to the forest industry, and more forgiving to teachers unions. Because of this, Republicans have been able to make competitive races against her. Hers was the only competitive race in 2012, and the Oregon media almost exclusively endorsed her candidate. Conventional wisdom about Oregon being a blue state aside, Republicans will and should make this a race.


That being said, I do doubt the Republicans ability to do in 2016 what they couldn't in 2014 or 2012. And while Brown is likely to not be perfect, I do generally think she's a good politician. Her term as SoS has been great, and Oregon has a lot of progressive election laws (Like easier registration and the ORESTAR program) that are due to her. I think if Brown can surpass a somewhat hostile press (Especially The Oregonian) and keep her approvals up, she should be able to remain Governor for a while.

Plus, she'll be great at pushing for bi-partisan cooperation

[rbt48]

Well, ok, I'll admit up front that I am not sure what "bisexual" actually means.  So, I checked it out on Wikipedia and found the following introductory definition:

"Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior toward both males and females, and may also encompass romantic or sexual attraction to people of any gender identity or to a person irrespective of that person's biological sex or gender, which is sometimes termed pansexuality."

So, from this I infer that since Kate Brown is married to a man, if she were to have an extra-marital affair, one could expect it to be with either a man or a woman.  Less dramatically, I suppose she might have sexual fantasies about intimacies with someone from either sex.

I guess what I'm getting at is since she is married (and we might infer that to equate to a commitment), what is the point of making note that she is bisexual?

[Simfan34]

Funny that you really haven't heard much about this.

[publicunofficial]

Well, ok, I'll admit up front that I am not sure what "bisexual" actually means.  So, I checked it out on Wikipedia and found the following introductory definition:

"Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior toward both males and females, and may also encompass romantic or sexual attraction to people of any gender identity or to a person irrespective of that person's biological sex or gender, which is sometimes termed pansexuality."

So, from this I infer that since Kate Brown is married to a man, if she were to have an extra-marital affair, one could expect it to be with either a man or a woman.  Less dramatically, I suppose she might have sexual fantasies about intimacies with someone from either sex.

I guess what I'm getting at is since she is married (and we might infer that to equate to a commitment), what is the point of making note that she is bisexual?

It's a milestone. Also did you seriously not know what a bisexual is in 2015?

[Panda Express]

Apparently he is older than Torie... They must not have had bisexuals during World War II

[rbt48]

Apparently he is older than Torie... They must not have had bisexuals during World War II

Funny.  Probably it was not a matter that anyone had even thought of back then, since you mention it.  I never thought to ask my dad about it before he died.

It's a milestone. Also did you seriously not know what a bisexual is in 2015?

Quite seriously, if pressed, my guess would have been close to the definition.  But, in my life, I have not encountered a bisexual person that I know of, whether it is 2015 or 1995.  

Regardless, I'm still perplexed why it a matter of note about the soon-to-be Governor of Oregon.  I'd be interested in comments address that issue instead of ones that question my lack of awareness.

[publicunofficial]

Apparently he is older than Torie... They must not have had bisexuals during World War II

Funny.  Probably it was not a matter that anyone had even thought of back then, since you mention it.  I never thought to ask my dad about it before he died.

It's a milestone. Also did you seriously not know what a bisexual is in 2015?

Quite seriously, if pressed, my guess would have been close to the definition.  But, in my life, I have not encountered a bisexual person that I know of, whether it is 2015 or 1995.  

Regardless, I'm still perplexed why it a matter of note about the soon-to-be Governor of Oregon.  I'd be interested in comments address that issue instead of ones that question my lack of awareness.

Like I said. It's a milestone, she's the first ever. The only other LGBT governors in US history came out in the same speech they announced their resignations.