Scandalized Oregon Governor Resigns

The longest-serving governor in Oregon’s history, Democrat John Kitzhaber, resigned Friday afternoon. A Republican state senator said he was invited to the swearing-in of Oregon’s secretary of state, Kate Brown, as governor. Kitzhaber quit amid several scandals involving influence peddling and his fiancée. The most recent of them involve records obtained by Willamette Week and a local Oregon radio station that show Kitzhaber’s office asked last week to have thousands of his personal emails on state computers destroyed. The request was rejected by state employees, though. Kitzhaber and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, are the subjects of investigations by the FBI and the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. Both have lawyered up. "I am confident that I have not broken any laws nor taken any actions that were dishonest or dishonorable in their intent or outcome," Kitzhaber said in a statement.