Meet Kate Brown, Our New Governor

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Monday, February 16, 2015

Annie Ellison, GoLocalPDX Reporter

Following a dramatic week in Oregon politics, the sometimes controversial, always political Secretary of State Kate Brown will be sworn in as the state’s next governor. 

As the national media spent the weekend pondering the first bisexual governor in America, Brown began setting her agenda for the next two years. 

The announcement of John Kitzhaber’s unprecedented resignation Friday gave Brown, 54, exactly five days to ready herself for the governor’s office, a post insiders say she has had her eye on for years. Statements endorsing Brown poured out of state and civic offices Friday afternoon. 

"As you can imagine, there is a lot of work to be done between now and Wednesday," Brown told a media swarm Friday. Saturday, flanked by Oregon State Police troopers to cut Oregon’s 156th birthday cake, Brown spoke only of the celebration at hand. 

Although well-liked and respected by most House and Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle, Brown is not without opponents in her own party. To supporters, she is competent, experienced and qualified to lead. Critics call Brown ambitious to a fault, and too compelled by special interest groups -- historically unions, but more recently, Comcast.  

Controversy 

“I think she is very beholden to the special interest dollar to the detriment of Oregon citizens,” said former Democratic Senator Charlie Ringo, now an attorney in Bend, Ore.  

Brown, who as a Senator was heavily funded by labor unions, voted against a 2003 measure to reform the Public Employees Retirement System, the same measure she pushed her senate Democrat colleagues to advance. The vote passed, while Brown kept her union support. 

In Jan. 2015, Brown sent a personal letter to the Federal Communication Commission -- that the Verge revealed had been largely ghost-written by a Comcast lobbyist -- endorsing a merger between the telecommunications giant and Time Warner Cable. Over the course of Brown’s two secretary of state campaigns, she received roughly $10,000 from Comcast.  

A 2012 election scheduling snafu for the race of labor commissioner raised eyebrows when Brown, Oregon’s top elections official, moved the measure, originally intended for the May ballot, to November. Republican candidate Bruce Starr sought a restraining order that would have forced Brown to hold the vote in May, alleging the date-change reduced his chances of beating Democratic candidate Brad Avakian. The restraining order was rejected, and Avakian ultimately won. 

25 years in Oregon politics 

Sometimes, a little bit of her Minnesota upbringing slips out when she talks, Brown’s long-time friend and senate colleague Randy Leonard, most recently a Portland City Commissioner, said. 

Brown first entered Oregon politics by replacing House Rep. Judy Shiprack in 1990, who left the post for another position that ultimately fell through. In 1992, she campaigned aggressively and beat Shiprack -- who by then wanted her old seat back -- in an upset victory of just seven votes. 

In 1996, Brown was elected to the Senate, and by 2004 became Senate Majority Leader. In 2009, she was sworn in as secretary of state. 

Former Republican Senate leader Roger Beyer worked alongside Brown during the longest legislative session in state history, in 2003. During the 72nd legislative session, the Senate was split 15-15, Democrats to Republicans. 

“Senator Brown and I, we had our differences, but we worked together,” Beyer said. “Kate’s intelligent, she’s a good politician, but the people of Oregon did not choose her,” he said.  

Kitzhaber statement

Leonard said he is disappointed in his colleague and friend for the statement she released Thursday, Feb. 11 regarding her snap meeting with Kitzhaber the day before. 

Brown was called back from a national conference of Secretaries of State in Washington, D.C. at the governor’s behest, triggering rumors of an imminent resignation. When Brown returned to Oregon Feb. 10 and met with Kitzhaber, he asked why she had come back. 

Brown’s statement characterized the encounter as “bizarre,” “strange” and “unprecedented.”

“I wish of all the things that have happened recently, I wish Kate would have stood by him,” said Leonard. “I’m disappointed she characterized the meeting in any way, when I felt like the inevitable was going to happen.”

In 2009, when then Portland Mayor Sam Adams considered resigning over an affair he had with a teen city hall intern in 2005, Leonard was next in line for the Mayor’s office.  

“I was angry with Sam, but I said nothing to media,” said Leonard. “It could have appeared to look like I wanted the job,” Leonard said.  

Work goes on in Salem

House Rep. Julie Parrish (R- Tualatin/West Linn) said since the legislative session began Feb. 2, lawmakers “burned a few weeks dealing with the drama.” 

Parrish said the pace of bills moving through the house and senate in the first ten days of session reflected a sense among legislators that Kitzhaber’s resignation was on the horizon.
“The pace of the calendar on the bigger bills was ‘lets move a bunch of stuff through the hopper,’” Parrish said. 

The West Linn Rep., along with fellow Republican officials, expressed concern over bills supported by Kitzhaber, and his controversial fiancee Cylvia Hayes, particularly environmental initiatives. Parrish said she hopes Brown will be a calming presence in the Capitol. But, that could change if Brown wants to serve another term. 

“There’s no playbook. The way our constitution is set up, if she wants to run in 2016, she has to start immediately campaigning,” Parrish said. “She’s got a lot of money to raise.” 

Meanwhile, Senator Floyd Prozanski (D-South Lane and North Douglas), said the work has not and will not stop despite the ever-distracting transition of power at hand. 

“We will do our work,” he said. “There’s been no change in our committee assignments.” 

In the public eye 

Brown’s former colleagues say the incoming governor is as ready as she can be for the public scrutiny that will follow Kitzhaber, who leaves office in a cloud of ethical and legal doubt. 

“Kate’s been in politics for a long time, so I don’t think the magnifying glass will be anything unusual for her,” said former state senator Vicki Walker.  Brown came out publicly as bisexual in 1992 in Out and Elected in the USA. 

Parrish, who is leading a transparency package, is calling for Brown’s administration to be open with the public. 

In addition to who she will appoint as Oregon’s next Secretary of State, questions about which policy direction Brown’s administration will take are getting louder -- questions she has pointedly not addressed in the two media appearances made since Kitzhaber announced his resignation. 

“Most governors have a couple of months to think about it after they’re elected,” said Walker. “Kate’s going to have a weekend.”

As the outgoing Secretary of State, Brown can choose any Oregon resident who is a registered Democrat, elected or unelected, to replace her. 

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Related Slideshow: Timeline of Kate Brown’s Life and Political Career

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