PORTLAND — Another batch of former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s old journal entries from 2002 have become public — and they aren’t kind to his eventual successor, fellow Democrat Kate Brown.
Kitzhaber, in the last year of his second term as governor, battled with legislators of both parties over how to handle a deep budget crisis sparked by a recession that hit Oregon particularly hard. A first batch of excerpts from his journal revealing the depth of his discouragement that year became public last month as part of the release of thousands of emails from the former governor.
The newly released excerpts provide additional detail on Kitzhaber’s thinking throughout 2002 as he repeatedly griped that legislators and lobbyists were too quick to turn to borrowing and other budgetary tricks to avoid raising taxes or making deep cuts.
Kitzhaber complained that “I am out there all by myself” and added that, “I feel like an old bull (moose) with the wolves all around; bleeding from bites, losing strength…pawing at the air in impotent fury and frustration.”
What’s most striking about the new excerpts, however, are his swipes at Brown, who was then the Senate minority leader and hoping to win back the majority in the elections that year.
“Kate Brown and the other democrats are running for cover because they want to be in ‘control,”’ Kitzhaber wrote on Jan. 9 as he began his push for a tax increase. “You can’t tell the D’s from the R’s anymore. No courage and no leadership. Nobody is willing to put their political career on the line for principle.”
Later that month, Kitzhaber wrote that there is “an unholy alliance between the Senate democrats and the House republicans to find an easy way out of this.” In contrast, he said Senate Republicans were willing to accept deeper cuts and House Democrats would accept tax increases.
Brown’s communications director, Kristen Grainger, said that journal entries tend to focus on day-to-day frustrations and differences of opinions. At that time, Grainger added, Brown “had a job to to do, and she did it very well.”
After five special sessions, legislators finally agreed to refer a temporary income tax increase to the ballot. Voters defeated it on Jan. 28, 2003.
The Senate Democrats, meanwhile, under the direction of Brown worked their way into a 15-15 tie with Republicans in the 2002 elections and gained the majority in 2004.
Kitzhaber made a political comeback in 2010, winning an unprecedented third term. Shortly after he was elected to a fourth term, controversy over private contracting work done by Kitzhaber’s fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, led to his resignation.
Brown, who became secretary of state in 2009, replaced Kitzhaber in the governorship.
The journal entries from 2002 were included in a new group of more than 5,000 Kitzhaber emails that were released by the governor’s office on Oct. 6 following several public records requests.
Kitzhaber in 2012 had asked staffers to type up several journal entries from 2002. He did not say in the emails why he wanted to refer back to the events of the 2002 budget crisis.
