Oregon: The Governor's Record

Kitzhaber in Context

I spoke yesterday of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat now receiving a fair amount of scrutiny on ethics issues.

These concerns no doubt cut into his vote total in deep blue Oregon, but he still managed a comfortable 49-46 percent re-election victory last November.

Kitzhaber is now serving his fourth term. He was elected twice and governed from 1995 - 2003, then term-limited out; he returned to office in elections in 2010 and 2014.

As such, the governor has had more influence on the state than any other person for the last 20 years.

This is unfortunate because, in several ways, Oregon is not doing well.  I cite one recent issue and two long-term ones.


The Healthcare Website

Oregon's Affordable Care Act rollout was the biggest flop in the country.  The state allocated $240 million to Oracle America to devise its state program.  When the result proved completely unworkable, Oregon joined the federal Healthcare.gov site.

The state blamed Oracle, a huge and well-regarded tech corporation.  Oracle said Oregon had launched a "smear campaign" and defended its work.

Oracle claims Oregon insisted that the website construction be built on a "time and materials" basis, with micromanagement and repeated change orders frustrating the project.  An Oracle representative said this:

     "That decision was akin to to an individual with no construction experience undertaking
     to manage the processes of designing and building a massive multi-use downtown
     skyscraper without an architect or general contractor."

In fact, Gov. Kitzhaber is a medical doctor.  Even after the website debacle, his 2014 campaign received hefty donations from apparently every healthcare association and group in the state.

Oregon now is paying Deloitte Consulting $35 million to "transition" Oregon to adoption of another state's functional healthcare website.


Weak School Performance

Last month, Education Week released state school rankings.  Oregon's results were embarrassing.

Oregon was ranked 40th in K-12 achievement, just behind Arkansas.

Washington, just north of Oregon, fared much better, ranking ninth.  The states have similar school budgets and similar demographics.

Additionally, Oregon had the fourth lowest high school graduation rate in the country, and the worst graduation rate for white students.

Another survey revealed that 24 percent of Oregon students in grades four through eight missed three or more days of school each month, or 15 percent of the school year.  Not surprisingly, those students were a year behind their peers in reading fluency.

While most states spent the last 10 years making gains on the National Assessment of Educational Process, Oregon's performance stayed flat.

State writers say that the problem seems to be that Oregon's average income and average adult education levels are lower than those in Washington.

So it's the economy's fault, not the state's schools.


State Economy

Gov. Kitzhaber doesn't seem to be concerned about Oregon's economy, however.

On the plus side, he noted recently that Oregon just crossed an important line:  The state now has 2,000 more employed residents than it had in 2007, just before the Great Recession.

On the minus side, there are 234,000 more adults living in Oregon than there were in 2007.  Labor-force participation has dropped from 64 percent then to 60.3 percent now.  The official unemployment rate is the sixth highest among American states.

(One factor may offset the labor force participation rate somewhat.  Oregon has a growing elderly population consisting of retiring  Baby Boomers and -- contrary to the spin about edgy, cool Gen-Y kids moving to Portland -- a lot of senior citizens relocating to the state.)

On the plus side, employment was picking up at an increasing rate in Oregon at the end of last year.

On the minus side, the average wage in the state dropped 3 cents per hour between 2013 and 2014.  Half the new jobs were in retail stores and at government agencies.

These numbers do not suggest economic dynamism.


Where Are the Republicans?

Other deep blue states -- California and Massachusetts and New York, for example -- have elected Republican governors within the last 25 years.  Not Oregon.  Its slow economy, the governor's unseemly ethical problem and shockingly bad school results would make good campaign issues in other states.

But Oregon's GOP couldn't make the sale with the state's voters.

In November, Oregon's voter turnout was very high, nearly 70 percent.  In contrast to a trend of Republican victories across the nation, Oregon re-elected its governor for a historic fourth term, and also re-elected a "vulnerable" Democratic U.S. senator, who won by a crushing 19 points.  The Democratic majority in the state senate also was enlarged.

Voters clearly were following issues.  They approved a measure to legalize marijuana.  Then, over the opposition of the governor and the re-elected senator, they repealed, by 2 to 1,  a 2013 law allowing drivers' licenses for undocumented immigrants.

Oregon's Republicans may be the most bungling bunch of politicians in the country today.