Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown says her meeting with Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is facing calls for his resignation, was "strange" and "a bizarre and unprecedented situation."
Brown rushed back to Oregon from Washington, D.C., Wednesday at the order Kitzhaber. Kitzhaber has been hounded by allegations of improper influence peddling over the past four months, and Brown’s hasty return fueled speculation that the four-term governor was stepping down.
Kitzhaber said Wednesday night that he had no intention to resign. However, Brown’s account of her meeting with Kitzhaber, released in a statement Thursday morning, casts the governor in an odd light:
Late Tuesday afternoon, I received a call from the governor while I was in Washington, D.C., at a secretaries of state conference. He asked me to come back to Oregon as soon as possible to speak with him in person and alone.
I got on a plane yesterday morning and arrived at 3:40 in the afternoon. I was escorted directly into a meeting with the governor. It was a brief meeting. He asked me why I came back early from Washington, D.C., which I found strange. I asked him what he wanted to talk about. The governor told me he was not resigning, after which, he began a discussion about transition.
This is clearly a bizarre and unprecedented situation.
I informed the governor that I am ready, and my staff will be ready, should he resign. Right now I am focused on doing my job for the people of Oregon.