Fixing Fagan's Foibles
Oregon Roundup readers knew soon-to-be-former Shemia Fagan was ethically challenged before it was cool. Her biggest conflict of interest of all continues to threaten Oregon.
Well, that was fun.
In case you somehow missed it, Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan announced yesterday that she would resign following disclosure that she had agreed to moonlight as a consultant for a cannabis business owned by campaign donors. Her resignation is effective May 9. Governor Tina Kotek will appoint a new Secretary of State, who will serve through the November 2024 election.
When I first started writing about Fagan in January, she was hardly a household name, even by Oregon second-tier statewide elected official standards. The thing that caught my attention first was her firing of then-Elections Director Deborah Scroggin.
Scroggin left her job in December, with the explanation that she was burned out on account of all the election conspiracies. Soon, though, someone got ahold of internal Secretary of State communications that showed that, actually, Fagan forced her to resign, in part, because Scroggin refused to include a Democrat candidate’s voter pamphlet statement because it was filed late.
Thus was born Fagan Files Part I, chronicling the Scroggin firing and explaining my view that Fagan had violated the rules of her own agency by including the statement in the voters pamphlet. As I dove into all things Fagan, I learned more about the topic that would obsess me to this day: the fact that she is leading the investigation into a $500,000.00 donation to the Democratic Party of Oregon from a guy named Nishad Singh who just happens to have been an executive at the bankrupt crypto firm FTX. Fagan’s blatant conflict of interest regarding the investigation - she has received over $400,000.00 in campaign donations from the DPO over the years - was the subject of Oregon Dems’ Ticking Timebomb: Fagan Files Part II.
The first two installments of the Fagan Files coincided with my taking the Oregon Roundup in a newsier direction. My theory was that one reason (not the only reason) Oregon government keeps failing, and why Oregonians keep voting for the people who have repeatedly failed them, was a lack of balanced news coverage which led to a lack of critical coverage of elected Democrats when such coverage was warranted.
In Fagan’s case, such coverage was very much warranted. Here’s a rundown of all the Oregon Roundup content we’ve devoted to the soon-to-be-former Oregon Secretary of State:
January 11: The Fagan Files, Part I
March 3: Oregon Scandalrama: the purported $500k donor to Oregon Dems pleads guilty to federal campaign finance charges while OR investigation languishes (podcast)
March 5: Singh Sings: Will Oregon listen?
I think it’s fair to say Oregon Roundup readers and listeners were extremely well-versed in the ethical shortcomings of Shemia Fagan before most anyone else. At times, as I subjected my readers to piece after piece documenting my ever-growing amazement at Fagan’s serial disregard for ethical standards, I wondered if I was the only person who cared.
I’m glad I wasn’t.
It wasn’t my personal obsession - Fagan’s handling of the investigation into the crypto donation to the Democratic Party of Oregon - that brought her down. It was her side gig, which paid more than her full-time public gig, consulting for a cannabis business while her office conducted an audit of the state’s regulation of that and other cannabis businesses, that captured the rest of the media’s attention. Sophie Peel of Willamette Week broke that story, which built upon earlier coverage of La Mota’s - a sister company to the one that hired Fagan - copious donations to Oregon Democrats coupled with allegedly failing to pay a whole lot of taxes.
The cannabis consulting story is an important one highlighting the influence favored folks get in Oregon. But for my money, I think the crypto donation story was and is a bigger scandal, and still hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves outside the Oregon Roundup.
And that story continues after Fagan leaves office.
Absent other action, the investigation into whether Nishad Singh, the purported $500,000 donor, or the Democratic Party of Oregon violated Oregon criminal law remains lodged in the Secretary of State’s office, even after Fagan is gone.
This is a big problem, for many of the same reasons Fagan’s consulting gig was a big problem. We know that DPO officials had back-channel communications with the Secretary of State investigations team. We know the investigative team scrambled to placate the DPO when it objected to the early findings of the team. We know that Molly Woon, until two years ago the deputy director of the DPO, will continue to supervise the investigation into her former employer, unless she resigns or is removed from that position.
The Secretary of State’s investigation into potential criminality arising from the largest donation ever received by the Democratic Party of Oregon is irreparably tainted by the conflicts of interest of Fagan and her subordinates. Earlier this year, I filed a complaint with Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, asking that she exercise her statutory authority to take over the investigation on account of the Fagan’s conflict. Her office told me then that it would take no action on my complaint at that time, in light of Fagan’s ongoing probe.
Oregonians now know better than ever the amount of faith they should place in an inquiry by Fagan into one of her financial backers: none. Rosenblum should take up the Democratic Party of Oregon donation investigation. Governor Tina Kotek should demand she do so.
It is the next necessary step to stem the damage to Oregon state government caused by Fagan’s foibles.
Thank you Jeff for alerting us to the dark side of our state’s government. Amazes me the level of cover-up, whether regionally or country-wide exists to deceive the general public. How many times have we heard from Mayorkas that the border is secure? Oregon needs you and your truth seeking.
Keep up the great work! Something tells me this is just the beginning of the corruption in the DPO. 😬