{"id":1933045,"date":"2023-05-18T04:05:57","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T08:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gov-kotek-aware-of-secretary-of-state-fagans-cannabis-contract-before-audit-went-public\/"},"modified":"2023-05-18T04:08:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T08:08:31","slug":"gov-kotek-aware-of-secretary-of-state-fagans-cannabis-contract-before-audit-went-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gov-kotek-aware-of-secretary-of-state-fagans-cannabis-contract-before-audit-went-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Kotek knew about Fagan&#8217;s cannabis contract before audit release."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgov-kotek-aware-of-secretary-of-state-fagans-cannabis-contract-before-audit-went-public%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1933045&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Oregon&#8217;s Secretary of State Resigns Amid Controversy<\/h2>\n<p>Earlier this month, Shemia Fagan resigned as Oregon&#8217;s secretary of state following the public release of her ties to an embattled cannabis company she was auditing. The controversy has caused quite a stir in the political world, with many wondering how this will affect the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n<h3>Governor Knew of Fagan&#8217;s Activities Before Controversy<\/h3>\n<p>Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/flashback-ocasio-cortez-admits-she-has-no-clue-what-shes-talking-about-immediately-after-attacking-israel\/\" title=\"FLASHBACK: Ocasio-Cortez Admits She Has No Clue What She\u2019s Talking About Immediately After Attacking Israel\">reportedly knew<\/a> of Fagan&#8217;s activities eight days before the controversy hit the press. Kotek and Fagan met on April 19 for a meeting to \u201cdiscuss the legislative session and other topics unrelated to cannabis,\u201d Kotek\u2019s spokesperson told the Oregonian. During that conversation, Fagan \u201cbriefly mentioned\u201d she had bowed out from the audit that was still in process \u201cdue to a consulting contract,\u201d spokeswoman Elisabeth Shepard said in an email to the Oregonian. Kotek claimed she was unaware of the details until the story broke in the news.<\/p>\n<h3>Controversy in Full Swing<\/h3>\n<p>On March 29, the Willamette Week broke the story of Fagan\u2019s connection to La Mota, the second<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gov-kotek-aware-of-secretary-of-state-fagans-cannabis-contract-before-audit-went-public\/\" title=\"Kotek knew about Fagan's cannabis contract before audit release.\">-largest cannabis dispensary chain<\/a> in Oregon. The investigation disclosed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nba-nike-apple-google-silent-on-chinas-crackdown-on-journalists-in-hong-kong\/\" title=\"NBA, Nike, Apple, Google Silent on China\u2019s Crackdown on Journalists in Hong Kong\">company gave<\/a> over more than $200,000 to the state\u2019s top Democrats, including $45,000 to Fagan. In the following days, the publication received another tip about Fagan, setting the controversy into full swing. In late April, it was revealed that Fagan signed a contract with Veriede Holding LLC, whose principals are Rosa Cazares and Aaron Mitchell, the owners of La Mota.<\/p>\n<h3>Protecting Our State&#8217;s Democracy<\/h3>\n<p>Fagan left office on May 8, and her office released a statement saying she\u2019s &#8220;confident&#8221; that an ethics investigation will show that she followed the law and ethical guidelines. It also said she acknowledges her \u201cactions have become a distraction.\u201d \u201cProtecting our state\u2019s democracy and ensuring faith in our elected leaders \u2014 these are the reasons I ran for this office,\u201d Fagan said in the statement. \u201cThey are also the reasons I will be submitting my resignation today.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>What&#8217;s Next?<\/h3>\n<p>Under state law, Kotek has to choose Fagan\u2019s replacement. Kotek said in a May 9 press release that she\u2019ll wait until after the May 19 elections so as not to \u201cdistract from the important work of the staff in the Secretary of State\u2019s office and the elections team who are working to ensure the election goes smoothly.\u201d Deputy Secretary of State Cheryl Myers has been acting as secretary of state in the short term. Her temporary rise was announced in a press release by Kotek earlier this month. Now that the special election has passed, pressure is on Kotek to select a permanent nominee before the regularly scheduled secretary of state election in November 2024.<\/p>\n<h3>Key Takeaways:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Shemia Fagan resigned as Oregon&#8217;s secretary of state following the public release of her ties to an embattled cannabis company she was auditing.<\/li>\n<li>Gov. Tina Kotek reportedly knew of Fagan&#8217;s activities eight days before the controversy hit the press.<\/li>\n<li>The controversy has caused quite a stir in the political world, with many wondering how this will affect the upcoming elections.<\/li>\n<li>Under state law, Kotek has to choose Fagan\u2019s replacement.<\/li>\n<li>Pressure is on Kotek to select a permanent nominee before the regularly scheduled secretary of state election in November 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shemia Fagan resigned as Oregon&#8217;s secretary of state after her ties to a cannabis company she was auditing were made public. Gov. Tina Kotek reportedly knew of Fagan&#8217;s activities eight days before the controversy hit the press. Biden&#8217;s campaign will focus on green policies to appeal to younger voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1933046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[4261,8290,9191,27033,27032,3684],"class_list":["post-1933045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-audit","tag-cannabis","tag-contract","tag-fagans","tag-kotek","tag-release"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1933045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1933045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1933046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1933045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1933045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1933045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}