"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money!" - Senator Everett Dirksen
And while Oregon gov. Kids-hobbler hasn't quite got it up into the billions yet, he's closing in on it: between spending on the defunct CRC and the defunct zombified Cover Oregon "Marketplace", he's topped the half-billion dollar mark already - and in recent days has paid off the former COO for Cover Oregon to the tune of $67,000 to keep her mouth shut. And this week, it emerges that he's paying off their former top IT guy with a $70,000 "contract".
Cover Oregon has given a $70,000 contract to Aaron Karjala, the health insurance exchange's former top technology official, to assist with litigation against Oracle Corp.
Clyde Hamstreet, formerly the exchange's acting executive director, signed the contract with Karjala June 3, less than three months after Gov. John Kitzhaber publicly called for his firing.
And his hand-picked California pal, Carolyn Lawson, who was forced to resign last year as head of Cover Oregon, is also threatening to sue, so the drugstore cowboy'll likely have to cough up another hundred thousand or so to keep her quiet. Perhaps it's time to move the state capitol out east - say, to Crooked River Ranch.
