Oregonian Continues to Give Kitzhaber Pass on Agency Head Diversity, But Still ZERO Minorities and One Less Female.

The Oregonian has published an update on their earlier assessment of diversity in the Kitzhaber administration. 

The updated assessment, based on appointments to commissions and immediate staff appointments, was that progress was " in the works ". Oregonian assessments can be found HERE.  

My earlier assessment HERE, based on a look at 24 agency heads was more skeptical, pointing out the absence of ANY minorities as agency heads and that only 6 (25%) were female.  

I went back and checked and the only two changes to my earlier assessment was the replacement of one white female with a white male (Michael Jordan for Kristine Kautz at DAS) and the replacement of one white male with another white male at Land Conservation and Development ( Jerry Lidz for Richard Whitman).

I can't see 6 months into office how reducing department head female representation from 25% to 21% and having ZERO minority department heads can be fairly viewed with a progress assessment of "in the works", but maybe that's just me. What do YOU think?

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregonian Politifact Digs Into Kitzhaber Administration Diversity, Concludes To Early to Tell.

Oregonian view is HERE, includes link to my earlier post HERE. 

Reporter has indicated to me that he will post link to the diversity report he received from Governor's Affirmative Action Officer, but I don't yet see it posted. 

Pleased that Oregonian says they will continue to track appointments; my feeling is that Kitzhaber is getting a gentleman's pass. I wonder also if Dudley had been elected and had a similar record to date whether he would have   drawn more critical attention from the media, like Kasich did in Ohio.   

(For what it's worth, I voted for Kitzhaber but am in the "trust, but verify" mode based on record to date). 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Correction: Looks Like Kitzhaber Has a Kasich Like All White Cabinet Problem.

Correction: One of my sharp readers caught error in my table showing Erinn Kelley‐Siel as a male. I have corrected that in the table and also changed the female count and percentage to 6, 25% of the current cabinet. 
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Ohio's new Governor has been taken to task for initially appointing an all white cabinet (story HERE, includes update after naming his first minority cabinet member). 

It occurred to me that I didn't know the racial makeup of the cabinet members that Governor Kitzhaber has appointed to date, but I did know that he is letting go a Hispanic member of his cabinet, Victor Merced. 

Based on my research, Governor Kitzhaber currently DOES have a Kasich like problem--all of his 24 Cabinet members appear to be white (and only 6 (25%) are women).  

I constructed the table below after researching on line pictures of the current cabinet members with caveat that it is always possible that my reading of photo does not match racial or ethnic categories. ( Salem Statesman Journal story HERE helped significantly by including consolidated list of Cabinet officials and several photos). 

Comments

1. It is very ODD to me that no mainstream news story about the cabinet appointments that I have yet seen has picked up on the apparent all white nature of the current Oregon cabinet.
2. Looks to me like Kitzhaber has some significant outreach work to do to insure substantial minority and women participation in his cabinet. 

Click to Enlarge

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.