In public, Kitzhaber assured Oregonians he was working diligently with state officials to find a solution for the website’s woeful performance. In private, however, Kitzhaber handed oversight of the Cover Oregon mess to a secretive campaign consultant who liked to call herself the Princess of Darkness.

◼ Newly obtained emails show ex-Gov. John Kitzhaber put his top political consultant in charge of Cover Oregon. - Willamette Week

A year ago, it looked as if then-Gov John Kitzhaber’s biggest headache was Cover Oregon, the $305 million health care website that was pitched as a national model but became a national laughingstock.

Kitzhaber, a Democrat facing re-election, had built a reputation as a health care reformer. But his failure to make Cover Oregon work threatened his legacy....

By her own admission, Patricia McCaig knew virtually nothing about health care reform or the reasons Cover Oregon had crashed. Her primary mission was not to save a beleaguered state program but to get Kitzhaber re-elected.

Emails that Kitzhaber’s office tried to delete from state computers show McCaig was effectively in charge of all decision making for Cover Oregon beginning in February 2014.

Records show McCaig oversaw the decision to shut down Cover Oregon rather than work with the state’s contractor, Oracle Corp., to fix it. McCaig—rather than the governor or state lawyers—drove the decision to sue Oracle. And McCaig routinely directed senior government employees and staff in the governor’s office.

The records also show McCaig and other advisers based many of their moves on polling and how voters’ perceptions of Cover Oregon might affect Kitzhaber’s hopes for re-election.

Kitzhaber didn’t respond to questions for this story.