When Gov. Tina Kotek stepped to the lectern on June 28 to announce her pick for secretary of state, it had been six weeks since her last press conference in Oregon’s capital.

That was on May 17, when Kotek called for “bold leadership from the Legislature” after the revenue forecast released earlier that morning indicated the state would have billions more to spend than previously projected.

In Kotek’s defense, she’s hamstrung a bit because the governor’s office is in the State Library, across the street from the statehouse, while the Capitol undergoes reconstruction. She holds her media events in a ceremonial room at the library.

There currently is no Capitol press room, which is why legislative Democrats and their allies held a lengthy – 15 different speakers! – press conference June 6 on the Capitol steps. The day was so hot that my iPhone repeatedly froze while recording the event.

Gov. Kate Brown’s Capitol press conferences had been streamed live by Legislative Media. Anyone could watch. In contrast, Kotek’s staff has struggled to effectively stream and market her press conferences. Her YouTube channel has only 102 subscribers.

It’s not as if Kotek has spare time. Still, I don’t understand the dearth of capital press conferences, especially during her first legislative session as governor. The lack represents lost opportunities for Kotek to make her case with Oregonians and for state-government reporters to hold her accountable.

After all, Kotek is at ease talking with the news media, more so than Brown. As Oregon House speaker, Kotek routinely held informal media gatherings during legislative sessions, though the number dwindled whenever legislative politics turned problematic. (House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, faithfully held biweekly media roundtables throughout this year’s session. Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, often did as well.)

Among the times when Kotek sidestepped potential Salem press conferences between May 17 and June 28:

• May 23, when she signed an executive order creating the Early Literacy Educator Preparation Council, which is to begin work this summer.

The council’s charge includes developing new standards for training future teachers how to teach literacy and for revising licensing requirements “regarding the science of reading, culturally responsive reading, and writing strategies, with a focus on students who experience disabilities and emerging bilingual students.”

• May 31, when she announced via press release that her attempts to resolve the Republican and Independent senators’ walkout had reached an impasse. However, she had media calls with several Oregon outlets that day, and her schedule that afternoon also listed an interview with the New York Times.

• The week of June 12, when Kotek was alerted that hackers gained access to personal information from an estimated 3.5 million driver license, permit and ID card files, plus other data from Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services. DMV Administrator Amy Joyce and other Oregon Department of Transportation officials finally held a virtual press briefing on June 14. (By the way, Kotek’s schedule that Monday included a meeting about her draft communications plan and a Zoom interview with Vox, a news website.)

ODOT learned of the breach June 1. Kotek’s staff was informed the next day, according to The Oregonian, although the scope of the hack was not yet known.

• June 25-26, following the 2023 Legislature’s adjournment at 4:26 p.m. on Sunday. Just in case, I had kept my Monday morning free, even though Kotek’s staff had not scheduled a press session. (They rarely give much more than 24 hours’ advance notice, which itself is problematic.)

Kotek did answer legislative questions during her State Library press conference on Wednesday, June 28, announcing her appointment of LaVonne Griffin-Valade as secretary of state. I found it curious that Griffin-Valade was not present. Instead, the Governor’s Office scheduled her swearing-in for two days later, June 30.

During this period, Kotek occasionally did individual media interviews. She also has held media sessions in 13 of the 16 counties she’s visited on her One Oregon Listening Tour. I’ve attended seven such press conferences – her staff calls them “media availabilities.”

Kotek will take questions on almost issue. Local journalists mostly ask about local matters, as they should. They rarely have direct access to a governor; however, Kotek said on June 9 in Tillamook that she was considering regional media availabilities for local reporters via video conference.

Aside from the county tours, Kotek has not visited newspapers or other media for in-depth interviews by local reporters and/or editorial writers, instead relying on press conferences, which are less in-depth and comparatively brief. Those events are not streamed, either.

Except for her Yamhill and Morrow county visits, journalists have been barred from attending most of Kotek’s meetings with local officials and agencies. The Astorian reported in a June 10 story about her Clatsop and Tillamook county visits: “Kotek’s staff did not respond to inquiries from The Astorian on Thursday about the governor’s stop in Astoria. On Friday morning, Kotek’s staff shared details about the governor’s stop in Astoria and invited the newspaper to attend a media availability in Tillamook.”

Kotek’s most recent county press conference – for Marion County at a Woodburn middle school on June 22 – was an anomaly. Reporters came from Salem and Portland. They peppered her with state-government questions, including:

• Why she wasn’t in Salem dealing with the Legislature since adjournment was imminent?

Kotek said she had been talking with legislators by phone during the day and could rush back if necessary.

• Why wasn’t Salem included in the Marion County tour, although Aumsville, Detroit, Silverton and Woodburn were?

“I now live in Salem (in Mahonia Hall, the governor’s official mansion). I’ve been reading the paper every single day. … I have been doing some things in Salem and we wanted to make sure that Marion County is not just Salem. So, we wanted to make sure we got to other communities today.”

• Would she call a special session if the Legislature didn’t accomplish all she wanted?

“I think we need to assess where things ended up. We will have a session next February. At this point, I don’t see a need for a special session. We could always do more and we might have disagreements, but I think they are going to end with good budgets and good investments on things that matter. And my job as governor is to implement them and make sure they work.”

• Why wasn’t the DMV data breach announced for several days?

“What I’ve learned by talking to the experts who do this kind of cybersecurity issues, you want to announce a breach like that when you’re prepared to say what the resources are (for affected individuals). … When you let people know that information is being compromised, that also indicates to the people who took the information that now they know what they have. So, you want to be very careful about how you make the announcement.” 

• Had she decided on a new secretary of state?

Kotek said no. “I am still having conversations. I’ve been very distracted by the session, I have to say.”

Six days later, she announced her choice of Griffin-Valade, who in turn said Kotek had recruited her for the job.