Oregon Candidate Demands Answers from Gov. Kitzhaber on Oregon Healthcare Debacle

Rep. Dennis Richardson (GOP) is the leading candidate seeking to replace embattled Governor John Kitzhaber, and now he's started what some are calling a "recall" petition.

It's actually an online petition started by the long-time legislator who hails from Central Point, demanding answers about the failed Cover Oregon healthcare exchange.

Richardson, a retired attorney and former Vietnam War vet,  has started the petition demanding Kitzhaber answer some tough questions about why Oregon's healthcare exchange is being used as the poster-child for the failure of Obamacare.

According to Richardson, and corroborated by the ongoing FBI Cover Oregon investigation,   $250 million dollars was wasted over four years on a website that contained over 2,000 errors and never worked.   It was such a miserable failure the feds have actually opened what some are calling a criminal investigation.   Turns out, according to what we've learned so far, the website was actually never operational.  Even without the errors, glitches and  viruses, the website wouldn't have worked because it was never finished.

His petition is designed to put pressure on Kitzhaber, who so far has refused to step up and offer a thorough explanation to it's failure, and has dodged questions from legislators and the media.

In addition, Richardson notes that over 150,000 Oregonians had their policies cancelled due to Obamacare, because they didn't meet the "official" criteria of the Affordable Care Act.

Some are calling it a recall petition, because a recent poll done in the Oregon media shows 51% of registered voters in that state think Kitzhaber should pay for this failure with his job.  A variety of other polls show a wide margin of results.  Two Democratic-sided polls, Public Policy and DHM Research, show a +12 percent margin for the incumbent, but the GOP-leaning Daily Caller poll shows a dead heat, with 44% for each candidate, with the rest undecided.

Oregon media sources say that despite some leads for Kitzhaber in the polls, his re-election is "no sure thing."   Kitzhaber is not known as being as environmentally rabid as his neighbor to the North, Jay Inslee, but he is on the record as believing a carbon tax, or pollution tax, is inevitable...whatever that means.

Many experts believe as more details come out about Cover Oregon's failure, and the public becomes more aware of it,  it will damage his re-election chances - especially if any corruption or criminal charges result from the FBI investigation.