(Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg)

BY GORDON R. FRIEDMAN

Correction appended.

Three months after an Oregon lawmaker was publicly accused of groping female colleagues at the Capitol, uncertainty about what an official investigation might conclude – and how senators in both parties will respond – threatens to destabilize the legislative session that opens Monday.

Lawmakers have big plans to tackle carbon emissions, gun safety, the rewritten federal tax code and more during their five-week session. But looming over all that is the specter of fallout from an unprecedented investigation of Sen. Jeff Kruse, a veteran Republican lawmaker from Roseburg accused by two female senators of unwanted touching and sexual harassment.

Investigator Dian Rubanoff, hired by the Legislature’s top legal officer, concluded her inquiry weeks ago. In accordance with personnel rules, a draft of her findings has circulated among a small circle of lawmakers – Kruse and his accusers, who are keeping quiet about the investigator’s conclusions. A final report is due to go public any day, Capitol officials say.

A special committee is required to convene public hearings on the findings, and the meetings have potential to generate intrigue that overshadows lawmakers’ policymaking.

An uneasy Senate President Peter Courtney told reporters Monday he feels the Kruse hearings will “dominate in ways that we can’t quite understand or know right now.” Courtney, D-Salem, described the allegations against Kruse as “very serious and very disturbing.” He added, “It’s overwhelming. I’m very worried.”

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(Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Portland, left, and Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis.)

Kruse was formally accused of sexual harassment last fall by two Democratic senators: Sen. Sara Gelser of Corvallis and Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward of Portland. Their complaints came amid the rising wave of the #MeToo movement, which prompted women from all walks of life to break their silence and speak out about sexual harassment, particularly by powerful men in the entertainment industry, news media and politics. Gelser was later featured in Time’s Person of the Year feature, which focused on the year’s “silence breakers.”

Gelser said in her official complaint that Kruse touched her inappropriately, including on her breast and upper thigh, on the Senate floor and during committee hearings. She said the misconduct went on for years despite officials' warnings that he should stop. She said Kruse may have sexually harassed as many as 15 women at the Capitol, and she called on senators to expel him. In her complaint, Steiner Hayward said Kruse subjected her to inappropriate touching that continued to the point she would no longer meet alone with him.

After learning of Gelser’s accusations, Courtney in October stripped Kruse of all committee assignments, which significantly dialed back his power in Salem.

Kruse has seldom been back to the Capitol since news of the allegations and his loss of power went public. Even before the investigator’s findings are made public, his presence in the halls of power is likely to generate awkward moments. No elected officials have publicly sided with him and he could be a pariah in Capitol hallways and elevators. He told his hometown newspaper, the Roseburg News-Review, he may watch meetings of committees on which he previously served via closed-circuit TV in his Capitol office.

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(Senate President Peter Courtney ordered the door of Sen. Jeff Kruse's Capitol office removed as discipline for smoking cigarettes in it.)

Kruse also faces the indignity of working in that office with the door having been removed – a sanction Courtney imposed because Kruse continued to smoke inside it, in violation of years-old federal and state laws against the practice and complaints from Capitol employees about the hazards it posed them.

Kruse has acknowledged hugging and touching colleagues, but says none of his conduct was beyond the bounds of normal Capitol behavior or sexual in nature. He has also admitted that he persisted to smoke in his office despite admonishment to stop. This week he told the News-Review that he has no intention to resign.

Gelser acknowledged seeing a copy of the investigator’s draft report, but declined to speak about its conclusions. Steiner Hayward declined to comment. Kruse has not responded to The Oregonian/OregonLive’s requests for comment since November, shortly after it first reported on the accusations against him.

After it is finalized, the investigator’s report will be presented to the four-member Senate Conduct Committee, which must hold a public hearing within 45 days of receiving it. Its members – two Democrats and two Republicans – can recommend no discipline or ask the full Senate to reprimand, censure or expel Kruse.

In a memo to all legislators, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Courtney predicted the committee will begin deliberations while lawmakers are still in session. But in the memo, dated Wednesday, he wrote that he is uncertain when the panel will reach its decision.

It would take the votes of 23 fellow senators to expel Kruse. The Senate has 17 Democrats and 13 Republicans.

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(Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, is chairman of the Senate Conduct Committee)

Sen. Mark Hass, the conduct committee chairman, declined to say whether the investigator found the allegations against Kruse to be credible and would not indicate when his panel will begin hearings.

“It will be very professional. I just can’t say anything about it,” said Hass, D-Beaverton.

Other members of the committee say they know little about results of the investigation.

Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, one of two Republicans on the committee, said, “I have seen nothing.” The other Republican, Sen. Kim Thatcher of Keizer, did not respond to a request for comment.

Hansell said conduct committee members have heard little from Hass about their duties. Hansell said the only other person he has spoken to about the investigation is Dexter Johnson, the legislative counsel. Johnson told The Oregonian/OregonLive last week that Rubanoff, the investigator, is finalizing her report.

The committee’s other Democrat, Sen. James Manning of Eugene, said members have not yet been presented with evidence gathered by the investigator. Manning said the investigation is ongoing and that he’s made an effort to reserve judgment until the results are available. “I have made it a point to avoid conversation or communicating with anyone about this,” he said.

The committee will enter uncharted waters when it holds its hearing. Committee members are appointed annually as a matter of protocol, but have never before deliberated on a formal investigation. The last time it met was in 2015, when former Sen. Chip Shields was accused of pushing legislation that would enrich his family-owned lubricants company. Committee members declared at the time that Shields broke no ethics laws.

“We’re in a place that, from my perspective, we’ve never been there before,” said Manning. “I’m not sure how things will play out.”

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(Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, left, and Senate Minority Leader Jackie Winters pictured in the Senate chamber.)

It’s unclear the full Senate would vote to discipline Kruse even if the investigator concludes Gelser and Steiner-Hayward’s accusations are true. Asked by The Oregonian/OregonLive Monday whether Republicans would back a censure or expulsion vote against one of their own, Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick and Senate Republican Leader Jackie Winters declined to answer.

“We will let the process work,” said Winters, R-Salem. Lawmakers “will deal with whatever that outcome is,” she said.

Political fallout from the conduct committee hearings “could create a mess,” warned Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas. Conduct committee members will likely face pressure to reprimand Kruse, and Boquist said he expects the panel to recommend some form of discipline. “I find it hard to believe there’ll be no action,” Boquist said. “I expect them to do something.”

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(Gov. Kate Brown and Courtney have not called on Sen. Jeff Kruse to resign.)

Many lawmakers have called on Kruse to resign. They include House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland; Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend; Rep. Julie Parrish, R-West Linn; and Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer.

Others notably have not: Courtney and Burdick, the top Senate Democrats, and Winters, the Republican leader. Neither has Gov. Kate Brown. She has decried workplace harassment and praised women who stepped forward to report it. But she has held back from criticizing Kruse by name or calling for him to resign, including when asked about it Monday.

Brown said she cannot predict how the investigation will affect the upcoming session, during which she hopes lawmakers will pass several bills she has introduced. Brown said, “If we learn nothing else, I think we need to make sure people feel comfortable reporting these incidents.”

-- Gordon R. Friedman

GFriedman@Oregonian.com

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman

Correction, Feb. 3: This article has been corrected to reflect that the upcoming legislative session is five weeks in duration, not six. It has also been updated with the correct spelling of Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward's name.