Cylvia Hayes

Cylvia Lynne Hayes (née Johnson, born August 10, 1967) is an American consultant who was the de facto First Lady of Oregon as the fiancée of former Governor John Kitzhaber.

Cylvia Johnson was born in August 1967 in Seattle.

Her father, Orville Johnson, was the brother of her mother's first husband.

The family lived near Carnation in King County, Washington and Hayes has described the home as a dilapidated shack with no running water or electricity.

At sixteen, Hayes moved out, stating, "alcoholism and mental illness took a real toll on my parents."

As a teenager and young adult, Hayes worked a variety of jobs including apple picking, catching fryer chickens, training horses, heavy equipment operation, dental assistant, plastic surgery assistant, and working for the King County public works department.

She graduated from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, with a bachelor's degree in 1994, and with a master's degree in 1997.

Hayes' late teens and early twenties have been described as a difficult period in her life.

In 1997, Hayes entered into a green card marriage with an Ethiopian immigrant that ended in 2002.

While in a relationship from 1997 to 1998, Hayes and her then boyfriend placed a down payment on a property in Okanogan, Washington.

Hayes left the relationship in April 1998 and moved to central Oregon in July of that year.

Hayes moved to Bend, Oregon, from Washington in summer 1998 and began a career in clean energy and sustainable economic development.

That year Hayes founded 3EStrategies, a Bend-based clean-economy consulting firm that grew out of the nonprofit organization she launched two years before, called Earth Connections.

As CEO of 3EStrategies, Hayes helped launched the Building Green Council, which is now a component of the Central Oregon Builders Association.

The council was started to make it easier for people to build energy- and resource-efficient homes and commercial buildings, and bring together developers interested in promoting and learning more about green construction.

Hayes was an unsuccessful candidate for the Oregon House of Representatives in 2002, running against state representative Ben Westlund.

She is a member of the Democratic Party.

She changed her party registration from independent to Democratic in February 2002, shortly before announcing her candidacy, and she originally considered seeking a nomination from a minor party, such as the Pacific Green Party.

Hayes lost to Westlund in the November election, with 30.5% of the vote.

Hayes met then-outgoing Governor John Kitzhaber during the campaign.

Hayes published and edited the Green + Solar Building Oregon magazine from 2004 to 2009, created with contributions from writers and photographers throughout the state.

She served as a member and co-chair of the Oregon Renewable Energy Working Group (REWG), which developed the state Renewable Energy Standard, Renewable Fuels Standard, and other clean energy policies.

Hayes campaigned alongside Kitzhaber when he ran again for governor in 2010.

After Kitzhaber was elected and sworn in, Hayes assumed many of the roles and responsibilities of First Lady.

In the 2011 legislative session, she supported the centerpiece of Kitzhaber's economic agenda, Cool Schools energy retrofit program, and also lobbied the Legislature on poverty issues.

In the same year, Hayes was named to a seven-member team charged with writing Kitzhaber's ten-year energy plan, touted by the administration as a path toward Oregon's energy independence.

Since 2012, Hayes has also worked as a professional writer, contributing to online news sources including The Huffington Post and Grist.

Hayes frequently delivered speeches on clean economy during her time as First Lady, such as the 2013 commencement address to Oregon State University.

In October 2014, the Willamette Week and The Oregonian began to focus on an apparent conflict of interest between Hayes' business interests and her relationship to the governor.

The Oregonian then requested messages from Hayes' personal email accounts relating to state business.

In a statement in October 2014, Hayes admitted the "serious mistake" of this previously undisclosed arrangement.

Hayes married for $5,000.

In a statement in 2014 covered by Portland television station KOIN 6 News, Hayes said that the couple planned to use the property for a marijuana grow operation that never materialized.

Willamette Week described her in 2014 as playing a "central role" in the Kitzhaber administration, and she was described as a policy adviser to the governor on clean energy and economic development issues, fields where she had nonprofit and consulting experience prior to becoming first lady.

During her time as first lady, Hayes worked on the Prosperity Initiative that aimed to reduce income inequality in Oregon.

On her personal blog in October 2015, Hayes stated that she had turned over "every email" requested by federal investigators and accused The Oregonian of using her emails to make false allegations and print misinformation.

Shortly before announcing his resignation in February 2015, Kitzhaber made the announcement that Hayes would no longer be connected to the governorship in any way and would have no political or policy role during his fourth term.

In 2015 Hayes launched an independent blog which included a public statement about her appearances in the media that year, and in 2016 she joined Bend-based Issue Magazine as a staff journalist.

Four years after she moved to Bend, Oregon, Hayes ran for the Oregon House of Representatives in District 53 against Ben Westlund, the Republican incumbent, as a Democrat.

She launched her campaign to win the Democratic nomination as a write-in candidate after what she described as a "filing deadline error" kept her from being listed on the ballot.