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U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) appeared on Eugene television station KVAL-TV this week to discuss her relationship with a troubled cannabis company whose dealings with former Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan ended her ascendant political career.
Related: Up in Smoke: The Rise and Fall of Shemia Fagan
It’s the first time Hoyle, who was elected to Congress in November 2022, has sat down for a televised interview to discuss the controversy that engulfed her last year. She faces a reelection challenge this year.
As WW has reported, Hoyle had during her four years as Oregon labor commissioner an unusually close relationship with the CEO of La Mota, Rosa Cazares, who was also a Hoyle campaign donor. At the time, La Mota operated more than 30 cannabis dispensaries across the state, a processing facility and multiple farms. The company and its affiliates also incurred millions of dollars in state and federal tax liens and were the subject of more than two dozen lawsuits filed by vendors in Oregon circuit courts alleging unpaid bills.
Cazares and her partner, the owner of La Mota’s many affiliated companies, Aaron Mitchell, are currently under investigation by the FBI—a probe launched last summer after Fagan’s resignation.
Records show Hoyle was a supporter of Cazares and her business ambitions. Under Hoyle’s leadership in 2022, the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries awarded a $554,000 grant to a nonprofit co-founded by Cazares. Texts between the two show that Hoyle at times would help clarify labor policy for Cazares and also agreed to write two different letters of recommendation her behalf. The two also spoke casually about legislation.
The controversy has proved a point of attack for Hoyle’s Republican challenger this November, Air Force veteran and lawyer Monique DeSpain, who has based her campaign heavily on Hoyle’s relationship with La Mota.
During the 17-minute interview with KVAL this week, Hoyle maintained that her relationship with Cazares while she was labor commissioner was no different from her relationship with “thousands” of other business owners. Hoyle also maintains that there was nothing improper about the fact that the apprenticsship program co-founded by Cazares and awarded the BOLI grant turned out to be not legally viable because cannabis remains illegal under federal law.
Below are excerpts of what Hoyle said to KVAL. Watch the full interview here.
On her relationship with Cazares. As WW has previously reported, Hoyle and Cazares frequently texted each other about Cazares’ company, bills before the Legislature, and letters of recommendation Cazares wanted Hoyle to write for her.
“I communicated with thousands of business owners throughout Oregon.”
“My relationship with Rosa Cazares was that which I had with many other business owners. Here’s the deal, La Mota was a cannabis company. The owners defrauded the government. They fooled a lot of people. They had 27 licenses with the state. They acted as if they were operating in good faith, and they lied. They also had people working with them. In that grant, this person, Laura Vega, lied. Lied that she was working with Rosa Cazares, that that money would be sent to them. It is why the FBI has come in to investigate Rosa Cazares, her partner, Laura Vega. I actually support that.”
“My reputation is someone that has an open door. People have my phone number.”
On her agreeing to write two letters of recommendation for Cazares in 2022, according to texts obtained by WW this summer.
“Yes, it is normal. What I did was looked at the information in had available, which is that the state had granted them 27 licenses, in good standing.... These people lied and defrauded the government. I want them held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. But like many other people and other businesses in Oregon, I was taken advantage of, I was lied to.
“As soon as I found out that they lied on the application, tried to defraud the government, I didn’t want anything to do with her and called for them to be held accountable.”
On allegations by Republican Monique DeSpain, Hoyle’s opponent in the upcoming November election, that the congresswoman is under investigation by the FBI:
“That is a bold-faced lie....I did not have an impact on the grant. I both haven’t been contacted, no records of mine have been subpoenaed. What the FBI went to BOLI for was information about where the grant money was given, so they could track how these people defrauded the government.”
On the $554,000 grant BOLI approved for ENDVR, a nonprofit co-founded by Cazares and another cannabis entrepreneur, Laura Vega. As WW previously reported, Hoyle personally advocated for the apprenticeship program and gave the nonprofit a second chance to pitch its program in August 2022 after it bungled its initial application.
“As the chair of the body making the decision, there was a clear firewall between me and the decision-making process...I had no sway.”
“I did not put my finger on the scale. We wanted to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Again, Laura Vega lied, said she was a separate organization from Cazares, that Cazares would be paying into this workforce training program, and the FBI has subpoenaed those financial records.”
(Cazares has always been listed on state business registry records as a leader of the nonprofit.)
On conducting state business on her personal cellphone and finally handing over texts late last year, 11 months after the Bureau of Labor & Industries first requested them, after retaining a lawyer to sift through them:
“I handed my work phone over to BOLI, as I should. What [BOLI was] asking for was my personal cellphone, with all my personal communications, to my family, my husband, my campaign. That’s not public record.”
“I did this voluntarily because I believe in transparency.”