Another potential liability for Kotek — and one has received less attention in the media coverage of the race — is her ties to Ramiro “R.J.” Navarro, a Democratic candidate for Oregon State House District 21 who “knowingly hired a registered sex offender, convicted of sexually abusing a child younger than 14, on his campaign,” the Oregon-based Northwest Observer reported yesterday. The controversy surrounding Navarro, who is himself a convicted felon, was first reported on Thursday by the Statesman Journal. As the Northwest Observer writes, the issue has already provoked internal turmoil within the Democrat’s campaign:

Democrat Ramiro “RJ” Navarro has made no secret of his felony drug conviction 11 years ago, going so far as to call himself “the second chance candidate.” Navarro put that philosophy into action this summer when he hired a field director with a 2007 conviction for sexually abusing a child to work on his campaign for House District 21. But several people who formerly worked or volunteered on the campaign say Navarro kept them in the dark about the nature of the conviction. …

“I made the decision to hire an individual who paid his debt to society and deserved a chance at meaningful employment,” Navarro said in a statement to the Statesman Journal. “I recognize that this was upsetting…” Navarro said he told his then-campaign manager about the field director’s past on her first day in the job in early August, but did not inform other staffers or volunteers of the man’s conviction. Two former staffers, however, said the former campaign manager did not know the nature of the field director’s conviction until later that month.

According to the Observer, “Court records show the man was convicted in 2007 of one count of sexual abuse, a felony, and sentenced to six years and three months in prison, with an expected release date of 2013. The victim, who was known to the man, was younger than 14 years old when the abuse occurred, according to court records.” But as of this writing, Kotek’s endorsement is still listed on Navarro’s campaign website, and Kotek has yet to comment publicly on the former felon’s retention of a convicted pedophile. And multiple photographs show a smiling Kotek posing for photographs with Navarro.