Two-Time Bankrupt House Candidate Withdraws

Adriana H. Canas, the Democratic candidate for House District 30 (Hillsboro), has withdrawn from the race after WW revealed that she filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy twice in the past eight years.

"My plan was to fully disclose my financial background," Canas said this morning in a prepared statement, "but the unanticipated events regarding the second bankruptcy and the realities of negative campaigning have made it too difficult to continue."

Canas, a self-employed educational consultant, was challenging incumbent Rep. Shawn Lindsay (R-Hillsboro) in a district with a 10-point voter registration advantage for Democrats. The race was seen as one chance for Oregon Democrats to break the 30-30 tie in the state House.

But bankruptcy court records show that Canas filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in December 2004 and again this February. She said the second filing was to protect her father's home in California after her brother faced medical hardship and fell behind on payments.

"I know I did the right thing by filing for bankruptcy to save my family's home in California," Canas said this morning. "I didn't have to file bankruptcy, but after two years of a never ending black hole of paperwork and misdirection by the banks, the only way to save my father, brother, and sister's home was to file bankruptcy.  Unfortunately politics is not a place that rewards doing the right thing; it instead rewards the campaign with the best sound bite."

WWeek 2015