MULTNOMAH COUNTY, Ore. — Four years ago, Mike Schmidt won his post as Multnomah County District Attorney by a landslide as a progressive prosecutor, part of a national push toward criminal justice reform. He promised to do things like get rid of cash bail and focus on prosecuting violent crimes over lower-level crimes, but now, the political tide may be turning.
A recent poll from The Oregonian found Schmidt trailing his challenger, Nathan Vasquez, by 19 percentage points, with 50% of voters saying they would pick Vasquez and 31% for Schmidt. The poll has a margin of error of +/-5.7%.
Many consider Vasquez a law-and-order prosecutor. He is a senior deputy district attorney who has been a prosecutor in Multnomah County for the past 25 years. The Schmidt camp is trying to convince voters that he's basically a Republican to discourage votes for him.
Yesterday, on KGW's "The Story," we looked at an ad aimed at Schmidt and bankrolled by the Vasquez campaign. Now we're looking at an ad against Vasquez, which is mostly found online:
"Betsy Johnson, failed candidate for governor and machine gun-toting darling of Republican MAGA donors — "
Isn't Mike Schmidt running against Nathan Vasquez? This first line of the ad makes it sound like he's running against Betsy Johnson.
KGW did check with Johnson, and yes, she does have a machine gun. She owns it legally, and she said it's a collectable that has not left the gun safe in 25 or 30 years.
So, while it's true that Johnson owns a machine gun, she claims that there's no toting involved.
A life-long gun owner, Johnson has been pretty open of her support for gun ownership and gun rights, although she moderated her position somewhat during her bid for governor in 2022.
If we're focusing on the donors, Johnson told KGW she was proud to have in-state supporters and downtown Portland business owners contributing to her run for governor.
"Now, she has a darling of her own: Nathan Vasquez. Vasquez is bankrolled by Betsy's rolodex and MAGA extremists."
The Schmidt campaign shared a spreadsheet with KGW that they said shows supporters who gave to Johnson, saying about 40% of the contributions to Vasquez came from Johnson donors. There are some big ones at the top, and many are business owners.
When KGW asked the Schmidt campaign whom they considered "MAGA extremists," they pointed to the Freres Lumber family. Rob and Jane Freres were at the inauguration of former President Donald Trump in 2017, and Freres Lumber hosted Trump's daughter-in-law, Laura, for a campaign event in 2019 — so it's a good bet that they are supporters.
The campaign named three other donors, so a total of four out of more than a thousand individuals who donated to Vasquez.
"We need a DA who stands up to gun lobbyists, not a puppet of special interests."
The Schmidt campaign argues that Vasquez voted "no" on Measure 114, Oregon's tough new gun control law, and that it shows him to be a puppet of special interests. The law has never been enacted as it's been tied up in court ever since it passed.
RELATED: Measure 114 case goes before Oregon Court of Appeals as state seeks to overturn lower court ruling
Vasquez said, through his campaign, that this is the reason he voted no: he wanted practical gun control, not a pro-forma law that would get tangled up in court battles.
The ad also shows text that reads "puppet of right-wing interests," which presumably refers to the aforementioned donors.
"Mike Schmidt is standing up to the NRA, prosecuting gun crimes and working with OHSU to prevent violence. Democrat Mike Schmidt: forward, not backwards."
Those last lines are an effort to let voters know that they can feel safe in Multnomah County; and even though this is a non-partisan race, they want to emphasize that Schmidt is a Democrat, just like a majority of voters in the county.
Vasquez, by the way, used to be registered as a Republican but switched to Independent in 2017 after what he called his disgust with the rise of Trump in the party.
Consensus
As we find with most of the ads, there are some carefully phrased statements that while technically accurate, give an overall impression that may not be as accurate.