PORTLAND, Ore. — The two 2024 candidates for Multnomah County District Attorney will meet for a debate Thursday evening, hosted by KGW and The Oregonian. Here's what you need to know about how to watch and what to expect.
KGW will air the debate live from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, and it will be livestreamed simultaneously on kgw.com, the KGW YouTube page and on KGW+, a free streaming app available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android, iOS and Apple TV.
In addition to questions posed by the moderators, the debate will feature some video questions submitted by KGW viewers.
What to know: Mike Schmidt
While the questions being asked to the two candidates won't be revealed to them or the public prior to the debate, the run-up to the 2024 election has brought forward a few major topics that both candidates have needed to grapple with.
Mike Schmidt became Multnomah County District Attorney at a particularly turbulent time. He was elected in a landslide in May 2020, not long after the first lockdowns for COVID-19. Although Schmidt was not set to take office until January 2021, the abrupt resignation of then-District Attorney Rod Underhill brought Schmidt into the role at the beginning of August.
Having run on a platform of criminal justice reform, Schmidt's election came just before video documenting George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked a nationwide wave of protests over racial justice and police brutality.
Nowhere were the 2020 protests more long-lived than in Portland, periodically boiling over into riots and property damage. One of Schmidt's first big moves as DA — one that critics bring up to this day — was to decline prosecution for about 90% of the hundreds of protest-related cases brought by the Portland Police Bureau.
Importantly, those cases were for non-violent offenses, often for charges like "interfering with a police officer," which could be as simple as a protester not leaving an area quickly enough after police declared a riot.
Still, the move by Schmidt — and his office's subsequent decision to file an assault charge against an officer who struck a photographer with his baton — caused a rift between PPB and the DA's office and became early ammunition for critics.
In the intervening years, Schmidt has been at the helm of the DA's office during a multi-year spike in gun violence and homicides, as well as rampant homelessness and public drug use. And political groups like People for Portland have very publicly laid the blame at Schmidt's doorstep with ads and billboards.
STRAIGHT TALK: Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt discusses prosecution record, relationship with police in wide-ranging conversation
Schmidt generally acknowledges the county's problems, but he's pointed to issues outside of his control — like Oregon's shortage of public defenders and the pandemic — as being significant factors in causing some of them. And he says the actions his office has taken have contributed to a decline in overall crime, homicides, auto theft and retail theft since 2022.
According to Schmidt, he's also been able to revitalize the Multnomah County District Attorney's office by bringing on more prosecutors, rescuing prosecution rates and reviving successful programs that were cut prior to his tenure.
What to know: Nathan Vasquez
Nathan Vasquez is a senior deputy district attorney at the Multnomah County DA's office, which means he's served under Schmidt since 2020. But unlike Schmidt, he's a career prosecutor who has been with the office for nearly 25 years.
Although both Schmidt and Vasquez have worked for the same office, their records are fairly lopsided. Schmidt has a well-documented political record since 2020, but much less in terms of criminal prosecution. Vasquez has an extensive prosecutorial record, but is a political newcomer.
Vasquez attributes record-high homicides in 2021 and 2022 to Schmidt's leadership. He has also called the Oregon drug decriminalization Measure 110 "the failed experiment of Mike Schmidt" due to Schmidt's prior support for the measure.
STRAIGHT TALK: Nathan Vasquez on why he's running against his boss Mike Schmidt for Multnomah County District Attorney
Both Vasquez and Schmidt supported the bill passed this year that recriminalized drug possession, with both of them testifying in support of those efforts before a legislative committee while the bill was still being drafted.
Vasquez has also criticized Schmidt as having a lack of experience. While Schmidt worked as a prosecutor in the DA's office for about 6 years, he spent most of that time on property crimes — meaning he did not work felony cases to any significant degree. Vasquez, on the other hand, has prosecuted some of the most high-profile cases handled by the office.
Schmidt defends his qualifications by saying that the job of district attorney is not one tasked with prosecuting cases, but primarily an administrative and political role meant to oversee a large law firm and build partnerships that aid in prosecution.
Vasquez has suggested that he would be able to mend the relationship between the Multnomah County District Attorney's office and police, getting more prosecutions through increased collaboration.
