Mike Schmidt Announces, Prematurely, that he Will Run for Re-election in 2024.

The question now is WHY? Why announce his intentions so soon? Could it be he is operating from a foundation of fear and insecurity? That possibility seems not only likely but probable.

A PREMATURE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Halfway through Mike Schmidt’s disastrous first term, which began in 2020, as District Attorney for the city of Portland, Schmidt felt compelled to announce recently that he will be seeking a second four year term as DA. Schmidt contacted Willamette Week by email and shared this statement: “I look forward to seeing this work through into a second term as district attorney of Multnomah County.”

Mike Schmidt may well want another term as DA, (who wouldn’t?) for the obvious perks and the generous monthly salary afforded the prestigious position of being the DA in Portland. No doubt he needs the work, (to help support his wife and growing family) but not many Portland residents want a replay of his brand of unbalanced, sexist, and terrifyingly uninformed leadership.

Another four years of Schmidt's blatant incompetence does not appeal to Portland residents or the many small business owners who have suffered for years now, due to his callous indifference to their need for public safety.

Hundreds of small business owners have been harassed, assaulted and have been forced to close their doors, (losing everything in some cases). This is happening because of destruction of property, at the hands of criminal Antifa radicals and the often violent squatters, living illegally, in the Fentanyl Street Camps that have dotted downtown Portland and the outer sections of the city for the last two-three years.

Despite winning 77 percent of the vote, back in 2020, (which seems like a lifetime ago) collectively, Portlanders have seen enough of Mike Schmidt.

To say he is disliked among Portlanders is putting it mildly. Take a look at his Twitter page and you’ll see the vitriol, the rage, the frustration of Portland residents who feel completely abandoned by Schmidt, left to fend for themselves in a climate of violence and justifiable fear.

The reality is, Schmidt is despised for what he has allowed to happen to Portland with his pie in the sky fantasies about doing away with prisons and ending “mass incarceration,” as if that is even a remote possibility in a world where most people often behave like savages, anyway.

Just look at the UCR, (Uniform Crime Report) stats that the FBI compiles each year in America and you’ll see that most people behave worse than primates who live in the wild.

Schmidt, running on a seriously idealistic platform, filled to the brim with concepts that can only be described as having dangerous pathological altruism at their core, seemed too good to be true, because his ideas regarding criminal justice reform were too good to be true. They were unrealistic. They were pie in the sky, for a country as troubled and violence obsessed as our country.

His social worker-like platform, which boasted it would inject a “bold, progressive vision” that would magically transform Portland's criminal justice system and hence transform the city, has NOT materialized.

And we all KNOW it. We have seen it. We have lived it.

Schmidt promised a revolution, a drastic change that his “bold” vision would create. Guess what? It didn’t happen because the change like what he was trying to sell doesn’t work that way. You can't have immediate results that drastically alter an entire city in six to twelve months, or even eighteen months. Better public safety changes take tried & true police methods and prosecution methods that work, and it happens gradually, over time. This is what mature people understand, but not men who are as young and inexperienced as Mike Schmidt.

What we have seen since Schmidt took over as DA has been a complete breakdown of the rule of law, a breakdown of social order and a blatant disregard for the most vulnerable residents in Portland — being the women and children, who are the most common victims of crime.

*And this reality has more to do with Mike Schmidt releasing dangerous repeat offenders than any economic issues the Global Pandemic has ever created.

Mike Schmidt doesn’t appear to care about the women and children, (outside of his own home) who struggle and suffer in Portland. But he does care about releasing violent MALE offenders. That is what his brand of criminal justice reform has been all about. MEN. Releasing dangerous male offenders who then go onto recidivate and hurt more innocent people.

We in Portland have seen a complete dismissal of the needs of crime victims, and the loss of human capital that crimes against the Portland workforce produces, when working parents are treated as less important than criminal predators who murder, rob and rape.

When we have a DA who cares more about male offenders lives, wanting to make sure they have access to all kinds of social services, and second, third, fourth and fifth chances, at the expense of struggling families with working parents, children and elderly family members to raise and protect, we have a recipe for disaster.

This breakdown in Portland has occurred because Schmidt does not know how to be a District Attorney. He is too young and inexperienced to know how to lead.

Office politics is something he doesn’t understand. Emotional Intelligence is something he doesn’t understand. Direct and indirect communication styles is something he doesn’t understand. Treating women as equals and with respect, is also something he does not understand or value.

Schmidt is unable to see the bigger picture. Too enamored of his pie-in-the-sky ideas about what public safety should be, he cannot comprehend what actually works to create public safety and maintain it. I know I keep repeating that aforementioned concept but sometimes repetition is necessary and it certainly is here, in this editorial.

Time honored law enforcement methods that have been proven to create and enhance public safety, Schmidt calls, “old school.” In other words, dated, stupid, bad, OLD. His beliefs in this regard illustrate the innate Ageism that is a part of who he is. The Ageism he displays is another indicator of his arrogance, naivety and his youth. He really thinks that his ideas are more important or valid than what has been proven through research, to actually work.

Schmidt is too radical in his approach to know how to maintain the balance between the fight for social justice for all, (a noble endeavor) which includes the fight for social justice for offenders, (also a noble endeavor) and being able to hand down sentences that are fair and just. He does not understand how to implement sentences that will protect the community from predators who seek out the young, the infirm, the elderly and women and girls to victimize, brutalize, exploit and even murder.

This is due in most part to what can only be described as the light touch of a man who is weak and too afraid to incarcerate those people who should and must be incarcerated.

Moreover, Schmidt has little if any regard for Portland police officers, and the suffering or challenges they face as human beings who go into the profession out of an earnest desire to help the downtrodden and make the world a better place. He believes he knows best in every situation, which clearly his track record proves is not the case.

PORTLANDERS DO NOT WANT MIKE SCHMIDT BACK:

In the January 20, 2023 Willamette Week article, announcing Schmidt's desire for another term, the obvious was stated. “Elected in 2020 after campaigning as a reformer of the criminal justice system, Schmidt has spent his first term, so far, battling criticism that his progressive policies are unfit to address rising violence and crime.”

The above statement seems to be an accurate encapsulation of Schmidt’s challenges and overall lack of insight regarding how to perform his duties as district attorney.

WW, in the above quoted article goes on to share the well known ways in which Schmidt approached violent criminals when he first came on, by writing: “Schmidt’s announcement shortly thereafter that he was dropping felony and misdemeanor charges against more than 500 protesters riled law enforcement and invigorated his critics.”

One of the most notable examples of Schmidt's disastrous time in the DA’s office has been the shocking exodus, em masse, of almost TEN highly qualified educated professional women, led by the gifted prosecutor Amber Kinney. Most of these women were attorneys, though one was also a man, and another woman, an advocate for sexual abuse survivors.

Amber Kinney went on to write in a blistering resignation letter: “In the last year and a half, not only has the forward progress women made in our office ceased, but under your leadership women have been set back decades.”

Later on in the letter she writes: “For the first time in my career, and for the first time in decades, there is currently not a single female attorney leading a felony trial unit. This is an embarrassing reality in an office that prides itself on being progressive. …Your poor decision making has left women in the office feeling vulnerable and our opinions inconsequential.”

Kinney also elaborated on Schmidt's alarming and shocking sexism, when she wrote: “Under your leadership, seven consecutive men were promoted or hired into leadership positions. Under your leadership (or in anticipation of your leadership) eight high-level career lawyers have left our office. Seven of the eight are women.”

Most of my friends and my family all agree that Micheal Schrunk and Rod Underhill would never have treated the women attorneys in their offices in the indifferent and arrogant manner Schmidt treated the women attorneys working in the current DA’s office, some of whom actually have more working experience, (Amber Kinney) than he did before he was hired in 2020.

When Schmidt was elected, during the tumultuous nightly riots that left Portland police officers injured, exhausted and overworked, he made an immediate and decidedly negative impression. He accomplished this right off the bat by allowing literally hundreds of violent Antifa radicals, who had broken the law, off the hook by dismissing charges for the felonies these extremists were charged with.

These disturbed criminals behaved more like the fascists they famously swore to fight against. They screamed about “tolerance” yet they demonstrated no tolerance, themselves. They yelled about “no hatred” and yet they conducted themselves hatefully. These sad examples of human flotsam assaulted police, and anyone else, including anyone who disagreed with their radicalism, such as little old ladies, young mothers with children, elderly men and even journalists like the thoughtful, intelligent and methodical Journalist Andy Ngo.

Mike Schmidt made a conscious decision to protect these criminals and allowed them to go free so they could go out on Portland streets and beat up more old people, single mothers, and destroy more small businesses, even Black owned businesses.

A SEXIST AND A ‘MALE ORIENTED’ RADICAL:

Word quickly spread throughout Portland, that Schmidt’s promises of a crime-free utopia were nothing but fantasies by yet another smooth talking, silver-tongued politician who was more interested in what the job of DA could do for him, than what he could do for the residents of the city of Portland.

Not only did Mike Schmidt create a toxic, sexist and extremely hostile work environment for the notable Amber Kinney, and the several other women attorneys he forced out, he also alienated and forced out the sexual abuse activist, “Lead Victim Advocate,” Vanessa Palacio, who like Amber Kinney, also wrote a stinging resignation letter which she shared with the media.

Vanessa Palacios specifically accused Schmidt of not caring about crime victims in a widely read article: “Victim’s advocate quits Multnomah County DA’s Office, says Mike Schmidt failed to protect crime victims.” The loss of Palacio underscored Schmidt’s well known indifference to sexual abuse victims, or their needs, and his overall indifference to women and girls.

What has happened, you may wonder to these many women? Are they employed? Have they lost their homes? Can they pay their bills? Does anyone CARE what happened to them?

No other DA in the past forty years has done this!

By creating a hostile work environment and forcing so many women to leave, in this respect, Mike Schmidt’s time as DA has been historical. It is historically significant, due to the lightning speed with which Schmidt destroyed his own office and ran off so many exceptional women attorneys.

This fact alone doesn’t seem to have caused much concern among the Portland elite, though. The media doesn’t seem to focus on the scandal of what Schmidt did to all these extraordinary women. And there have been no rumors of any repercussions for Schmidt. I guess this is just what happens in a city that is still dominated by white men in power.

And after all, all those women were only… women, right?

WHAT IS SCHMIDT AFRAID OF?

Why, you may wonder is Schmidt worried now, and announcing his intention to subject Portlanders to another four years of his brand of failed leadership? It could be that Schmidt is legitimately concerned he will end up like Chesa Boudin, who was ousted as DA for San Francisco by a whopping 60 percent of San Franciscans.

Boudin was tossed out by a “landslide” vote for what basically amounts to “dereliction of duty” by being an ultra liberal radical. Boudin cared more about criminals than working families and regular citizens. Much like Schmidt in Portland, Boudin allowed the criminals to run San Francisco, while ignoring residents and small business owners needs for some semblance of public safety.

Activists organized the Recall effort and Chesa Boudin was promptly ousted. Good.

Now there is talk of another radical liberal, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, also being removed from office for the same types of serious ongoing issues. It is for these reasons, and the fact that Schmidt is so reviled in Portland that Schmidt is worried that a Recall Effort could be directed at him.

What I have heard is that the tide is turning, Schmidt sees the writing on the wall, and is trying to do damage control. He’s trying to reinvent himself, rewrite the narrative of his failed time as DA, and adopt the ‘get tough on crime’ persona.

Schmidt’s desperate scrambling is so transparent, as to be wholly comical and amusing.

In an excellent article by Portland Monthly Magazine, “Mike Schmidt Doesn’t Want to Be the Next Chesa Boudin,” the fear Schmidt is toiling under is clearly revealed when author Julia Silverman states in the article that Schmidt sent out a mass 2022 email begging his former supporters, (who helped him get elected) to donate to the disgraced DA of San Francisco, Chesa Boudin. He tried to prevent what the people of San Francisco wanted to happen, the ousting of an incompetent leader. That in itself is reprehensible, that Schmidt would think he knows better than thousands of San Franciscans.

Excerpt below from the article and from Schmidt's mass email…

“If we’re going to keep our criminal justice reform movement going strong, Chesa needs your help,” Schmidt wrote to the network of donors that had helped propel him to victory in May 2020, when he won his race with support from a resounding 77 percent of voters. “Will you split a donation between our two campaigns to help us defeat the recall effort in San Francisco? This is a test for our national movement to end mass incarceration. They are coming for Chesa Boudin. And they’re coming for me.”

Schmidt perceives the growing trend and he is afraid. What is troubling about the mass email Schmidt sent to powerful one time supporters is that he would feel such indifference to what the voters of San Francisco clearly wanted. The bottom line is, he didn’t care what they wanted. They don’t matter to him, just as Portland voter’s don’t matter to him, either.

Why would a savvy DA involve himself in the politics of someone from outside Portland politics? Why would Schmidt pen such a thoughtlessly desperate email, in which the core motivation is so transparent and the language so easy for any analytical person to decipher?

“They are coming for Chesa Boudin. And they’re coming for me.”

Conclusion:

Do I believe Mike Schmidt deserves a second chance, perhaps to make things right in Portland, the city I have lived in my whole life?

No.

I do not believe Mike Schmidt deserves a second chance in Portland. The tragic reality is that because of his absurd and radical policies and his general ineptitude, his policies have resulted in several murders. Under his leadership, there were 92 homicides in 2021 and over 100 homicides in 2022, the highest numbers in the entire history of the city of Portland.

Because Mike Schmidt, in his legal capacity as the District Attorney of Portland chose to dismiss charges against violent male predators, those predators went onto commit murder and have devastated the lives of numerous Portland families.

A Portland man, Mohamed Osman Adan, a drug addict and Dead Beat Dad who was rarely employed, and who routinely beat his common law wife, Rachael Abraham, in front of their children, was allowed to post a small bail amount after one of many assaults. This was allowed by DA Schmidt. He and the other male attorneys knew this man was a danger to his wife, but they allowed him to post bail, anyway. Adan, less than 72 hours later, went on to bludgeon and stab Abraham to death in front of their small children who are now wards of the court and essentially orphans. Those three children will live with the horror of that blood-soaked day for the rest of their lives.

Another Portland man, Micheal Forest Reinoehl, who had been arrested multiple times before for rioting and felony gun possession was allowed to go free when DA Mike Schmidt decided not to press charges for the crimes he committed. Reinoehl, also a Dead Beat Dad, with no purpose in life, later murdered Aaron “Jay” Danielson in cold blood, in an unprovoked attack, at an Antifa riot. This was another murder that occurred because Mike Schmidt believed it was more important to release a dangerous repeat male offender than to protect the Portland public.

And after Schmidt allowed another multiple offender to go free, after numerous arrests for violent assaults, that man, Keffer White, soon found an elderly man, Donald A. Pierce, a retired and beloved university professor standing at a downtown bus stop and for unknown reasons proceeded to beat the old man into unconsciousness. Pierce never regained consciousness and died almost two weeks later.

Rachael Abraham. Aaron “Jay” Danielson. Donald A. Pierce.

They would ALL be alive today if Mike Schmidt had protected the city of Portland from these vicious repeat offenders, rather than demonstrate he cares more about criminals than decent Portland residents, including working parents.

This is why Mike Schmidt should not be re-elected and should never be a DA in any other American city, ever again.

Mike Schmidt has done enough irreparable harm to Portland families. His indifference to business owners has resulted in over 160 small businesses closing in Portland, because of the 2020 Antifa riots, including dozens of downtown restaurants, some of which were beloved long-term spots that had been doing well before Mike Schmidt stumbled along and couldn’t seem to do his job.

In closing I will say that I’m known for being an opinionated person, who is not unwilling to share what I really think. It's a burden sometimes to be like this. Because of my outspoken nature, there has been the occasional loss of friendships. I’ve learned to deal with that. It happens. I know many people however, who are just like me in this regard. But I am also a person who can admit my failings and my mistakes.

I was formerly quite critical on Mayor Ted Wheeler, but later, after much reflection, my perception of his time as Mayor has changed. Particularly after he began to implement policies that have been successful in helping to restore public safety to downtown and to the entire city. This includes the sweeps, additional police patrols of certain areas, and the additional street lighting that Mayor Wheeler has organized and implemented.

The sweeps have had a profound impact on downtown Portland, particularly Old Town and China Town. Those areas look infinitely better than they did a year ago. There are fewer wandering Fentanyl addicts and downtown looks far better. It looks like a city that will be able to recover, but again, that will happen gradually, over time.

I also realized that Mayor Wheeler, more than most other mayoral candidates came to the job with sincere aspirations of making Portland a better place. He certainly didn't run for mayor because he needed the money. That fact alone supports my belief that more than most other Portland politicians Ted Wheeler’s motivations are in fact more genuine.

I can admit that I was too harsh in my treatment of Mayor Wheeler, in the things I said about him and in the things I wrote about him. I was a typical frustrated Portlander and I felt helpless, watching my city burn. I wanted to find someone to blame. I wanted to lash out, because my heart was breaking to witness the destruction and the chaos.

But people like Mike Schmidt do need the money, the hefty monthly salary that goes with being the DA, and when it comes right down to it, as far as I am concerned, that is their primary motivation, along with the self aggrandizement of being a person in an enviable position of power. This is just the way things are, this is the way of the world, there is no surprise there.

So, my opinion of Schmidt remains low and that will not change. His incompetence has resulted in so much human suffering and for that he will be held accountable one day.

The history books will remember him for the murders his inaction set into motion and the women he has harmed along the way, the women in his own office and the women and girls he is accused of not caring about, the crime victims. These accusations have come from some of the professional women who formerly worked in his office, before he forced them out with a toxic work environment.

But what should we do, as Portland residents, when a man like Schmidt comes into power and demonstrates he has no ability to listen, or to lead? What should we do when a weak person like that demonstrates they simply don’t care what “the people” want? What should we do when he proves he has no ability to exhibit any common sense when it comes to understanding that some violent offenders simply must be removed from society and incarcerated, long-term?

We need to ask ourselves, is it acceptable to be a crime victim and then victimized again, when Mike Schmidt decides our case isn’t important? Is it okay that the criminal who beat you to within an inch of your life is treated better than you are and given a fifth and a sixth chance, even though that person is an unstable, vicious repeat offender?

We need to ask ourselves what we want for Portland, from a man with ties to Antifa radicals and who has demonstrated his own militant beliefs, forged when he was a young man in college at Vassar. Is this the kind of leader we want in the DA’s office?

If like me, you don’t want a radical militant in office, the best and most powerful thing you can do is refuse to support him. You can refuse to listen to anymore of his lies and self-promoting fiction. And you can refuse to vote for him, when he decides to run for DA in 2024.

I predicted Steve Novick would leave Portland for greener pastures when his testy arrogance destroyed his time as a Portland City Commissioner, and I was right, he left. I now predict that Mike Schmidt will also leave Portland when he is not re-elected. He doesn’t really love Portland. Not in any real or long-term way. He’s passing through, like so many interloper politicians pass through our city.

Mark my words, Mike Schmidt will leave Portland, like so many of them do.

What I hope for all Portlanders who read this commentary, is that they will see Schmidt for what and who he is and they will no longer support him. Don’t vote for Mike Schmidt, and if you can, lead a Recall Effort. Send a message that soft-on-crime, radical polemicists like Mike Schmidt will no longer be tolerated.

We no longer need radical extremists who think they can close down all prisons, and create some utopia where all people, including the most dangerous repeat offenders are free to cohabitate, even those who murder, rob and rape, victimizing women and children in the process.

Don’t vote for Mike Schmidt.

Portland deserves BETTER than a delusional radical extremist who sabotages women and refuses to see his own failings, or listen to people who know better.

And if a surprise candidate decides to run against Mike Schmidt, I hope you will give that person some real, serious consideration.

Thank you for reading this and please give it some thought.

~Theresa Griffin Kennedy

Thank you to my lifelong friend, Victor Eaton, for sending me links and helping me with research and ideas pertaining to this article and its form and focus. Your support is so very appreciated.