Oregonian - "Politics ensnares Portland crime forum as complaints from DA Mike Schmidt force challenger off panel."
Updated: Mar. 04, 2024, 10:13 p.m.|
Published: Mar. 04, 2024, 3:45 p.m.
By Noelle Crombie | The Oregonian/OregonLive
A Portland public safety forum won’t include Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt or his challenger after the DA complained that the gathering was a thinly veiled attempt to spotlight his opponent.
The dust-up illustrates the divisive political dynamics at play in one of Multnomah County’s most-watched races this year.
The Revitalize Portland Coalition helped spearhead the public safety event, which is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. A KOIN anchor is scheduled to moderate.
The coalition represents the “collective voice of Portland commercial real estate” with a focus on “providing feedback and advising public officials on issues of public safety, homelessness, livability, and economic vitality,” according to its website.
Portland real estate mogul Jordan Schnitzer, chairman of the Revitalize Portland Coalition, backs Nathan Vasquez for district attorney. Vasquez works for Schmidt now as a longtime deputy district attorney.
Schnitzer has so far given the Vasquez campaign $75,000, Oregon Secretary of State records show.
Schnitzer on Monday said that the public safety forum is not a political event.
Andrew Rogers, Schmidt’s campaign manager, said the forum was originally pitched as a political debate. Rogers said Schmidt expressed concern about taking part in an event organized by a group chaired by a major Vasquez donor and that Vasquez would be appearing as a candidate and not a prosecutor’s office employee.
Schmidt called Police Chief Bob Day over the weekend to tell him Vasquez “was not authorized to speak at Tuesday’s forum on behalf of the DA’s office, so therefore it may be considered a campaign event,” according to police spokesperson Mike Benner.
Day consulted with Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office and the city attorney and “together they decided that it would not be in the best interest of the Chief to be at something potentially seen as a campaign event,” Benner said in an email.
Day told the forum organizers that he could not participate.
Organizers responded by withdrawing their invitation to Vasquez on Monday, said Erik Cole, the coalition’s executive director.
“Our thought was we would love to discuss all the facets of the criminal justice system,” Cole said. “However, we think our members are going to have the most interest in hearing from the police department and their activities right now.”
Vasquez’s name and photo remain on promotional material for the event. He said he plans to attend as an audience member.
He said he’s “deeply disappointed” that Schmidt declined to participate and “bullied” the organizers into withdrawing their invitation.
“Portlanders deserve to hear from their leaders on what we’re doing to improve public safety in our region,” he said. “I welcomed the opportunity to share my ideas with KOIN’s viewers. Why won’t Mike show up and do the same?”
Others on the forum panel are Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, a candidate for mayor, and Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran.
On Monday, Schnitzer hosted a fundraising luncheon for Vasquez and Gonzalez; he declined to identify his guests.
Schnitzer is an active political donor and in recent months backed a political push to repeal drug decriminalization. Last week, the Legislature responded to that effort -- and to polls showing support for Measure 110 had plummeted -- by passing a bill making drug possession a crime again.
“My chief criticism of any of our elected politicians is if they don’t listen to the broad community or if they don’t listen to the business community, the people in neighborhoods, if they only listened to the social service agencies, then they’re only hearing part of the stories about our city,” he said.
Schnitzer said he’s told friends “if the current politicians don’t want to listen to us, then maybe we need to elect politicians who will listen to all of us. I don’t mean that in any sort of elitist way.”
The public safety forum has been in the works for months, Cole said. He said last year Schmidt told organizers it was too early in the campaign to take part in such an event.
In January, they renewed the idea and “went back and forth for a long time, but ultimately got a no,” Cole said.
He said organizers spoke with Schmidt’s campaign about changing the format. “We even offered to have him without his opponent and they still said no,” Cole said.
County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson also declined an invitation to participate, he said.
Schnitzer’s criticism of Schmidt dates to the early days of his tenure.
Months after Schmidt took office, Schnitzer and other Portland power brokers treated the DA to lunch at the exclusive Arlington Club to critique his handling of downtown protests during the explosive summer of 2020.
Schmidt listened politely, declining Schnitzer’s suggestion that he tap a team of outside lawyers, mostly from white-shoe firms, to audit his policies and practices.
In a statement released Monday, Schmidt said he stands by his handling of protest-related prosecutions and accused Schnitzer of attempting to “install his own private lawyers into my office to ‘audit’ our practices and policies, creating undue private influence in our criminal justice system.”
“Now, he is spending big to replace me with Nathan Vasquez,” he said.
Schmidt and Schnitzer haven’t spoken since the Arlington Club lunch.
“There’s been no contact,” Schnitzer said. “We all offered to meet with him or bring in other business people to meet with him. And there was never any outreach to follow up on that.”
-- Noelle Crombie is an enterprise reporter with a focus on criminal justice. Reach her at 503-276-7184; ncrombie@oregonian."
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~Theresa Griffin Kennedy
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