Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, May 23, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
How bad does a George Soros-backed district attorney have to be to lose re-election in ultra progressive Portland, Oregon?
That DA, Mike Schmidt, was fired by Multnomah County voters on Tuesday. Schmidt lost to moderate candidate Nathan Vazquez by eight points.
In an interview with local media last October, Schmidt had graded himself an “A” for his performance.
Last week, Schmidt was the focus of an op-ed in the New York Post. He did not get an “A.” The headline: “The man who destroyed Portland.”
In a guest op-ed, Oregon independent journalist Andy Ngo noted how Schmidt became DA in the summer of 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter/Antifa riots and immediately decriminalized most crimes committed by rioters while offering “sweetheart plea deals, under which they wouldn’t serve prison time and would often have their convictions expunged following probation.”
“Antifa member Blake David Hampe, who spent years in prison for a federal child sex crime conviction, was recorded stabbing a black conservative livestreamer during a riot in July 2020,” Ngo wrote. “Schmidt’s office allowed him to plead guilty to only second-degree attempted assault last year and he was sentenced to probation. The victim was nearly paralyzed in the stabbing.”
On Schmidt’s watch, Portland broke its all-time homicide records back-to-back in 2021 and 2022. Non-fatal shootings more than tripled during this time in Portland.
“Big brands REI, Walmart, Starbucks, Target, Nike and Cracker Barrel are among those who have downsized or closed all of their Portland locations, joining the dozens of local businesses who shut down earlier,” Ngo noted.
Since he won in 2020, Schmidt was also criticized by the union that represents prosecutors which ended up endorsing Vasquez. Downtown business groups also backed Vasquez.
The Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries found last year substantial evidence in favor of former prosecutor Amber Kinney, who alleged when she quit in 2022 that Schmidt had created a “workplace culture of fear, intimidation, and retaliation,” and had set women’s advancement in the office back by “decades.”
A senior prosecutor recently accused Schmidt of making decisions regarding promotions and clemency based on political loyalties rather than using policies in place.
Oregon Live reported that even a last-minute influx of cash to his campaign from groups tied to Soros could not salvage Schmidt’s campaign.
Schmidt is the latest progressive DA to be ousted in the U.S. San Francisco voters recalled leftist activist Chesa Boudin in San Francisco two years ago. That same year Kim Foxx in Chicago chose not to seek re-election. Both championed social justice reforms that led to spiking crime in their respective cities.
You’re fired: Portland voters oust Soros DA, 58-42 added by Editor Two on
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