Multnomah County voters have sent a message in the race for district attorney that they want the job filled by someone who is slow to implement reforms. (Getty Images)
Oregon’s key primaries didn’t seem to send a strong message, with voters sporadically showing what they wanted or didn’t want.
But there were exceptions. Two examples in particular, both at the county level in Multnomah and Yamhill counties, were strikingly clear in demanding a change in direction from what had previously been endorsed. The message in both was unmistakable: extremes in experiments and ideological projects are not welcome, and what we want is a government that works.
The race for Multnomah County district attorney involved perhaps the most controversial political figure in Oregon so far this decade: Mike Schmidt.
Schmidt had prosecutorial and policy experience when he was elected Multnomah DA in a landslide in 2020. He clearly served as one of many “reformed” prosecutors in major cities across the country. On election night that year he said: “The message from Multnomah County voters was loud and clear: They are ready for major reforms in our criminal justice system.”
The problems multiplied quickly even before he started and by the time his predecessor resigned. That was the summer of George Floyd demonstrations in Portland, of prolonged rioting and vandalism, and in the coming months of increased homelessness and open drug use following the passage of Initiative 110. Schmidt’s professed approach of moving away from heavy-handed enforcement was widely less popular. Several of Schmidt’s final statements calling for a crackdown on violence and vandalism did not land well.
Its reputation was also damaged by accusations of weak management. But the core complaint against Schmidt, which reflects widespread polling in Portland over the past four years, is that public safety conditions needed to be vastly improved, quickly and decisively.
Schmidt’s opponent this year, Nathan Vasquez, who has been a prosecutor for 25 years, implicitly called for a return to something similar to what Portlanders gradually implemented during the 30 years the administration was led by Mike Schrunk. manner, but operated in a largely quiet and non-controversial, but professionally effective and politically popular manner.
The law and order message was so clear that it reached the White House. The website Politico reported this“The defeat of a liberal Portland prosecutor by a tough-on-crime challenger has hardened the view among top White House officials that Democrats must further distance themselves from their left flank on issues of law and order.”
Local Republicans may also pay attention to the areas of Multnomah that voted most strongly for Vasquez, on the east side around Gresham but also in parts of west Portland.
A similar message about competence and professionalism, with a very different background, emerged a few miles west in Yamhill County, in a race for county commissioner.
The incumbent was Lindsay Berschauer, a media consultant who was elected to the Yamhill County Commission in 2020. Because she had close ties to the county’s effective Republican organization, she won a four-year term and generally joined Mary Starrett, a former Constitution Party candidate for governor in 2006, on the committee.
Berschauer, now chairman of the committee, became controversial enough to be the target of a recall attempt just two years later; she won that by about the same percentage as in 2020, about 52% to 48%. However, Berschauer did not opt for a cautious approach. She faced more controversy, with culture war issues and the commission’s rejection of a proposed rail-to-trail project that cost the county $2 million.
A feature story in the McMinnville News-Register said this year: “Berschauer seems to enjoy being a lightning rod. A professional political consultant by trade, primarily in the Portland metro area, she publicly defrauded members of the district staff during her first meeting.
Her main opponent this year, David “Bubba” King, presented himself as a non-aligned and non-partisan contender, in opposition to ideologically driven anger and fierce fighting in local government. He made efforts to put a stop to some of that activity in his home area in Newberg, such as in his local school district, and turned his attention to Berschauer in late 2023.
In a three-person primary race, King fell just a handful of votes short of an outright victory, but Bertsschauer’s vote yield fell to about 44%. She will likely fall short in the November runoff.
The result was widely seen as a shift in what a majority of Yamhill voters are willing to tolerate. The county is well to the right of Multnomah, but the core message from voters was similar: Pay attention to the work of the county and put ideology aside.
If there is any similarity in attitudes across the country this fall, that message could be meaningful in the upcoming general election.
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