Multnomah County District Attorney’s Race: Schmidt v. Vasquez

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Multnomah County’s district attorney race is among the most contentious political battles in Oregon for the 2024 May primary election.

The race features incumbent Mike Schmidt versus his coworker and bitter rival, Senior Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez. Schmidt handily defeated challenger Ethan Knight with 76.6% of the vote in 2020. However, Schmidt has drawn criticism from his opponent for the record levels of homicides, car theft, traffic deaths and overdose deaths that affected Multnomah County while officials were scrambling to deal with the pandemic, the 2020 riots and the passing of Measure 110.

Schmidt, meanwhile, has called Vasquez’ s approach to handling crime “outdated” and said that the county needs to expand its drug treatment and diversion programs.

“His vision for the role is outdated and narrow,” Schmidt said during the March 14 debate. “His big idea on drugs is to bring back the old, failed community core model that Multnomah County judges rejected years ago.”

The political group “People for Portland” began erecting towering anti-Schmidt billboards around the city in 2023. Schmidt’s campaign has indirectly attributed the billboards to Vasquez.  State business records show that the public-benefit nonprofit corporation is managed by Kevin Looper, a local political consultant who’s worked with former Governors Kate Brown and John Kitzhaber.

“It’s disappointing that conservative DA candidate Nathan Vasquez continues to benefit from this right-wing, dark-money group and its unaccountable deep-pocketed donors,” Schmidt’s campaign said in response to the billboards in January of 2024. “If the people behind these billboards were interested in real solutions to our community’s challenges, they would be advocating for those instead of launching political attacks.”

Schmidt and Vasquez’s rivalry was most recently reignited following last week’s press conference on the arrest of suspected serial killer Jesse Lee Calhoun.  Calhoun — a man previously considered a person of interest in the deaths of four women in 2023 — was indicted on three counts of murder in the second degree and three counts of abuse of a corpse in the second degree in connection with the deaths of Charity Lynn Perry, Bridget Leanne Webster and Joanna Speaks.

Vasquez called out Schmidt for the timing of the indictment, saying that it was politically motivated.

“The delay of the indictment was absolutely political,” Vasquez told KOIN 6 News in a statement provided by his campaign. “... There is an election right around the corner. This tragedy has been compounded by Schmidt’s political ambitions. The families of these women deserve better.”

Schmidt’s Campaign Manager Andrew Rogers, meanwhile, called Vasquez’s response to Friday’s press conference “disgusting.”

“It’s disgusting that Nathan Vasquez continues to exploit and politicize this tragedy,” Rogers said. “What’s important here is securing justice for the victims and their families, our hearts and thoughts are with them.”

A winner will be announced following the May election if a candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. If neither candidate reaches the 50% threshold, a runoff election will be held in November.