PORTLAND, Oregon — The race for the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office has already proven to be contentious, and on Thursday, the two candidates shared a debate stage for the first time.
Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez blamed District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s former support for Measure 110 as a reason why open fentanyl use has proliferated in Portland’s central city. He also blamed Schmidt for a fractured relationship between the district attorney’s office and Portland Police.
"Sadly, under Mike Schmidt, our community has become unsafe: his failed policies, his mismanagement and his broken partnerships have resulted in record homicides record car thefts, record traffic deaths, record overdose deaths, and really record crime across the board," said Vasquez.
Schmidt acknowledged that the city of Portland is facing challenges but pointed to his policies as helping instead of hurting.
Portland saw record homicides between 2021 and 2022. Since then, the rate has dropped 23%, and gun violence is down.
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Schmidt called his opponent’s policies outdated and narrow, pushing back on the attacks against his time in office while justifying his approach.
"He wants to pretend that every challenge in the world is my fault or some policy; he can't actually draw those lines, strategy, and my style is more like challenge and then what did we do and what's the result," Schmidt said.
"If it's gun violence, we are seeing that go down; it still needs to go down more, and we are working on that. If it's auto theft, we saw the spike, and now, it's going back down," continued Schmidt.
If elected, Vasquez explained what he would tackle first: "The first kind of 90 days are all going to be about building back the partnerships that have been lost. Mike Schmidt broke that very clearly with police, and it's been dysfunctional, and the citizens in our community have been repeatedly hearing and feeling and experiencing that."
Schmidt, a former supporter of Measure 110, backed the passage of House Bill 4002 that recriminalizes public drug use in the state. He said that giving an offender an option for treatment instead of jailtime is key for users and law enforcement.
"We want police officers to have an option that isn't jail to take people to," Schmidt said. "I think voters here in Multnomah County still want people to get help; we all know that jail isn't going to solve someone's addiction problems."
The candidates will debate just weeks before the election on KGW on May 2. The election is May 21.