Anchorage voters have just elected a leftist for mayor, with the unofficial win of Suzanne LaFrance over Mayor Dave Bronson. LaFrance was the pick of the Alaska Democratic Party and labor unions; Bronson is a Republican.
But to the south of Alaska, in Multnomah County, Oregon, which has been ruled by Democrats for years, soft-on-crime District Attorney Mike Schmidt just lost his re-election bid this week against his own Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez, who has worked in the office for more than 25 years and promised voters he would crack down on the county’s infamous mayhem.
With more than than 167,800 votes counted, Vasquez was ahead with 53.5% and Schmidt lagged at 46%. Schmidt conceded on Wednesday evening.
“While we do not always see eye to eye, I am committed to a smooth transition,” he said at a campaign thank-you event. “Thank you to this amazing community for the support they have shown for this campaign. And thank you for the opportunity to serve these past four years. It is an honor I will cherish for a lifetime.”
The defeat was heard around the country as a warning signal to Democrats that the far left wing of the party is the road to not only urban decay but political ruin. Schmidt was singled out by former President Donald Trump as a radical leftist during speeches in 2020, the year that Schmidt took office. Schmidt used that as a badge of honor in a campaign ad, which you can view here:
Not that Portland is going all-in for Donald Trump. Vasquez would still seem liberal to many Americans, but is a moderate in Portland.
Vasquez served as a prosecutor at the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office for nearly 25 years. Most of his career has been dedicated to ‘person crimes’, working directly with victims of violent crimes and their families, he said.
In 2018, Vasquez took over the “Neighborhood Unit,” which focused on community engagement, and pioneered district attorney’s Strategic Prosecution Unit – a model that uses objective data to inform the decisions and actions of prosecutors and law enforcement, focusing on root causes of criminal behavior and creative solutions to prevent recidivism.
His unit has led some of the most successful prison diversion programs and created the “High Volume System User” model to identify and interrupt some of the most prolific repeat offenders in Multnomah County, his campaign website says.
Vasquez received his undergraduate degree from UC Davis, and later went on to earn his Juris Doctorate at Lewis and Clark Northwestern School of Law, with a specialization in Environmental Law.
He told Oregon Pubic Broadcasting that he’s going to work to make the streets of Portland safer, but that it will not happen overnight.
His task is Herculean: Portland shootings and homicides increased by 300% between 2019 and 2022; in 2022, there were 1,306 homicides, nearly twice as many as San Francisco, which has 25% more population than Portland. Robberies in Portland rose 50% in 2022.
“Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s tenure as Portland’s chief prosecutor has proved controversial since his term began in May 2020—coincidentally, the very month when the anarchist riots kicked off. Elected on a reformist platform, he declined to file charges against most of those arrested for rioting, even when their crimes included burglary and the unlawful use of a weapon. He routinely releases violent criminals within days of their arrest and declines to file charges against violent people if they’re mentally ill,” according to City Journal, in an analysis by Michael Totten titled, “Portland Sobers Up.”
