The kind of insight about a defeated officeholder that is insightful, yet compassionate, and a depth we haven’t seen in Portland legacy journalism for a long time.
Fitzsimmons draws the connections between the power players, real and imagined, in the immediate aftermath of an election for a post almost nobody pays attention to.
I’m still curious how what was originally a 15% lead was reduced (to a still healthy 54/46 split) by what the O called a”massive last minute turnout” of voters.
A fleeting lede at OregonLive/The Oregonian reported last night that Schmidt plans to serve out the rest of his term, which expires at the end of December 2024.
Bizarrely, Schmidt's Wikipedia entry states that he "will concede to Nathan Vasquez on January 1, 2025 at the end of his term." Let's hope this is a muddled Wikipedia contributor's muddled work product. Electoral etiquette (an oxymoron) requires that Schmidt concede when the official results are final at the latest.
Be that as it may, having been sworn in to office several months prematurely in 2020 and resoundingly fired by the voters on Tuesday, Schmidt should do the correct thing and resign right away. Otherwise, in a perfect world, Vasquez would be within his rights to serve Schmidt with a preservation of records letter.
I submit Schmidt's extreme zeal for criminal justice reform must be driven by feelings of animosity of some kind. I do not want to believe that the wreckage he caused resulted entirely from good but misguided intentions.
Thanks for excellent reporting not found anywhere else. There was a time when local papers would jump at the chance to cover that story the way you did, but modern journalism has "moved on." (I'm thinking in particular of Doug Baker, who wrote a fantastic, eye-opening daily column for the old Oregon Journal.)
As for Schmidty, it's anybody's guess what the future will bring in the DA's Office between now and January. His friend the Governor might offer him a plum appointment, which would be the sensible thing to get him to leave and let Vasquez, the people's choice, take over. If Schmidt continues as DA for the next seven months, we will witness a tricky situation never before seen: a defeated DA supervising the future replacement who trounced him in a bitter contest, as well as a chief deputy and numerous senior attorneys who actively supported his victorious opponent. If his misguided policies continue or expand in the interim, his dissenting deputies will be expected to faithfully follow along, notwithstanding their and the voters' rejection of his failed leadership. Not a good prospect for the office or the public.
I expect that, absent the catalyst of the DA we loved to hate, the November election will be another damp squib. If the best you've got to look forward to is recycled Sam Adams, and with our mouth-breathing voters confronted with three (count 'em!) exotic voting methods (which even the candidates don't understand, much less the press), and the usual dismal turnout numbers...well, the true believers will keep their hands on the throttles.
Does anyone around here understand that this is, essentially, the last primary election for any of the local, non-statewide/federal offices? And that the city charter was engineered to flood city council with "minority" candidates? You ready for Candace Avalos?
Well, it felt good to bring down Schmidt. But that's just one ice cube in the iceberg.
Sam Adams is as exciting as a bucket of warm spit. Assuming Adams can defeat the nightmarish Shannon Singleton, it's doubtful he'll be the driven reformer the residents of the County need if they are ever to bring down the dictatorship of the Multnomah County Chair.
Thank you for your work Pamela. Individuals like you have helped the people of Portland recognize that common sense need not be trounced by awful policy. Down with Schmidt!
If you want the pendulum to continue to swing November is a CRITICAL ELECTION. Pragmatic control of the Multnomah Commission is up for grabs as well as the possibility of the same (or not) for Portland City Council. The election of Morzysky (over the Kate Brown endorsed norprofiteer Moyer) and Adams (over “Status quo Shannon Singleton”) is of utmost importance. And if Knotts gets into a runoff with Dixon Jones he would be a key voice in reforming Multnomah County.
Consider donating to their campaigns as well as those of good city council candidates such as Eli Arnold and Sandeep Bali. If the majority are people like Angelita Morillo and Candace Avalos it’s gonna be a course of more mayhem.
Although this group failed in not endorsing Brian Knots they typically do a decent job of endorsing pragmatic candidates.
May 23Liked by Richard Cheverton, Pamela Fitzsimmons
It will likely take some grave personal tragedy or unexpected shift in life circumstances to catalyze him into serious self-examination. I’ve noticed that religious fervor (or should I say fever?) is untethered to the reality of the real world we all have to live in, and takes an enormous amount of time and energy to maintain. When real life collides with “our beliefs about life”, no matter how well intentioned, the cognitive dissonance sometimes collapses the whole framework we’ve been propping up for so long. Sometimes, but not always.
What you witnessed Pamela was a religious gathering of the faithful, the true-believers. A funeral gathering, saying no ill of the deceased, encouraging the congregation to “keep up the fight” and ignoring the root cause of why the candidate fared so poorly, why he succumbed after all the congregation’s “prayers and support”. When one is in a bubble surrounded by the like-minded, it can be very difficult to escape. Difficult, but not impossible.
I once had a boss who was a heavy schmoozer like Schmidt. He lived to attend industry events all over the country where he was a big deal. When we all lost our jobs, he stepped right into his next big gig on the Monday after our last Friday. Schmidt is likely to do the same, except he'll probably continue undermining law and order wherever he ends up.
Yep, in Portland far left progressivism is the new intolerant fundamentalist style secular religion of the predominantly white college educated new arrivals to Portland. They came for the good restaurants, gushing articles of a liberal nirvana and destroyed it. These are people like Mark VanderZanden that you profiled laughing about missiles of canned food being launched from a high rise in the once desirable Pearl District. Yes East Portland elected Vasquez (just like Gonzalez) but remember 46% voted for Schmidt and the nonprofits still control City and County government. Unfortunately I think I’m here for 5 more years. Still looking forward to my exit.
The kind of insight about a defeated officeholder that is insightful, yet compassionate, and a depth we haven’t seen in Portland legacy journalism for a long time.
Fitzsimmons draws the connections between the power players, real and imagined, in the immediate aftermath of an election for a post almost nobody pays attention to.
I’m still curious how what was originally a 15% lead was reduced (to a still healthy 54/46 split) by what the O called a”massive last minute turnout” of voters.
A fleeting lede at OregonLive/The Oregonian reported last night that Schmidt plans to serve out the rest of his term, which expires at the end of December 2024.
Bizarrely, Schmidt's Wikipedia entry states that he "will concede to Nathan Vasquez on January 1, 2025 at the end of his term." Let's hope this is a muddled Wikipedia contributor's muddled work product. Electoral etiquette (an oxymoron) requires that Schmidt concede when the official results are final at the latest.
Be that as it may, having been sworn in to office several months prematurely in 2020 and resoundingly fired by the voters on Tuesday, Schmidt should do the correct thing and resign right away. Otherwise, in a perfect world, Vasquez would be within his rights to serve Schmidt with a preservation of records letter.
I submit Schmidt's extreme zeal for criminal justice reform must be driven by feelings of animosity of some kind. I do not want to believe that the wreckage he caused resulted entirely from good but misguided intentions.
Thanks for excellent reporting not found anywhere else. There was a time when local papers would jump at the chance to cover that story the way you did, but modern journalism has "moved on." (I'm thinking in particular of Doug Baker, who wrote a fantastic, eye-opening daily column for the old Oregon Journal.)
As for Schmidty, it's anybody's guess what the future will bring in the DA's Office between now and January. His friend the Governor might offer him a plum appointment, which would be the sensible thing to get him to leave and let Vasquez, the people's choice, take over. If Schmidt continues as DA for the next seven months, we will witness a tricky situation never before seen: a defeated DA supervising the future replacement who trounced him in a bitter contest, as well as a chief deputy and numerous senior attorneys who actively supported his victorious opponent. If his misguided policies continue or expand in the interim, his dissenting deputies will be expected to faithfully follow along, notwithstanding their and the voters' rejection of his failed leadership. Not a good prospect for the office or the public.
One down...but what's next?
I expect that, absent the catalyst of the DA we loved to hate, the November election will be another damp squib. If the best you've got to look forward to is recycled Sam Adams, and with our mouth-breathing voters confronted with three (count 'em!) exotic voting methods (which even the candidates don't understand, much less the press), and the usual dismal turnout numbers...well, the true believers will keep their hands on the throttles.
Does anyone around here understand that this is, essentially, the last primary election for any of the local, non-statewide/federal offices? And that the city charter was engineered to flood city council with "minority" candidates? You ready for Candace Avalos?
Well, it felt good to bring down Schmidt. But that's just one ice cube in the iceberg.
Sam Adams is as exciting as a bucket of warm spit. Assuming Adams can defeat the nightmarish Shannon Singleton, it's doubtful he'll be the driven reformer the residents of the County need if they are ever to bring down the dictatorship of the Multnomah County Chair.
Thank you for your work Pamela. Individuals like you have helped the people of Portland recognize that common sense need not be trounced by awful policy. Down with Schmidt!
"2016, when the city had grown smug from glowing restaurant reviews in the national media."
Funny and true.
Thank you for this. Strong!
If you want the pendulum to continue to swing November is a CRITICAL ELECTION. Pragmatic control of the Multnomah Commission is up for grabs as well as the possibility of the same (or not) for Portland City Council. The election of Morzysky (over the Kate Brown endorsed norprofiteer Moyer) and Adams (over “Status quo Shannon Singleton”) is of utmost importance. And if Knotts gets into a runoff with Dixon Jones he would be a key voice in reforming Multnomah County.
Consider donating to their campaigns as well as those of good city council candidates such as Eli Arnold and Sandeep Bali. If the majority are people like Angelita Morillo and Candace Avalos it’s gonna be a course of more mayhem.
Although this group failed in not endorsing Brian Knots they typically do a decent job of endorsing pragmatic candidates.
https://futureportland.org/
It will likely take some grave personal tragedy or unexpected shift in life circumstances to catalyze him into serious self-examination. I’ve noticed that religious fervor (or should I say fever?) is untethered to the reality of the real world we all have to live in, and takes an enormous amount of time and energy to maintain. When real life collides with “our beliefs about life”, no matter how well intentioned, the cognitive dissonance sometimes collapses the whole framework we’ve been propping up for so long. Sometimes, but not always.
What you witnessed Pamela was a religious gathering of the faithful, the true-believers. A funeral gathering, saying no ill of the deceased, encouraging the congregation to “keep up the fight” and ignoring the root cause of why the candidate fared so poorly, why he succumbed after all the congregation’s “prayers and support”. When one is in a bubble surrounded by the like-minded, it can be very difficult to escape. Difficult, but not impossible.
I once had a boss who was a heavy schmoozer like Schmidt. He lived to attend industry events all over the country where he was a big deal. When we all lost our jobs, he stepped right into his next big gig on the Monday after our last Friday. Schmidt is likely to do the same, except he'll probably continue undermining law and order wherever he ends up.
Almost cult like….
Yep, in Portland far left progressivism is the new intolerant fundamentalist style secular religion of the predominantly white college educated new arrivals to Portland. They came for the good restaurants, gushing articles of a liberal nirvana and destroyed it. These are people like Mark VanderZanden that you profiled laughing about missiles of canned food being launched from a high rise in the once desirable Pearl District. Yes East Portland elected Vasquez (just like Gonzalez) but remember 46% voted for Schmidt and the nonprofits still control City and County government. Unfortunately I think I’m here for 5 more years. Still looking forward to my exit.