PORTLAND, Ore. – Residents of uber-liberal Portland, Oregon just ousted its soft-on-crime, police-hating district attorney on Wednesday, according to reports.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt (D) lost an election to one of his own deputies, Nathan Vasquez, OPB reported. Schmidt first took office in August 2020 at the height of the George Floyd protests/riots. He was one of many George Soros-funded prosecutors riding a national wave to “reform” the criminal justice system. However, it’s been a series of moves that have widely backfired and created a severe lack of confidence in the system.
Shortly after Schmidt assumed office in 2020, he immediately announced that a vast majority of riot-related offenses would not be prosecuted, while also supporting the decriminalization of all drug use.
Portland homicides hit a record high in 2022; the city declared a state of emergency after an explosion in fentanyl deaths; cops resigned en masse — with many citing Schmidt as the reason for their exit, and residents fled, the New York Post reported.
Vasquez, a centrist and former Republican, ran a simple campaign on returning the office to a sense of normalcy. He vowed to actually prosecute crimes and repair ties with police. The voters responded favorably.
Schmidt’s term expires Dec. 31 and he intends to remain in office until that time. Vasquez doesn’t plan to ask Schmidt to step down prior to the end of the year.
Yet Vasquez said, “If that changes, I’ll be ready, willing and able to step in and, and take that, take on that role.”
Schmidt’s defeat in Portland is similar to the 2022 rejection of another Soros-funded progressive who undermined the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office when voters recalled Chesa Boudin.