Portland for All Voter Guide

Portland for All endorses Mike Schmidt to be re-elected as District Attorney (DA) in Multnomah County.

We endorse Schmidt because we recognize the DA's central role within our criminal justice system. Simply put, DAs decide who gets prosecuted in the county and play a key role in ensuring justice is administered fairly. Oregon has some of the highest racial disparities in the nation when it comes to incarceration rates, and Oregon DAs have played a central role in creating it.

During his time in office, Schmidt has taken several concrete steps to reduce racial disparities in the County’s justice system, and make our County safer and stronger for the long term. Schmidt has:

Formed a Justice Integrity Unit: He has been working to correct past injustices by our local DA’s office.

Protected Immigrant Communities: Under Schmidt’s leadership, the DA’s office has adopted immigration-neutral policies recognizing the disproportionate impact misdemeanor offenses can have on undocumented Oregonians.

Created a Measure 11 Step Court and Treatment Courts: These programs help to reduce people are incarcerated because of Oregon’s heinous three strikes laws.

Expanded Bias Crimes Funding: He expanded funding to take on bias crimes, which have skyrocketed with the rise of white nationalism.

Crime rates have also dropped. In 2023, the county's crime rates steeply declined after the nation saw a spike in crime during the pandemic. Schmidt collaborated with local law enforcement, led an Auto Theft Task Force, and worked tirelessly to tackle retail crime. He’s worked to reduce gun violence by focusing on getting guns off our streets. He’s secured funding for research on guns in partnership with OHSU–going against a long-held effort by the NRA to stop any research on gun violence.

Schmidt has done quite a bit to make progress in his first term. A fuller list of accomplishments can be found here.

Drug recriminalization: We disagree with Schmidt’s support of HB 4002, which recriminalized possession of drugs for personal use because history tells us this policy will worsen racial disparities and do little to reduce addiction in our state. We will be expecting Schmidt to ensure that racial disparities prosecution rates do not worsen and to be a champion for investments in treatment and recovery.

Conservative Vasquez will worsen racial disparities, and make all of us less safe.

Prosecutor Nathan Vasquez is running against Schmidt. His campaign has extensive funding from some of the most conservative people and organizations in Oregon, including the Portland Police Association and former State Senator and NRA champion Betsy Johnson. Vasquez is a former Republican who changed his party registration to independent – he’s running like a hard-core conservative.

His platform is to return to the highly discredited “broken windows” policing. This approach has a long, racist history of targeting Black and brown men for minor infractions. It was championed by Rudy Giuliani in New York City and it has led to tragedies. In 2014, New York City police officers killed Eric Garner using an illegal chokehold for selling loose cigarettes on a street corner.

This kind of overcriminalization tends to be on Black and brown people, does not increase safety, and is a key driver of intergenerational poverty. This report by Ella Baker Center and Forward Together illustrated how the families of people with convictions are burdened with fees, fines, and debt–particularly burdening women of color–at the same time that their economic opportunities are diminished, resulting in a lack of economic stability and mobility. Vaquez’s approach will break up families, create instability, and exacerbate intergenerational poverty.

As the largest county in the state, we are deeply concerned that electing Vasquez as Multnomah County DA will harm our region in the long term. We also don’t trust that he will defend Oregonians if Donald Trump is elected President.

Strong NO on Nathan Vasquez

Portland for All endorses Shannon Singleton for the Multnomah County Commission District 2.

The County Commission sets policies and budgets for delivering mental health and behavioral health services, public health, senior, veteran, and housing services in the County. Commissioners also review and approve the budgets for the Sheriff, District Attorney, and Library systems.

Singleton brings unique expertise that is critical to our County Commission. She has nearly 30 years of experience working directly with people experiencing poverty, which gives her insight rarely seen among elected officials. This includes nearly five years as the Executive Director of the SAFE Shelter and JOIN and manager at Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare.

She has hands-on knowledge with expertise in housing policy and served as a policy advisor to former Governor Kate Brown. In 2022, she agreed to manage the Joint Office of Homeless Services temporarily, so she is well-versed in the key issues plaguing this office.

We believe she understands how to improve our region through the County Commission. She is prioritizing:

Housing: Improving our homeless service system and expanding access to safe and affordable housing for our most vulnerable residents (safety includes addressing community concerns about air quality throughout Multnomah County and among my neighbors in North/NE Portland).

Health care: Ensuring that healthcare, particularly Medicaid and county health services, is available, affordable, and secure for working families.

Public safety: Reimagining our public safety and criminal justice system to ensure we have holistic approaches that lead to safer communities.

Singleton is the most prepared and skilled candidate in District 2 for the County Commission. She has the necessary experience and skills to be effective in her role because she deeply understands housing policy, why people are houseless, health care, public safety, and other critical anti-poverty programs. No other candidate brings her depth of knowledge on the issues that the County oversees.

Watch the Feb. 26 PolicyTalks to better understand why we are so impressed with Singleton.

Other notable candidates

Also running in District 2 are Society Hotel Owner Jessie Burke, former Portland Mayor Sam Adams and Nicholas Hara. Here are our concerns about each candidate's candidacy.

While Hara shares our progressive values, he is new to the region and does not yet have enough experience to be successful in the role. His areas of interest are broad and sometimes beyond the scope of County government. We appreciate him, but did not feel he offered a clear enough case for why was running for the County Commission and is the right candidate for the role

Burke is a business owner who has publicly expressed her frustration about poverty in Old Town. While she seems to have a genuine interest in helping to solve the issues challenging our region, she lacks relevant experience in developing policy or budgets in government. She has participated in public processes in the past and displayed an antagonistic and divisive approach that we are concerned would increase the dysfunction and animosity in local government instead of helping us move forward with the right solutions.

Adams has a long and controversial history in the Portland City government. He had some success around transportation issues, as City Commissioner and Mayor prioritizing bikable and walkable streets. However, his record on housing policy is deeply problematic.

As Chief of Staff to former Mayor Vera Katz and then as a Commissioner and Mayor, Adams did little to ensure affordable housing kept pace with the needs in the region as Portland saw dramatic growth. In fact, under his leadership, Prosper Portland (formerly Portland Development Commission), overly invested millions with private developers rather than in affordable units.

As an advisor to Mayor Wheeler, he championed a callous and inhumane plan for the city to invest millions in tent cities for people who cannot afford housing. He was also fired from this role after female employees at the city complained of his abusive behavior. Adams's campaign suggests he can fix the County. However, his track record on the issues and in reports of workplace misconduct is not the kind of leadership we need in Multnomah County.

Portland for All endorses Meghan Moyer for the Multnomah County Commission District. 1.

The Commission sets policies and budgets for delivering mental and behavioral health services, public health, senior, veteran, and housing services in the County. Commissioners also review and approve the budgets for the Sheriff, District Attorney, and Library systems.

Moyer brings a wealth of relevant policy experience to the table. Her past roles include advocating for child-related issues at the National Parent Teacher Association, and strategizing for SEIU Local 503 to represent homecare workers and childcare providers. Currently, she serves as the Director of Public Policy for Disability Rights Oregon. In this role, she focuses on expanding access to mental health services, ensuring a full school day for children with disabilities, and advocating for the rights of people with disabilities to self-determination.

Additionally, Meghan helps elect candidates who support and champion the LGBTQIA+ community as a member of the Basic Rights Oregon PAC.

If elected to the Commission, Moyer's priorities align with our values. She will focus on policies that compassionately and effectively move people into housing, combat drug addiction, increase access to affordable childcare, and deliver critical services to assist those most in need.

Moyer would also invest in infrastructure to stimulate economic development and create family-wage jobs, including new technologies and software systems, to create a sustainable and dynamic foundation for economic growth and job creation.

Her past professional experience and track record set her up for success for the County Commission. We feel confident she will make a thoughtful and effective commissioner supporting humane and effective policies for our region.

Other notable candidates

Moyer is running against several other candidates–Kevin Fitts and Vadim Mozyrsky are most notable.

Kevin is the Executive Director of the Oregon Mental Health Consumers Association. His policy knowledge and laser focus on mental health would be helpful for the County. Our concern came from some of his policy positions outside of mental and behavioral health and his preparation to be a viable and successful candidate.

Mozyrsky is a candidate championed by conservative and wealthy donors. He is an administrative law judge who ran for Portland City Council two years ago, then served on the Charter Reform Commission–and opposed making much-needed reforms to Portland’s outdated and dysfunctional city government.

His campaign names many of the challenges our region is facing but lacks detail and insight into what policies he would support on the Commission. His focus on crime prevention in particular seems a poor fit for the County Commission which has minimal authority or role in addressing this issue. His track record and lack of specifics made us concerned he would be more interested in grandstanding than helping solve the issues facing our region. His experience does not suggest he is equipped to set policies and budgets for programs to address poverty across our region.