MULTNOMAH COUNTY, Ore. — Mike Schmidt and Nathan Vasquez are vying for the Multnomah County District Attorney position, and the race has proved to be contentious. A senior deputy district attorney at the county office, Vasquez is running against his boss, and he's blamed many an issue on Schmidt, from Measure 110 to homelessness.
A particular attack ad on the air aimed at Schmidt is paid for by Nathan Vasquez's campaign, and it's worth fact-checking the claims it makes. Tomorrow on KGW's "The Story," we'll look at another attack ad focused on Vasquez.
Without further ado, we're breaking the ad down, line by line:
"District Attorney Mike Schmidt encouraged the release of violent criminals, and they committed more crimes, including one linked to deaths of four women."
This statement shows links to an Oregonian story from Aug. 16, 2023. It reports that a man, Jesse Lee Calhoun, is a person of interest in the deaths of four Portland-area women, and explains that former Gov. Kate Brown commuted the sentences of 41 prisoners who helped fight deadly wildfires that swept through western Oregon in 2020.
Calhoun was one of those men, and has even written to KGW, claiming he's "no killer." Calhoun is currently at the Snake River Correctional Institution in eastern Oregon on charges unrelated to the women’s deaths. He has not been charged in any of those cases.
RELATED: Prosecutors seek indictment before man linked to deaths of multiple women released from prison
A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said that the office received 59 requests from people who asked to have their prison sentence commuted. Schmidt opposed 34 of them and supported the rest, but the spokeswoman said Schmidt did not give any feedback on Calhoun because they were not given a meaningful opportunity to respond.
The article reports that Brown ended up commuting the sentences of at least 23 people from Multnomah County, including Calhoun. At least two others who were released were later arrested for crimes.
The article itself does not report that Schmidt actually "encouraged" the release of Calhoun, but it is accurate to say he supported and did not oppose commutation for those who were released, and some few were indeed charged with or are suspected of committing new crimes.
"Under Mike Schmidt, we've had more murders than Seattle and San Francisco combined."
With this one, context is important.
If you look at the first three months of this year, it is accurate. Police report that Portland had 22 homicides during that period, while Seattle had nine and San Francisco had eight.
If you look at year-long trends, it's a bit different — Portland did not have more homicides than the other two cities combined in prior years. However, Portland still had more murders than either Seattle or San Francisco on a year-over-year basis starting in 2020.
The ad does not state a time frame, but Vasquez made the same point during a debate here at KGW, so we can assume that's the time frame they mean. Because of that, it's safe to say that the claim is accurate.
"Gun violence at a record high. We must enforce gun laws."
This cites the Portland Police Bureau, stating that shooting incidents were up 48% over the last three years and pins the date at Jan. 20, 2023. In the ad's graph, the numbers are up since 2019 and even above in 2020.
But what the ad does not show is that in 2023, shootings dropped to a number that was below the previous two years, and this current year is trending even lower.
So, that claim in the ad is technically accurate for the period it examines — but does not show the whole picture. Schmidt is still the DA, and if you're going to pin rising shooting rates on him, then you should credit the falling shooting rates to him, as well.
"Under Schmidt, businesses leave because of crime."
That one is mostly true, with some caveats. Crime was the first reason REI gave for leaving the Pearl District — but not the only reason — and Nike had similar cause for abandoning its efforts to reopen its long-shuttered community store in Northeast Portland. Other major retailers and local businesses closed shop in 2023, either not renewing their lease or shutting down altogether.
That said, subsequent investigation has suggested that it's not always so clear-cut as retailers like to claim. When Target closed three Portland locations last year, citing crime alone, they were not the locations most-impacted by crime — according to a CNBC investigation, many of the locations Target closed across the country during that period were "small-format" stores that may have been underperforming.
Consensus
Overall, the ad is accurate, but it's missing context when it comes to shooting statistics and store closures.