This story will be updated at 8 p.m. with the first election results

State senator Elizabeth Steiner faces former Lake Oswego City Councilor Jeff Gudman for the Democrat nomination for Oregon Treasurer in Tuesday’s primary election.

The winner will advance to the November general election against Republican Brian Boquist, a state senator from Dallas who is barred from running for re-election in the legislature because he had 10 or more unexcused floor absences during 10 senators’ walkouts during the 2023 session.

Tobias Read, who has been treasurer since 2017, is barred from running again due to term limits. He is running for Secretary of State.

Gudman previously ran against Read in the 2020 and 2016 elections as a Republican. He was a city councilor in Lake Oswego from 2011 to 2018 and chaired the city’s budget committee.

He said he was committed to diversifying voices and experiences at the treasurer’s office by formalizing a transparent advisor process.

Gudman also said his platform included defending pension commitments, taking “meaningful steps” on climate change through corporate governance, and establishing a bipartisan plan around the redirection of kicker revenues. 

Steiner has been a lawmaker since 2011 and co-chair of the legislature’s Ways and Means committee since 2018.

She said she would continue Read’s net zero plan, follow through on the COAL Act introduced during the 2024 legislative session, and expand and grow existing programs including the implementation of a baby bond program.

Steiner also said she would bring together savings programs offered by the State Treasurer’s office into one platform such as a website or app to increase their use and accessibility.

Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on Twitter @DianneLugo

District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s term began as the death of George Floyd at the hands of police sparked nightly protests in Portland and a larger national conversation about criminal justice reform. But in the past four years, progressive DAs and candidates in liberal bastions ranging from the San Francisco Bay Area to Seattle have faced setbacks as frustrations over public safety and homelessness have increased.

Now, political experts are looking to Portland to see whether such issues could spur a similar shift in the city’s electorate. Schmidt is being challenged by one of his own deputies, Nathan Vasquez, who has been a prosecutor in the office for over 20 years.

“Beginning in about 2020, you see this rise of the progressive prosecutor,” said Todd Lochlan, professor of political science at Lewis & Clark College. “But some of those candidates were essentially replaced or recalled, and I think what’s going on now in the DA’s race has something to do with this backlash to what is perceived, correctly or incorrectly, as prosecutors who are not as zealous in convicting people as some might prefer.”

Generally, progressive district attorneys such as Schmidt support finding alternatives to imprisonment and refraining from prosecuting low-level crimes in a bid to reduce incarceration rates and address social inequities in the criminal justice system.

Shortly after taking office in summer 2020, as racial justice demonstrations gripped Portland streets, Schmidt announced that his office wouldn’t prosecute protesters unless they were arrested for deliberate property damage, theft, or the use or threat of force against another person. Interfering with a police officer, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass were cited as examples of cases that his office would decline.

Schmidt also decided that any charge of resisting arrest or assaulting a public safety officer would be “subjected to the highest level of scrutiny.”

During his term, he also created a unit in his office tasked with reviewing prison sentences and wrongful convictions.

Vasquez, endorsed by several police groups, denounced the protester policy, as well as Schmidt’s past support for Measure 110, a ballot measure approved by voters in 2020 that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs.

Amid one of the nation’s largest spikes in overdose fatalities, state lawmakers this year ended up rolling back the first-in-the-nation law and restoring criminal penalties for so-called “personal use” possession. Schmidt supported reinstating the penalties.

“This race is a test of the voters’ tolerance coming out of the challenges of Measure 110 and the protests,” said Paul Manson, professor of political science at Portland State University. “Is there an appetite that’s gone after years of some of these challenges?”

Voter support for progressive prosecutors has been tested elsewhere in the U.S.

Pamela Price, the district attorney in California’s Alameda County, which includes Oakland and Berkeley, is facing a recall in November — two years after San Francisco voters ousted progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin.

Seattle voters in 2021 elected Republican Ann Davison as city attorney over Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, who called for abolishing jails and police.

But in other major cities, efforts to recall progressive prosecutors have faltered.

Two attempts to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, who was elected in 2020, failed to make it to the ballot. The state House in Pennsylvania voted to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner in 2022, but the state’s top court ruled that the impeachment articles didn’t meet the constitutionally required standard, and the state Senate voted to indefinitely postpone the trial. Both men are still in the role.

In Portland, voters have cited homelessness and drugs as top issues in opinion polls. Encampments and public drug use have become increasingly visible, particularly in downtown.

Voters also say crime is top of mind, despite provisional FBI statistics showing that U.S. violent crime decreased last year, continuing a downward trend after a pandemic-era spike. Homicides in Portland hit a record 95 in 2022, but decreased to 73 in 2023, and shootings fell by nearly 22% over the same period, according to Portland police data.

“Generally speaking, tough on crime sells well,” said Lochlan. “Most voters routinely say that crime is important to them. We know that homelessness is a very important issue. And I would expect that if people perceive those problems are not materially getting better, then they would vote for the challenger under the premise that, well, let’s just let someone else give it a try.”

Schmidt and Vasquez are the only two candidates in Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary. The winner will be elected if they get more than 50% of the vote, which is likely because the only other option is to write in a candidate.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.

A young woman died after falling off a cliff while hiking in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge, officials said Monday.

The woman was hiking with friends near Horsetail Falls, about 35 miles (56.3 kilometers) east of Portland, on Sunday. After separating from the group and going off trail, she fell an estimated 50 to 60 feet (15.2 to 18.3 meters), the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said in an emailed statement.

The woman was in her 20s and from the Portland area, the statement said.

Around 4:20 p.m. on Sunday, a 911 caller reported seeing someone fall from a cliff near the Oneonta Trailhead, officials said. A few minutes later, a second caller also reported the fall and said bystanders were performing CPR.

Despite the CPR efforts, emergency responders declared her dead at the scene. The medical examiner is working to determine the official cause of death and notify her family.

The sheriff’s office said it will release her identity once family notifications are complete.