The Oregon Legal Establishment Got Creamed on Election Night

Doctors gained an advantage over lawyers.

Mike Schmidt. (Wesley Lapointe)
By Tess Riski

Multnomah County district attorney candidate Ethan Knight, an assistant U.S. attorney, received a combined $45,000 from the Multnomah County District Attorneys Association and the Portland Police Association, and another $8,500 from current District Attorney Rod Underhill's PAC. But Knight was crushed: Reform candidate Mike Schmidt won nearly three-quarters of votes. And in Wasco County, incumbent District Attorney Eric Nisley lost to Matthew Ellis, a criminal defense lawyer.

Trial lawyers got creamed, too. The Oregon Trial Lawyers Association gave member Christina Stephenson a $29,000 contribution—more than it gave any other candidate—in the Democratic race for House District 33. Dr. Maxine Dexter won 39.6 percent of the vote; Stephenson got 28.4 percent.

The association also gave $5,000 to Laurie Wimmer in the District 36 Democratic primary and $1,500 to the No Fake Democrats Committee. That PAC attacked District 36 candidate Dr. Lisa Reynolds with ads—running on streaming platform Hulu, among other places—for being a contributor to Republican congressional candidate Knute Buehler, husband of Reynolds' childhood best friend. Reynolds won anyway.

Dexter's and Reynolds' victories over the trial lawyer-supported candidates are significant because doctors and lawyers often battle ferociously over medical liability in the Legislature—and that will be a hot-button issue amid COVID-19 deaths. TESS RISKI.

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