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Three months after her decisive Oregon Senate primary victory, Democratic Party nominee Myrna Muñoz continues to needle her onetime opponent, expressing sympathy and solidarity with a man accused of harassing Sen. Janeen Sollman (D-Hillsboro).
On Aug. 17, the matter escalated, with an account bearing the name “Myrna Munoz” donating $100 to the man’s legal defense fund.
Muñoz’s victory over the prominent and long-serving moderate Sollman surprised many in Oregon political circles. The race was high-dollar, divisive and hinged on the powder-keg issue of data centers. With the support of powerful backers in organized labor and hundreds of door-knocking volunteers, Muñoz successfully painted the incumbent as the candidate of data centers (a charge Sollman vehemently denies). Muñoz ultimately won by more than 5 percentage points—a rare instance of a challenger ousting an incumbent in an intraparty contest in Oregon.
The grudge didn’t lift on election night.
On Aug. 8, Sollman attended a public forum in the Fernhill wetlands in Forest Grove. She tells WW she arrived with a group of about a dozen constituents to discuss clean water management.
Pedro Jahen Garcia-Balderrama, 28, livestreamed his way to the event on Instagram, where he has 26,000 followers. Once Garcia-Balderrama caught up to the group, Sollman says he grew increasingly combative and prevented others from speaking, telling one older man to “shut the fuck up” then saying the same to Sollman when she intervened. Garcia-Balderrama then allegedly removed Sollman’s eyeglasses from her head and threw them in nearby bushes.
A Sollman staff member called the nonemergency police line and Forest Grove officers arrived and arrested Garcia-Balderrama on suspicion of the misdemeanors of harassment and disorderly conduct. Several witnesses and Sollman provided statements.
Following the incident, Muñoz told Garcia-Balderrama in an online comment, “i’m glad you are ok mijo. i was so worried…,” and later on Facebook, “due process is dead if this person is publicly condemned for throwing some glasses while we are being raped, caged, kidnapped - WE HAVE BEEN FIGHTING TO STOP POLITICAL VIOLENCE.”
Facing the two misdemeanor charges, and ordered to appear in court Sept. 29, Garcia-Balderrama launched a crowdfunding account. He writes in the account description on GoFundMe that a friend hired a lawyer for him and he’d like to pay them back. By Thursday afternoon, the account had raised $1,200 toward a $3,000 goal—including a $100 donation under Muñoz’s name.
“Hello, many of y’all know I’m currently dealing with a legal situation in which I’m being made out to be someone l’m not,” he writes. “I’m a working class person living paycheck to paycheck with no means of paying these legal fees … I COULD monetize my Instagram page, but that would compromise my message of spreading the truth.”
Muñoz did not return phone calls or text messages seeking comment, nor did Garcia-Balderrama’s attorney, Ryan Corbridge.
Known by the handle “Brown Wildfire,” and often simply “Brown,” Garcia-Balderrama is a regular and vocal presence at public meetings in the Hillsboro area, notably at recent proceedings of the Hillsboro City Council, before whom he has agitated passionately on the issue of immigration policy and opposition to data centers.
He has no prior criminal record listed in Oregon’s judicial information database.
He’s pleaded not guilty in Washington County Circuit Court.
“I’ve said over and over again that I’m going to show up to politician’s houses with pots and pans to make noise and that makes them ‘fear for their life,’” Garcia-Balderrama wrote on Instagram prior to his arrest. “They act like I’m inciting violence while they commit violence against us every day. I guess saying ‘if we burn, they burn with us’ is passively threatening violence?”
Sollman called the incident an act of political violence and tells WW she still fears for her safety. She says in an era of increasing political division, Muñoz’s actions are “not helpful.”
“Something is going to happen, and this needs to stop,” she tells WW. “There’s a lot of legitimate feelings about data centers, and I have concerns too, but words matter.”
Others have supported Sollman, as well, including former Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, who wrote on Facebook that while in office she was harassed, stalked and accosted.
“Muñoz has already won, why is she still campaigning against Sollman?” Eudaly wrote. “I hope she finds some grace and better judgment before she takes her seat in Salem.”
As a condition of his release from jail, Garcia-Balderrama was ordered not to come within 150 feet of Sollman, her family, vehicle, home or workplace.
In an interview, Jeff Lesowki, first assistant district attorney for Washington County, said the charges against Garcia-Balderrama have nothing to do with his advocacy.
“We don’t base our decisions on people’s political beliefs,” Lesowski says. “As a general rule, we base our decisions on facts.”
Muñoz faces Republican Harold Hutchison in the general election. Given Democrats’ voter registration advantage in Washington County, she’s expected to win handily.
Sollman says she will remain in office until her term is up at the beginning of next year.
