Judicial elections should matter to all of us
Don’t miss this opportunity to have your say in Multnomah County
Also, check out this episode of The Schmidt Show podcast on the upcoming Multnomah County judicial elections.
By Mike Schmidt
Contested judicial elections are rare — and that makes this May 19th a genuine opportunity for voters to have a say in who is elected to serve on our Multnomah County bench..
Most judicial seats in Oregon are filled by gubernatorial appointment following a mid-term vacancy, meaning voters rarely get a direct say. When we do, we should treat it as the civic gift that it is.
I know these races matter because a judge once changed the direction of my life with a single word.
Early in my career as a young prosecutor, I stood in a courtroom doing what I was told — advocating for a prison sentence. The man before the court had spent his entire life virtually cycling in and out of incarceration. And there I was, arguing he should go back. Judge Michael Marcus looked at me and asked one question: Why?
Why send this man back to prison when every prior trip had failed to improve public safety — for him or for anyone else? I didn’t have an answer. But Marcus wasn’t pushing one either. He was pointing out that I wasn’t asking the right question. The question he was wrestling with — the one that was actually his to answer — was what decision, made right then, would lead to the best outcome for everyone: for the victim, for the defendant, for our community. I was following a script. He was doing the harder, more honest work. That moment set me on a path of questioning everything we do in the criminal system — a path that eventually led me to run the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission and later serve as Multnomah County District Attorney. One judge. One word.
A judge isn’t there to take sides. They are there to apply the law — but not dispassionately, like a machine processing inputs. A good judge surfaces a perspective that neither advocate has considered. They ask the question no one else thought to ask. They create the conditions for justice, not just its appearance.
That’s what makes these elections so difficult. Candidates cannot ethically tell you how they would rule on specific policy questions — and they shouldn’t. The moment they step onto the bench, they owe every party before them an unbiased reading of how the law applies to the facts at hand. You can’t pre-commit to outcomes and also be a fair judge.
Sometimes, though, there’s more at play than the candidates themselves.
In the race for Judge Adrian Brown's seat, our new District Attorney has actively encouraged an opponent to run against her. He is entitled to his opinion about who belongs on the bench. But aggressive executive branch intervention in judicial elections carries a more sinister undertone: if a DA can target a judge for a list of undisclosed, perceived flaws and drive them from the bench, other judges take notice. That’s a thumb on the scale — a warning shot to the judiciary about the cost of independence. It should concern us whether it comes from the President of the United States or the local DA.
So you have to do the homework yourself. Before May 19, find a house party or a forum where you can hear candidates speak. Read their Voter’s Pamphlet closely. Study the endorsements — they are strong signals about who trusts a candidate and why. If you have a lawyer friend, send them a text. Party labels and policy positions can’t guide you here. You are looking for judgment, ethics, humility, and how a person treats others — especially those with less power in the room.
Judge Marcus didn’t give me the answer — he made me ask a better question. On May 19th, it’s your turn. Make sure you’re asking the right ones.
Mike Schmidt is the General Counsel for Urban League of Portland and the former District Attorney in Multnomah County.