Uber-progressive Portland, Oregon, just kicked its soft-on-crime, cop-hating district attorney to the curb: Manhattan, take note.
On Wednesday, Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt lost to one of his own deputies, Nathan Vasquez — who ran entirely on a return to sanity.
Schmidt, one of the many woke prosecutors boosted into office by George Soros and affiliated soft-on-crime groups, took over in August 2020 at the height of the George Floyd protests and immediately announced that the vast majority of riot-related offenses wouldn’t get prosecuted.
That December, he supported the ballot measure that essentially decriminalized all drug use.
It was a bad start to what has been a disastrous four years for the Rose City: Homicides hit a record high in 2022; the city declared a state of emergency after an explosion of fentanyl deaths; cops resigned en masse — with many citing Schmidt as the reason for their exit.
It’s no wonder Portlanders have had enough — and that the city has lost 22,000 residents since 2020.
Vasquez, a centrist and former Republican, won by vowing to end public drug use and dealing in Portland, repair ties with police and, essentially, return the DA’s office to its actual purpose — prosecuting crimes.
This follows San Francisco’s vote in 2022 to recall DA Chesa Boudin, another of the hyperprogressive “prosecutors” swept into office around then.
If it can happen in the woke havens of Portland and ‘Frisco, it can happen in the Big Apple.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, our own crime-friendly “reformer,” is up for re-election next year.
He’ll be harder to oust: Both the Portland DA vote and the ‘Frisco recall were nonpartisan elections; Bragg can only be replaced in either the Democratic primary or a general election in a county that’s overwhelmingly Democratic.
But, again, two impeccably liberal towns have realized: Prosecutors who won’t prosecute deserve the boot.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way: Manhattan can send Bragg packing.