Advertise on podcast: The Schmidt Show PDX

The election news has drowned out a story that could reach Portlanders before any of the ballot results do. At 12:01 a.m. on Monday, November 9, about 800 City of Portland workers could go on strike. They include analysts, coordinators, victim advocates, emergency management staff, and the people who run payroll for the rest of the city. Mike sits down with Kari Koch, president of the City of Portland Professional Workers Union (CPPW). Volunteers organized the independent union in 2023, without help from a big international union, and its members were mostly remote and hybrid workers spread across every bureau. CPPW signed its first contract in June 2025. The wage articles were reopened this year, and ten months of bargaining, then impasse, then mediation have left the two sides far apart. In this episode: * Who CPPW represents, the workers Kari calls “the glue that holds the city together”: Summer in the parks, the Waterfront Park engagement, emergency coordination, city communications, and payroll for 8,000 employees * Kari’s view of Portland’s new form of government: a council that’s more representative, but management positions that have grown 38% in six years while frontline staff grew 7% * What happens when the city contracts work out: a $750,000 classification study that workers had to redo, and a contractor the city was suing while it considered hiring them again * The summer “realignment,” which Kari describes as a cut exercise that ended with some laid-off workers being brought back * CPPW’s council scorecard, and how some incumbents’ questionnaire answers didn’t match their votes * What’s on the table: the union is asking for about 7% over two years (COLAs, small wage increases, and longevity pay), and the mayor has capped it at 3% * What a strike would mean for Portlanders: delays in garbage response, water main and sewer emergencies, public records requests, and city payroll * What a strike means for the workers, from victim advocates who are on call around the clock to staff walking off jobs they care about Also this week: Trash news correspondent Elinor Jones covers Heidi Klum’s severed-hand costume, the truth about historical gravy boats, Martha Stewart’s Halloween misfire, and Tonya Harding’s return to the ice. Check out Elinor Jones at the Trash Report in the Portland Mercury! Kari’s ask for help: * Donate to CPPW’s member hardship fund! * Call 311, ask for the Mayor’s Office, and leave a message asking the city to settle the contract * Join the picket line at City Hall at 9 a.m. on November 9 if no deal is reached Next week: The Season 3 finale 🎉, with a season wrap-up and analysis of the election results. Thanks to our season sponsor, Corbett Hill Wellness Center. Interested in sponsoring next season? Reach out. If you liked this episode, please like, subscribe, tell a friend, and leave a review. Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

Two years ago, Liv Osthus, better known as Viva Las Vegas, put up a billboard telling Portland to “expose yourself to politics.” She then ran for mayor on the idea that the city’s top job should belong to its head storyteller. She’s a Lutheran preacher’s daughter, a longtime dancer at Mary’s Club, a single mom, and a fixture of Portland’s arts scene. She joins Mike to look back on that campaign and to take stock of where the city stands two years into its new form of government. The reunion starts with a swap. Mike still has the “Viva for Mayor” T-shirt Liv gave him on the campaign trail, and he returns the favor with a rare piece of his own: a shirt a supporter made for his election night that cheekily reads “Say Yes to the Schmidt Show.” They talk about what her dad’s ministry and her own have in common, the summer fight over no-parking signs outside Mary’s Club, and why she thinks strip clubs, schools, and the arts should be treated as neighborhood anchors. Viva also gives her read on Mayor Keith Wilson and the new City Council, and she and Mike talk about what Portland could learn from Mayor Mamdani’s “just get it done” approach in New York. She shares her endorsements in the 2026 races, including Shannon Singleton for Multnomah County Chair, and says whether she’ll run for mayor again in 2028. (She plans to decide by spring.) Before that, trash news correspondent Elinor Jones covers Trump’s plan to turn the White House press briefing room back into a swimming pool, the nicotine pouches that got Robert Pattinson into Primetime, and Roseanne and Randy Quaid’s self-funded doomsday-prepper show. Find Viva: On stage at Mary’s Club and on Instagram Liv Østhus Find Elinor: The Trash Report in the Portland Mercury, and @elinorjoneser on Instagram REMEMBER 💡🗳️🫡 Ballots are due November 3. Drop yours off early. Thanks to our Season 3 sponsor, Corbett Hill Wellness. Please support the sponsors that support this show!! If you liked this episode, please rate, review, subscribe, and tell a friend. 🙏 Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

Two weeks ago, Portland Public Schools put a list on the table: 14 schools that could close, including Maplewood, Buckman, Irvington, Sabin, James John, and Peninsula. Parents packed the board meeting so tightly they were pushing through the doors. Behind the list is a district that has lost 6,000 students since 2019, expects to lose another 6,000 by 2032, and faces a $65 million budget hole in the upcoming budget conversation. My guest has to vote on all of it. Rashelle Chase-Miller grew up in PPS, sends her two sons there, and serves as vice chair of the school board, representing North Portland. Two of the schools on the list are in her own zone. When she ran, she was adamant she would never support closures. “I was a better school board member before I was a school board member,” she told me. A year on the board changed her mind, and she explains why. We start with where she comes from. Her mother was among the first students to desegregate Boston’s public schools. Rashelle was an early childhood educator and is now a program director at SMART Reading. Then we get into the plan itself. Rashelle walks through the three scenarios: A closes 14 schools, B closes 11, and C keeps things as they are. The surprise for a lot of people: this isn’t about saving money. Oregon funds schools per student, so a half-empty school gets half the funding but still needs a principal, a custodian, and a front office. Fuller schools can actually mean smaller class sizes, because there are more sections to split kids into. Her strongest argument is the equity math. Today 24% of PPS’s historically underserved students attend fully resourced schools. Under Scenario A, that would rise to 80% within five years. We also cover the chaos at the last board meeting and why it scared her, the superintendent salary controversy (Rashelle argues Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong is underpaid, not overpaid), the $65 million in cuts ahead, and what could happen to closed buildings, from social housing modeled on Austin to senior housing and nonprofit leases. (Mike pitched 14 more McMenamins. The idea did not catch on.) Her ask for listeners: write to the board, be specific, bring solutions, and be kind. Form letters don’t move her. Thoughtful ones do. And call your legislators. Lifting Oregon’s special education funding cap, which reimburses districts for only 11% of students when most serve around 18%, is low-hanging fruit for the coming session. Also this week: Trash news correspondent Elinor Jones on Kelly Clarkson’s $15,000 animatronic bird standoff, Jane Fonda’s donation to the Kotek campaign, and Johnny 5 returning home to Astoria. Follow Elinor at the Portland Mercury Trash Report. Key dates: The superintendent’s final recommendation comes November 17, and the board votes in December. Go to a meeting, send testimony, or contact your board member. This season of SchmidtShow PDX is supported by Corbett Hill Wellness. Thank you for making this show possible. Please support the sponsors that support this show! Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

On November 3, Multnomah County picks a new chair, and for the first time we’re doing it with ranked choice voting. The chair runs a roughly $4 billion government that handles the “people stuff”: homeless services, mental health and addiction care, jails, the health department, libraries, even the animal shelter. Whoever wins inherits a squeezed budget, a city-county homeless services agreement up for renegotiation, and a public that’s short on patience. This week I sat down with one of the three candidates, Commissioner Shannon Singleton. Shannon is a trained social worker who has spent her career inside the housing and homelessness system. She worked at Cascadia Behavioral Health and the Portland Housing Bureau, ran JOIN, advised Governor Kate Brown on housing and racial justice, served as interim director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services, and in 2024 was elected to represent north and northeast Portland on the county commission. Here’s the twist most people don’t know: her District 2 seat is on the same ballot as the chair’s race. To run for chair, she had to give up the job she has now. In this episode: * The childhood memory that set her on this path, and how an accounting major ended up in social work * Marching from Philly to New York, and working with survivors in a small New Mexico town * The woman who lived at the SAFE shelter for nearly three years, and why Shannon fought the rules to keep her there * How a data nerd went from Housing First skeptic to believer * Why she gave up a likely reelection to run for chair * Her management philosophy: asking “what will it take?” instead of “why can’t we?” * Why HR 1’s Medicaid cuts scare her, and what the county can do about it * 720 deeply affordable apartments in the pipeline against a need of 36,000 * A positive vision for Portland: Preschool for All, the creative economy, and murals * Flipping the budget process so it starts with outcomes and the people served * What “progressive” means when everyone claims the label * The endorsement that means the most to her * Tales from the trail: doorknocks, forums, and the snack bin in her back seat Learn more: ShannonSingleton.org, where you can also sign up to knock doors or write postcards. Vote: Ballots go out October 14. Rank your choices and return your ballot by November 3. Missed our episode with former County Chair Deborah Kafoury? Go back and listen. It’s the perfect primer on what this job actually is. Thanks to our Season 3 sponsor, Corbett Hill Wellness. If your business or organization wants to support independent civic media in Portland, reach out. If you got something out of this episode, share it with a friend who’s still figuring out how to rank this race. Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

We’re less than a month from Election Day, and the headlines are worrying. The president is attacking vote-by-mail. The DOJ is threatening election officials. People are talking about ICE at drop boxes, and some Oregon ballots are likely to be rejected because the mail is too slow. So I went straight to the person running Oregon’s elections: Secretary of State Tobias Read, who at 6’7” is also the tallest guest in Schmidt Show history. What we covered: * The job you didn’t know he has. The Secretary of State is also Oregon’s auditor, and his office built a statewide risk map to decide where to look first. * Playing defense against D.C. Federal election-security staff vanished days into his term. Since then Oregon has faced an executive order trying to rewrite election law, the SAVE Act, and a push to use a flawed federal database to check voters’ citizenship. * “No, thanks.” The DOJ sued Oregon for its voter data. The judge tossed the case from the bench, and the feds are now 0-for-25 nationally. * Why late ballots are piling up. All of Oregon’s mail now gets postmarked at one facility in Portland, which is why 7,314 primary ballots were rejected for late postmarks in this years primary. * More drop boxes. About 20 new ones are coming, and BallotTrax text alerts are going statewide - sign up for BallotTrax when it becomes available in your jurisdiction. * The fraud myth. Over 19 years and 60.9 million ballots examined in Oregon, ONLY 38 cases of improper voting during that entire period. * Lightning round. What to do about ICE at drop boxes, the National Guard, hacking, a canceled election, or a refusal to certify. On that last one, Read’s answer: Oregon certifies its own results. Key dates 📆 * Oct 13: Register or update your address * Oct 14: Ballots mailed * Oct 21: No ballot yet? Call your county clerk. * Oct 27: Last day to mail safely * Nov 3: Election Day. Ballots are due by 8 p.m. The short version: Use a drop box. Any drop box in Oregon works. If you’re mailing, send it a week early or ask the post office for a hand postmark. Check your voter registration status at OregonVotes.gov. Your homework: Check your registration, talk to a neighbor, and don’t let fear keep you home. VOTE! Thanks to our sponsor, Corbett Hill Wellness. If you’d like to sponsor the show, reach out. And if you liked this one, leave a review, tell a friend, or share it. See you next week! Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

The next time you fill up your car or board a plane at PDX, ask yourself where that fuel came from. For about 90% of Oregon, the answer is a six-mile stretch of Northwest Portland along the Willamette, tucked below Forest Park: the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub. Hundreds of storage tanks, most built before modern seismic codes, sitting on dredged-up river soil that geologists expect to liquefy when Cascadia hits. For years this was an issue only emergency managers and neighborhood activists lost sleep over. Not anymore. City Council has deadlocked 6–6 on it more than once, Mayor Wilson had to break a tie to approve the sale of Zenith Energy’s terminal to Miami based I Squared Capital, and on Thursday, October 1, council takes up the rules that will govern how much fuel sits on that riverbank for the next decade. My guest this week has been in the middle of that fight. Marnie Glickman is an attorney, a fellow Lewis & Clark Law alum, a former Ralph Nader staffer, and the executive director of Braided River Campaign, a group founded by Portland teachers that has become one of the loudest voices on the CEI Hub. Here’s what we got into: What the hub actually is. Eleven tank farms owned by some of the biggest names in fossil fuels (Chevron, BP, Shell, Zenith), holding up to 350 million gallons on liquefiable soil inside the Portland Harbor Superfund site. The worst case is a Cascadia rupture bigger than Deepwater Horizon. The more likely case might be a fire at the foot of Forest Park. Why not just move it? Because nobody wants it in their backyard, and it’s tethered to the Olympic Pipeline. Marnie’s answer: reduce demand, don’t relocate the danger. The Zenith / I Squared fight. Braided River wasn’t trying to block the sale. They wanted council to use the ownership change to give Portlanders third-party enforcement rights under the franchise agreement. The six councilors and the mayor who voted no were persuaded by the city attorney that council lacked authority to add that term, which raises a bigger structural question: should Portland’s legislative branch have its own lawyer? Capacity vs. volume. The staff proposal from the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability would cut storage capacity 20% by 2036. The catch is that tanks aren’t filled to the top, so shrinking the cup doesn’t necessarily reduce the coffee. An amendment package from Councilors Mitch Green, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Sameer Kanal, Tiffany Koyama Lane, and Olivia Clark would add annual volume reduction benchmarks and close a loophole that could actually let aviation fuel storage grow. What would really make us safer. Start with emergency planning. There’s a preschool in Linnton, inside the hub area, with no CEI Hub emergency plan. Then there’s demand reduction through building electrification, protected bike lanes, and protecting PCEF dollars. Dream big. Portland stopped the Mount Hood Freeway and turned Harbor Drive into Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Marnie’s vision for the “North Reach” of the Willamette includes a Superfund cleanup starting in 2028, public river access, housing, schools, shade, and a real neighborhood where the city’s biggest heat island now sits. Plus: Trash news correspondent Elinor Jones on celebrity baby announcements, Celine Dion’s comeback residency, and why her will is going to require her presence in the background of every future cultural moment. Take action before Thursday, October 1. Council will discuss the amendments that day. Submit written testimony, email your councilors, or better yet, call and leave a voicemail. Braided River Campaign has testimony instructions and talking points on its homepage. Links * Braided River Campaign * Braided River Gallery: now at SW 5th & Harvey Milk * Elinor Jones: “The Trash Report” in the Portland Mercury Thanks to our sponsor, Corbett Hill Wellness. If you want to support independent civic media in Portland, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a neighbor who drives Highway 30. Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

Election Day is less than seven weeks away, and one of the most consequential races on your ballot is for a job most Portlanders couldn’t describe: Multnomah County Chair. The incumbent isn’t running again, so no matter who wins, the county is getting a new leader and a new direction. To help make sense of it, I sat down with someone who knows the job better than just about anyone. Deborah Kafoury spent 14 years on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, eight of them as chair. She guided the county through the COVID-19 pandemic, heat domes, wildfires, and more than 200 nights of protest. Before that, she served in the Oregon House, including as Democratic leader. She’s now chief of staff at Portland Public Schools. Deborah and I worked side by side through some of the hardest stretches in this community’s recent history. We had a candid, funny, and useful conversation about what the chair actually does and what voters should be asking the people who want the job. In this episode: * What the county chair actually does. Deborah’s shorthand for the difference between the two governments: the city builds physical infrastructure, and the county builds human infrastructure. She also explains why the chair acts as both a governor and a legislator. * Why management experience matters. Every county employee, all 7,000 of them, ultimately works for the chair. Deborah explains why voters should ask whether candidates have run a team before, and whether they did it well. * Her father’s rule for surviving public life: hire people smarter than you. * What’s waiting on the next chair’s desk: homelessness, affordability, and projected budget cuts. She also explains why she sees the budget as a moral document. * Working across the aisle. She tells how Republican partners made the Sellwood Bridge and the new county courthouse possible, and why the Republican House speaker threw her a baby shower. * The questions to ask at a house party. Deborah’s advice: ask about trade-offs, and ask candidates who they’ll spend their time listening to. * The red flags to watch for. Be wary of promises to end homelessness on a deadline, guilt-by-association attacks, and the idea that asking hard questions counts as getting things done. * Her new role at Portland Public Schools, and some good news: test scores are up. Plus, In the News: Our trash news correspondent Elinor Jones turns her attention to a group that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: men. She covers robots that can’t walk downstairs, Mitch McConnell’s return to the Senate, and Pete Hegseth’s testosterone plan for the military. Find more from Elinor in the Portland Mercury’s Trash Report. Your homework: Attend a house party, knock some doors, talk to your neighbors, make sure you’re registered, and get your ballot in. Season 3 of SchmidtShow PDX runs through Election Day. If you like what we’re doing, subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave us a review. This episode is brought to you by Corbett Hill Wellness Center, offering chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, naturopathic medicine, and more. Interested in sponsoring the show? Reach out. We’d love to have you. Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

SchmidtShow PDX — Season 3, Episode 9 Before she was a city councilor, she was Teacher Tiffany — sixteen years in Portland Public Schools, a union leader, a fourth-generation Japanese American, and the first Asian American woman ever elected to Portland city government. This week, Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane (District 3) joins the show to talk about her path from the classroom to City Hall, why she refused to sign an NDA on the Moda Center deal, what it actually means to be a Portland DSA member, and how she’s quietly built a string of unanimous council votes — including this month’s 12–0 vote renaming Cesar Chavez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard. We also discuss the new survey that found that only 31% of Portlanders feel represented by their council, down 10 points in a year. Only a year and a half into Portland’s new form of government - is that skepticism fair? But before we get into the meat of the episode, I’m joined once again by our trash news correspondent Eleanor Jones joins for “In the News”. With the NFL back - so are some of the ghouls of the league, like Aaron Rodgers and his mysteriously unseen girlfriend. We then pivot to the four-hour AI-narrated Elon Musk documentary, and whether AI executives warning us about AI is the most on-brand thing in the world. In This Episode From the Classroom to City Hall * Why Koyama Lane said no to running for office “probably close to a hundred times” before saying yes * What carries over from teaching to legislating — and what surprised her most The Moda Center Deal * Why she refused to sign the council’s NDA on the $600M arena renovation, and what it cost her * Her no vote on the 8–4 term sheet, and what a deal that earned her yes would have looked like On Being a Democratic Socialist * What DSA membership actually means to her, and where the “boogie monster” framing comes from * Her “three C’s” for tough votes: constituents, conscience, and council — a rule she credits to Secretary of State Tobias Read * Small-donor fundraising and why she says no single group controls her vote Building Unanimous Votes on a Divided Council * The behind-the-scenes organizing that got Cesar Chavez Boulevard renamed to Campesinos Boulevard 12–0 * Power-mapping her colleagues, debunking myths one-on-one, and bringing in validators like Kathleen Sadat * A second example: getting the whole council to unanimously recommit to Vision Zero, plus a 25% carve-out of the new transportation utility fee for traffic safety * What that survey — 31% feeling represented, 39% trust, 22% effectiveness — actually tells her, and what it leaves out Looking Ahead * Her proudest accomplishment so far: opening an in-district office and a Friday newsletter that reaches 10,000+ people * What a second term would focus on, including a domestic workers’ bill of rights * Where to find her and how to support her campaign Notable Quote “Public money deserves public accountability.” — Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane, on refusing to sign an NDA over the Moda Center deal Links & Resources * Follow Councilor Koyama Lane’s campaign on her website * More trash news from Eleanor Jones: The Trash Report, Portland Mercury Thanks to our sponsor Corbett Hill Wellness for making this episode possible. Interested in sponsoring SchmidtShow PDX? Reach out — we’d love to have you. And if you’re a listener, please consider supporting the sponsors who help bring these conversations to you. Like the show? Subscribe, leave a rating, and tell a friend — word of mouth is how this show grows. Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

It’s back to school season, which means it’s also back to the annual drama over Portland Public Schools — superintendent contracts, building closures, classroom consolidations. But this week, Mike zooms out to the bigger issue hiding underneath all of it: Oregon currently ranks 50th in the nation in fourth-grade reading proficiency. To talk about it, Mike welcomes a guest who’s impossible to ignore — quite literally dressed as a two-foot pencil. J. Schuberth is the creator behind “Pencil for Governor,” a write-in campaign designed to force Oregon’s literacy crisis into the spotlight. Jay walks through how a joke among friends turned into a real campaign, what it’s actually like knocking on doors in a pencil costume, and why it took a mascot to get people talking about something this serious Together, they dig into what states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee did differently to turn their reading rankings around — and lay out a five-step pledge for what Oregon could actually do about it. It’s part satire, part policy deep-dive, and a reminder that sometimes it takes something absurd to make people pay attention to something urgent. Plus: Elinor Jones returns for a back-to-school edition of “In the News,” covering celebrity balloon arches, Meghan Markle’s UK school controversy, and JD Vance’s stay-at-home parent stipend proposal. In this episode: * Oregon’s 50th-in-the-nation ranking in 4th grade reading proficiency * The origin story behind the “Pencil for Governor” campaign * What Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee did to improve reading outcomes * The five-step pledge for fixing literacy in Oregon * Pencil’s picks for governor-for-a-day: policy, press conferences, and photo ops * In the News: back-to-school culture wars, royal school drama, and the politics of parenting Thanks to our sponsor, Corbett Hill Wellness, for supporting this episode. If you or your business would like to sponsor SchmidtShow PDX, reach out — your support keeps this project going. Links: * You can read Elinor Jones at the Mercury Trash Report * You can learn more about Pencil’s run for Governor * Sign the Petition to build support for fixing Oregon’s reading outcomes! Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley joins Mike for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of the Senate, institutional trust, and what comes next — plus the debut of a new segment, “In the News,” with first-ever Schmidt Show correspondent Elinor Jones! In the News with Elinor JonesA look back at three cultural giants lost this week — Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen (the voice of Optimus Prime) — including the surprisingly dark origin story of Dollywood, a brief history of celebrity theme parks, and a case for reviving the Rocky Horror midnight-screening tradition as an afternoon one. Senator Jeff Merkley * His old nickname, “Smash,” and how he unwinds back home in Oregon * Favorite hidden-gem spots in Oregon, including the Oregon Treasure Quest * The Senate then and now: from a 30% approval rating in 2009 to a historic 10% low today * Ringing the alarm bells to recognize and fight the rise of fascism * Growing inequality, being locked out of power across all three branches, and the case for “fighting fire with fire” * The real mechanics of restoring trust: insider stock trading on Capitol Hill, Supreme Court ethics, and the influence of Citizens United * ICE and the record-setting 50,000+ arrests in July * Advice for the next generation of leaders following in the footsteps of Edith Green, Mark Hatfield, and Jeff Merkley himself Lightning RoundFavorite Dolly Parton song, whether there’s a blue wave coming in November, election security, Mitch McConnell’s status, gardening, Reagan-era tax rates, and more — straight from listener-submitted questions. Links mentioned * Ring the Alarm Bells: The Ten Rules of Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook * Oregon Treasure Quest * Crystal Crane Hot Springs (Burns, OR) * Carnivorous bog boardwalk (Florence, OR) * Elinor Jones’ “Trash Report” at the Portland Mercury Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

Mike sits down with sitting Oregon Supreme Court Justice Bronson James — public defender and private practice lawyer turned Circuit Court, Court of Appeals, and now the state’s highest bench — for a rare, wide-ranging conversation with a sitting Justice. They start with comic-book tattoos and an actual ongoing Oregon Supreme Court Dungeons & Dragons campaign, then dig into the real stuff: what privacy even means in a world of data brokers and license plate readers, why Oregon’s 1859 constitution offers stronger protections than the federal floor, the “laboratories of democracy” under strain from federal preemption, and the perfect questions to ask judicial candidates this fall in your backyard gatherings. They close on judicial courage, Brown v. Board, and what it actually looks like when a judge is doing the job to improve the lives of the people they serve. Topics Covered * Comic-book tattoos and an actual ongoing Oregon Supreme Court Dungeons & Dragons campaign * His path to the bench: Reed College, the dot-com boom, PhD guilt, and why he ended up in law school “not for any particular reason” * What surprised him at each level of the job — trial court, Court of Appeals, and now the Supreme Court * A plain-language tour of Oregon’s court system for non-lawyers * What privacy actually means today, and why the law struggles to keep pace with technology * Oregon’s constitution vs. the federal constitution — how Article I, Section 9 differs from the Fourth Amendment, and Hans Linde’s legacy building Oregon’s independent constitutional tradition * Contested judicial elections in Multnomah County this November, and the real mechanics of how judicial campaigns work * The information gap between lawyers (who can read a judicial candidate’s philosophy easily) and voters (who mostly can’t) * Why “just calling balls and strikes” is a myth, and what actually reveals a judge’s character * Judicial courage, Brown v. Board of Education, and MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail * Closing advice: why headlines rarely tell the full story, and how listeners can become better-informed voters on judicial races About Our Guest Justice Bronson James sits on the Oregon Supreme Court, appointed by Governor Kate Brown in 2022 and elected to the seat in his own right in 2024. He previously served on the Multnomah County Circuit Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals, and worked as a public defender and in private practice before that. He teaches Oregon constitutional law at Lewis & Clark Law School. Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

Guest: Annie Naranjo Rivera, State Director, Oregon Working Families Party Episode Summary 44% of registered Oregon voters — 1.4 million people — aren’t registered with either major party. This spring, the Working Families Party (WFP) went on a run in Democratic primaries, unseating a sitting state senator for the first time since 2018 and winning 37 of its 49 endorsed races. Mike sits down with Oregon WFP State Director Annie Naranjo Rivera to unpack what the party actually stands for, how fusion voting works in Oregon, and whether a party built to primary Democrats can also speak to the huge bloc of voters who’ve walked away from both parties entirely. The WFP has five planks — * a home you can afford, * healthcare you can rely on, * a good job to support your family, * childcare when and where you need it, and * time to spend with your family. Sound good? This might be the political party for you. In This Episode * The state of the electorate in Oregon — only 26% think the state is headed in the right direction; 85% say cost of living is worsening; 77% say housing is worsening * Annie’s origin story — daughter of a Cuban refugee, grew up in poverty, why lived experience belongs in decision-making spaces * What WFP actually is — not a Green Party-style third party; a “non-delusional third party” built on fusion voting * Fusion voting, explained — how Oregon’s version differs from New York’s (Zohran Mamdani’s WFP ballot line), and how candidates like Labor Commissioner Christina Stevenson appear cross-nominated as Democrat/WFP/Independent * The Governor’s Prosperity Council — why WFP opposes its recommendations, and a pointer back to the S3 episode with Juan Carlos Ordoñez (Oregon Center for Public Policy) for the counter-perspective * Myrna Munoz vs. Janeen Sollman — the primary upset Annie calls the most significant Oregon race in two decades, and the coalition (including first-time primary voters) that powered it * Why WFP didn’t endorse Gov. Kotek in the primary — first of all - she didn’t apply, however there are legitimate concerns coming out of her handling of preschool-for-all and the Prosperity Council. Ultimately its up to the members - what the Governor’s appearance at WFP’s August convention signals * Data centers — WFP’s position (not opposed outright, opposed to subsidies without community process, and to costs landing on ratepayers, farmland, and water) * Immigration enforcement and ICE activity — the economic and community impact in Washington County and Hillsboro * Healthcare — Medicaid/OHP access gaps in Tillamook County, hospital closures (Seaside Providence’s maternity ward), and the case for universal healthcare Get Involved * WFP Nominating Convention - Sign UP! * Saturday 8/15 | 8am-3pm - Workshops and panels * Saturday 8/15 | 6pm-8pm - Convention Weekend Dinner & Celebration * Sunday 8/16 | 9am-12pm - Nominating Convention * Join WFP — text MEMBER to 30403 * Learn more at their website: Oregon WFP Related Episodes * S03 E01 — Curtis Robinhold on the Oregon Prosperity Council * S03 E04 — Juan Carlos Ordoñez (Oregon Center for Public Policy) on the Prosperity Council, from the other side Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

Season 3 kicked off a month early with a conversation about the Oregon Prosperity Council’s report — the roadmap Governor Kotek commissioned to answer the question of what makes Oregon “prosperous.” Episode one featured Curtis Robinhold, one of the Council’s co-chairs, making the case for competitiveness. This episode brings the other side: Juan Carlos Ordoñez, Communications Director for the Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP), who has called the report a “bait and switch” — long on concern for middle-class Oregonians, short on anything that actually helps them. Two guests, two readings of the same 400-page report. That’s the point of the show. Guest Juan Carlos Ordoñez — Communications Director, Oregon Center for Public Policy, a nonpartisan research organization (celebrating its 25th anniversary) focused on tax, budget, and economic policy through the lens of low- and moderate-income Oregonians. OCPP’s core issue areas: tax policy, worker power/collective bargaining, and economic security — including a guaranteed income floor for Oregon. Find OCPP’s research at OCPP.org, and their podcast, Policy for the People, wherever you get your shows. What we cover * Is Oregon’s income inequality actually low? Juan Carlos on why that stat, even if accurate, is cold comfort — “less bad than everywhere else” isn’t the same as good. * Why unions and the minimum wage matter to the inequality story — and why Oregon’s tax system, while mildly progressive, still isn’t progressive enough. * “Business climate” as a concept — its origins as a 1950s PR term coined by GE to describe low-tax, non-union states, and why Juan Carlos argues it’s an incoherent yardstick with no agreed definition. * The composition problem: the Prosperity Council was dominated by corporate and business interests, with only two labor representatives — who dissented from the tax recommendations. * Are People making $40,000 a year paying more taxes in Oregon?: Juan Carlos cites the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s full effective-rate analysis (income, property, and excise taxes combined) to argue the opposite is true — and that Washington’s sales-tax-heavy system is one of the most regressive in the country. * The “bait and switch” itself: the report cites real hardship data (including the United Way’s ALICE Index) but its near-term recommendations don’t target the middle class at all — they reinstate the QSBS venture capital tax break (94% of benefits go to people making over $1 million/year), weaken the estate tax (paid by only 5% of estates), and adjust the corporate activities tax and R&D credit. * Does taxing wealth drive people out of Oregon? The research on wealthy-household migration, and why “they’ll just leave” is weaker than it sounds. * Nike, Intel, and the single-sales-factor tax structure — how two companies effectively wrote their own tax deal in 2012, and why that complicates the “Oregon is bad for business” narrative. * A progressive alternative: what Juan Carlos would put in a prosperity plan if OCPP had written it — investment in early childhood and higher education, a stronger safety net, collective bargaining, and a more progressive tax system funded by asking more of corporations and high earners. * Corporate transparency: OCPP’s proposal to require large corporations to publicly disclose what they actually pay in Oregon taxes, to settle the “we’re overtaxed” debate with real numbers. * Healthcare and entrepreneurship — closing thoughts on how employer-tied health coverage shapes (and limits) who takes the risk of starting a business. Further reading * Juan Carlos Ordoñez’s op-ed on the Prosperity Council report in the Oregon Capital Chronicle * OCPP’s published research on Oregon’s tax and economic performance — OCPP.org * Joe Cortright’s writing on Oregon’s business climate and startup activity at City Observatory * The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s state-by-state effective tax rate analysis * The United Way’s ALICE Index on Oregon households falling short of a livable income Where do you land — Curtis’s competitiveness case or Juan Carlos’s fairness case? Leave a comment and tell us who you think has it right, and who else we should have on the show. Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

Episode Description One guest, one through-line, a lot of ground to cover. Mike sits down with Pastor Mark Knutson of Augustana Lutheran Church — a Portland native who’s spent his lifetime as an activist and more recently at the center of the city’s fights over gun safety, police accountability, and immigrant sanctuary. They trace Knutson’s path from a Franklin High School track rival of Steve Prefontaine to a hospital chaplain on the AIDS ward in the early 1980s, and connect that history to Augustana’s role today: from the Peace Bell with a melted down 60 lb clapper made from surrendered firearms, to the church’s decade-plus sanctuary relationship with Francisco Aguirre, to the slow rollout of Portland’s police oversight board six years after voters approved it. The conversation closes with a lightning round: Hymnal Ranking, Augustana-style. In This Episode Mike and Pastor Knutson start with the man himself: Portland roots, Franklin High School (where he ran track against Steve Prefontaine, captained the football team, and served as student body president), a stint teaching for Job Corps in Astoria, a 1980 run for state representative that he lost at 28, seminary, and a hospital chaplaincy internship on the AIDS ward in the early 1980s — the experience he credits with shaping how he thinks about ministry. From there they turn to Augustana itself, which has grown from roughly 200 members to nearly 900 representing 23 countries of birth, and to Portland’s famously “strained relationship with formal religion.” For Knutson, that tension dissolves once faith is reframed as practice rather than doctrine: “Faith is the values from my faith that drive me to work for the common good, to measure our society by how the most vulnerable are doing.” That framing carries into a conversation about the church as a living building — modeled in part on Bethel Lutheran/Bethel New Life in Chicago — that houses community organizations alongside the state’s longest-running jazz gig, and about the “energy points across the city” Knutson sees in Portland’s current wave of nonviolent organizing. The conversation then moves into policy, starting with Measure 114. Four years after voters passed it, the law is still awaiting a ruling from the Oregon Supreme Court — expected any day — and Augustana is planning a press conference the moment the decision drops. Knutson walks through the coalition that got it passed, from rural Oregon counties to Portland high schoolers. From guns to policing: Portland’s Police Accountability Board passed with 82% voter approval in 2020 and, six years later, is only now hiring its first executive director. Knutson and Mike dig into the Albina Ministerial Alliance’s long involvement in the fight and push back on proposals to redirect Portland Street Response or Portland Clean Energy Fund dollars toward sworn-officer benchmarks. Mike puts it plainly: “A number of police officers is not an outcome. That’s an input. Safety is the outcome.” Knutson also recounts a real-time encounter he came across — a Black retired parole officer surrounded by police with guns drawn — as an illustration of what accountability work is actually responding to. The back half of the interview centers on Francisco Aguirre and Augustana’s sanctuary story: the 81 days Aguirre spent living under the church altar in 2014, the extortion and death of his son Moses in El Salvador, a recent action by the Governor that Knutson credits to grassroots pressure, and the community turnout Knutson says kept Aguirre out of ICE custody just this past week. Throughout, Knutson returns to a theme: “We’re not Jesus. You can’t fix everything. You can’t heal everything, but you can do something.” He closes out the substantive conversation with a list of ways to plug in — Sanctuary Sunday, Lift Every Voice Oregon, the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice, the Albina Ministerial Alliance — before Mike brings out the game segment: “Hang the Hymnal,” where Pastor Knutson ranks ten hymns blind, one at a time, with no do-overs. Organizations Mentioned * Augustana Lutheran Church * Albina Ministerial Alliance * Lift Every Voice Oregon * Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice * Portland Street Response * Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon * Catholic Charities * Latino Network * PCUN Where to Find Augustana Lutheran Church Sunday services: 2710 NE 14th Ave, Portland — jazz preludes included. Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe

SchmidtShow PDX, Season 3, Episode 2 This week I sat down with Portland City Council President Jamie Dunphy — the “compromise president” who emerged after 13 deadlocked votes — to talk about running a fractured council, the real math behind the Moda Center deal, and what Portland might learn from New York. In this episode The reluctant presidency — What it means to hold “all the responsibility, none of the power,” after 13 deadlocked rounds of voting and a brand-new form of government with no precedent to lean on. The serial communications law — Why Jamie calls it “crippling”: councilors can’t work out policy one-on-one before a public vote, manufacturing gridlock rather than preventing corruption — while the legislature exempted itself from the same rules. The budget, in plain numbers — The city’s budget has grown from $5.8B to $8.6B since 2020, but the real battleground is the $1B general fund, which just absorbed a $170M gap — the largest structural shortfall since the 1960s. Police staffing and the Clean Energy Fund — Jamie pushes back on the proposed staffing-ratio ballot measure and the narrative that PCF has “excess funds,” pointing to a five-year, publicly accountable spending plan already tied to East Portland priorities. Small business, from experience — Lessons from opening Love Cup in the middle of the 2008 crash, and Jamie’s pitch for a real how-to-manual and single point of contact for new business owners. Music as infrastructure — Why Jamie ran on treating music as economic development and public safety strategy, not an arts “nice to have.” The Moda Center, in detail — The heart of the episode: the city’s original $1 acquisition, the 3-to-1 state/county match, the remaining $75M gap, opening the operator contract to competitive bid, a public split at 49/46, and the August 12th term sheet vote. What Portland could learn from New York — A candid take on the Mamdani moment and what’s actually transferable to Portland’s council-manager system. Music trivia lightning round — The FBI’s real obscenity investigation into “Louie Louie,” presidential campaign anthems, and a closing pitch to make it Portland’s official city anthem. Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.schmidtshowpdx.com/subscribe