People for Portland, organization behind 'Schmidt Show' billboards, disbands
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Portland organization behind the attention-grabbing political ads that targeted local leadership is dissolving.
According to an announcement on People for Portland’s website, the group is ending its “day-to-day work” after years of pushing for more policing and action for homelessness and drug use in the area.
Political consultants Dan Lavey and Kevin Looper launched the organization in September 2021.
“Back when we started this, the problems of Portland — homelessness, drugs on the street, trash — weren’t as big as the problems that Dan and I saw in politics, which was an incredible veil of denial on elected officials: People who thought we just needed to wait, we could build $400,000 apartment units and give homeless people the keys and it’ll be OK, and we can defund the police, and things will be fine, and drug use is not a big problem,” Looper told KOIN 6 Political Director Ken Boddie.
He added that People for Portland aimed to show elected leaders “they were vastly out of step with 80% of the people in this city who wanted to have a safer environment…”
While some of the organizations’ stances were considered polarizing — Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt previously said the leaders “want to keep us divided, keep us angry” — it appears a number of residents shared their concerns.
A survey conducted the same month the group launched showed that 76% of Portlanders believed the city’s issues were real, and “not exaggerated by the media.” About 60% of respondents who were once against police said they would support hiring more officers.
Additionally, about 71% said they would support more law enforcement despite concerns with social justice and racism within the Portland Police Bureau.
Later in 2023, a new poll from the organization found that 70% of voters would support a daytime camping ban. A camping ordinance went into effect this summer.
People for Portland also partially accredits itself for the overturning of Measure 110, the drug decriminalization law that took effect for about three years before Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek reversed it.
But the organization’s most visible moves were, arguably, installing three anti-Schmidt billboards in the downtown area — the latest of which read, “CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS SCHMIDT?”
The billboard installed in January blamed the district attorney for crime and drug deaths in the city. In May, he abandoned his re-election campaign and conceded to Nathan Vasquez.
“By raising your voice and getting involved, you helped to change the debate and direction of Portland,” People for Portland said in its announcement. “Thank you.”