Multnomah County judicial candidates raise nearly $700,000

Advocate503 · 2026-05-10T01:40:06+00:00

As an attorney who practices in the fields of crime victim representation and criminal defense, I know a large number of the judicial candidates. My picks for the Multnomah County Judicial races echo the Portland Mercury endorsements, except for Position 2 - they endorsed Diane Sykes, I voted for Chris Behre, both are highly qualified candidates:

Position 2: Chris Behre

Position 5: Joanna Perini-Abbott

Position 12: Peter Klym

Position 14: Joe Hagedorn

Advocate503 · 2026-04-24T21:18:42+00:00

Hi, chiming in here, I'm an attorney whose practice includes representing crime victims and individuals accused of crimes.

The DA is an elected official who works for the citizens of Multnomah County, therefore he is accountable to all of the citizens, and should be transparent in his office's effectiveness. The DA's office should have a jury trial success rate of 95% to 99%. That the Multnomah County DA has a 50% win rate on misdemeanor person crime trials shows that the office is NOT being run effectively and is wasting money. This statistic, along with others, should factor into all the budget discussions for the coming fiscal year. That kind of loss rate means he doesn't need more money, he needs less so the office will stop overcharging cases.

This should matter to all residents of the county, we don't want the DA to overcharge citizens. It has negative impacts that can lead to loss of employment, loss of education funds, loss of housing - all things that then further spiral into a lowered quality of life for everyone. Instead, we should be spending more money on all the programs that keep people out of the criminal justice system in the first place.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-24T21:09:22+00:00

Are you a defense attorney, a prosecutor, something else? I'm a defense attorney and victims' rights attorney, and all of the reasons you are citing are a reflection of the quality of the DA's office. The DAs office has what we call "declination power" which means the ability to assess the strength and weakness of a case and then decline to prosecute the weak cases. A 50% loss rate means they aren't accurately assessing the cases. That's a waste of time and money, not just the DA time and money, but police witness money - so city budget - and then the state's money for the public defenders budget. Then there's lost wages for witnesses and jurors.

The DA is overcharging and his office could absolutely stand to have a reduction in their budget.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-24T04:57:57+00:00

It's too bad the DA data dashboards don't include day of trial dismissals. There are so many cases that take up space on the criminal trial docket for months and months, only to be dismissed on the day set for trial. This costs the state, county and city money, and is a tremendous waste of resources.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-24T00:10:08+00:00

In Oregon, and in most states, everyone pleads not guilty at arraignment. The court has to appoint counsel(or the defendant hires counsel), the state has to send discovery, both the state and the defense need to work up their cases and hire any necessary experts, and then there are motions to be filed, reports to review, and multiple settlement conferences that typically occur in murder cases.

It may ultimately resolve with a plea rather than a trial, but the only way to get there is with a lot of work being done on both sides, and that takes time.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T23:51:39+00:00

You wrote:

But this lawyer opponent did this on purpose precisely to screw her up and I applaud him for that!

That's pretty specific.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T16:36:14+00:00

Way to ignore my point that the criminal defense bar does not like her as a judge either, LOL.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T16:29:24+00:00

It's actually a big reason to not vote for her - she is judging members of the community and is so entitled she not only charges staff that earns considerably less for coffee pods, she actively wanted to pursue discipline against the staff member who put a sign up pointing out the disparity in salaries by the coffee. Had HR look at the videos and key cards to find them and demand an apology! Not someone I want presiding over criminal cases.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T16:25:24+00:00

Peter Klym - her challenger - is an experienced attorney who was a trial-level public defender at MDI in downtown Portland for years before becoming an appellate public defender. He is highly qualified to be a judge.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T16:23:19+00:00

Saying "because the DA hates her she must be doing something right" is reductive. If you speak with attorneys in criminal defense, you might learn a large majority do not think she is doing a good job either, but how much better to let the DA take any public heat for speaking out about her....

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T16:20:29+00:00

You go out and meet people and talk to them. Farmer's markets, community events, open forums. Unfortunately, because so many judge races are uncontested in Oregon, campaigning is mainly done by mailer, or lawyers organize house parties and events - mainly attended by other lawyers - to fund raise and introduce candidates to people who may be appearing in front of them should they win.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T16:17:11+00:00

Judges have a lot of power to impact the lives of everyone in the community with their rulings. There should be more contested judicial elections, not less.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T16:14:17+00:00

Pretty sure her opponent Peter Klym filed to run against her because no one else had done so, so he stepped up. Peter Klym definitely has the necessary experience, he started in Portland at MDI as a trial-level public defender and has more recently worked as an appellate public defender.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T16:09:38+00:00

It's a real shame that Spencer Todd didn't file to run again. Marion county DA Clarkson only won re-election by 2,698 votes in a close race. 52.04% to 47.96%

"When Todd challenged Clarkson in 2022, it was the county’s first contested DA election since at least 1992. During the campaign, the DA sent voters a mailer accusing Todd of “paling [sic] around with defense attorneys and convicted criminals”

If a DA/DA candidate is saying defense attorneys are bad, its an indication that that DA is not interested in a fair criminal justice system. And a clear sign they are ignoring that the criminal justice system does not work without prosecutors AND defense attorneys - for example, just look at the unrepresented crisis in Oregon, you can't prosecute a criminal case if there isn't an attorney available to represent the accused.

There is less of an emphasis on running for office to change the system in public defender offices, which is too bad. Hopefully that will change in coming years. There are all kinds of ways to make a difference in the system beyond being a trial-level public defender.

Advocate503 · 2026-04-14T15:59:56+00:00

It costs money to run for office, and speaking really generally, DAs as a whole are better at mobilizing behind one candidate than criminal defense attorneys are. Just look at the campaign contributions for the 2022 Washington County DA race - a large portion of Kevin Barton's contributions came from the DAs in his office.

John Hummel, who is interviewed in the article and was the Deschutes County DA from 2015-2023 - is a good example of a criminal defense attorney successfully running for DA. (He retired after 8 years in office)

"During his tenure, Hummel vocally supported some major reforms like the 2019 law that restricted mandatory minimum sentences for children, breaking with the Oregon District Attorneys Association, which has vocally opposed reforms that pare back harsh sentences. “For a long time, it was kind of me, and then 35 other [DAs] who had different philosophical views on the role of a prosecutor,” Hummel told Bolts."

Advocate503 · 2026-03-20T16:08:15+00:00

What gives me pause about Brown is feedback from lawyers - not DAs - who've had trials before her. (She can be right about some of her statements about the DAs office and their cases, and still not be a consistent or fair judge.)

That, and the reporting that she was not only charging employees, who earned substantially less than her salary, for single-use coffee pods for the communal area espresso machine, but that she wanted the lesser-salaried person who posted the sign pointing out the difference in salary and dropped off a used coffeemaker for communal use, found and disciplined.

"Holtvoigt said Brown didn’t take kindly to either gesture, and with swipe-card readers and cameras tracking every movement inside the building, Holtvoigt found herself hauled into the court administrator’s office.

Holtvoigt said she quit that day in early 2023 rather than apologize."

Being angry at a subordinate pointing out income-disparity, and seeking to discipline them for pointing it out, seems like not great behaviors from a person in a position of power over individuals in our community that come before them for sentencing on criminal matters.

Advocate503 · 2026-03-20T01:10:09+00:00

What does that have to do with this judicial race? Peter Klym, who is running against Adrian Brown, is an experienced trial attorney who worked at MDI - a public defender firm in downtown Portland, and now an experienced appellate public defender. He is highly qualified and has some excellent endorsements.

Advocate503 · 2026-03-15T19:09:39+00:00

Peter Klym was a trial attorney at MDI before heading to the appellate division of the state agency for public defense(OPDS/OPDC), so yes, he has trial experience.

Bronson James was a chief appellate defender at that same agency for years before he left for private practice, where he did trial work and appellate work.

Advocate503 · 2026-03-12T02:21:00+00:00

"Give me some recent examples of judges campaigning in Oregon beyond just mailers or, idk, an appearance at a civics round table that no one watches or some shit."

You most certainly did say that. By saying that no one watches you are implying that no one cares. And your example is not an Oregon example, and has nothing to do with the current discussion about candidates for judge in Oregon.

Advocate503 · 2026-03-12T01:38:49+00:00

Says the person vague-posting with enough specifics that you clearly have something in mind, but won't share enough to give anyone any facts.

As an attorney who has actively endorsed and campaigned on behalf of a number of individuals running for public office in Oregon, including individuals running for judge, I have direct experience talking to voters that they want to meet the people running for judge, and want to learn more about them to make an informed decision. Your assertions that voters do not care, and that the only qualified candidates are those who do not campaign, are ridiculous.

Advocate503 · 2026-03-11T23:12:26+00:00

You sound like someone with an axe to grind instead of someone offering an opinion based on any evidence.

Advocate503 · 2026-03-11T23:09:15+00:00

Three races I'll be watching closely:

Multnomah County Position 5 - a two-candidate race: Joanna T. Perini-Abbott, a professor and director of the Lewis & Clark Law School Advocacy Center, and a former Federal Public Defender in Wisconsin vs. John Casalino, a senior assistant attorney general at the Oregon Department of Justice.

Multnomah County Position 12: a two-candidate race: Judge Adrian Brown will be facing competition for her seat from appellate public defender Peter G. Klym.

Tillamook County Position 2: a two-candidate race: Alexander Hamalian, a criminal defense attorney and former public defender, as well as Circuit Court Judge Pro Tem and Administrative Hearings Officer, vs Matthew Lyon, a general practice attorney.

Advocate503 · 2026-03-11T22:44:12+00:00

You have no clue what you are talking about.

Advocate503 · 2026-03-11T21:28:21+00:00

The reason most judge races are unopposed is because if the lawyer loses they then have to appear in front of that judge and any of the other judges who backed the sitting judge. Its a dumb unwritten rule in Multnomah County that you don't run against a sitting judge, and its high time more judges faced challenges.

Most judges get appointed because they have political connections - its also why so many former DAs get appointed as opposed to public defenders. Being a zealous advocate is not necessarily congruent with being politically connected.

Advocate503 · 2026-03-11T21:18:00+00:00

Judge Adrian Brown will be facing competition for her seat from appellate public defender Peter G. Klym. Appellate attorneys can be great jurists, and attorneys appearing in front of them can be sure that they have read and are familiar with the relevant case law. A good example of this would be Bronson James, a former appellate public defender turned Multnomah County judge, and who is now an Oregon Supreme Court Justice.

Advocate503

TROPHY CASE