Three Democratic candidates run to replace Dexter in deep blue Portland district 

Three Democratic candidates are running in the primary for the Portland district seat now held by Rep. Maxine Dexter, who is running for Congress.

One is an attorney, another is a physician and the third is a behavioral health provider, and they are all political newcomers seeking to represent House District 33. The district spans much of Portland and stretches northwest along Forest Park and into Washington County communities and is deep-blue. A total of 51% of registered voters are Democrats, while 7% are Republicans and 35% are unaffiliated who often vote with Democrats. Dexter won in 2022 with 85% of the vote.

That means the winner of the Democratic primary will likely succeed her but will still have to face a Republican candidate in the general election in November. Stan Baumhofer, a retired businessman, and Dick Courter, a forest consultant, are facing off in the Republican primary for House District 33. 

Here’s a look at the Democratic candidates:

Brian Duty

Duty is a physician and surgeon at Oregon Health & Science University, where he performs minimally invasive kidney surgeries. He also works for OHSU as the director of strategic outreach, a role that involves forging partnerships between the flagship hospital and other health care providers in Oregon, with an eye toward boosting access for patients. 

As a physician, he said he is a pragmatist and looks at all the evidence before making decisions. He said he became aware early in his career about social inequities that impact patients’ lives and are out of the control of a doctor. 

“The Legislature has a tremendous impact on our ability to care for patients and these seats don’t come about all that often,” Duty said in an interview.

Duty said he’s interested in legislation that reinforces the role of health as a public good as opposed to a means of making profit. In that vein, he said he supports Rep. Ben Bowman’s goal of limiting the influence of private equity firms in medical practices and preventing them from making decisions about patient treatment. Bowman’s proposal, House Bill 4130, died in the final hours of the last session, but Bowman, D-Tigard, has said he plans to bring it back. 

Duty said Oregon’s health care system needs to have more training opportunities to create a larger pipeline for nurses, respiratory therapists and other health care professionals so the state has a diverse and adequate workforce. 

The behavioral health system also needs to expand to meet the needs of the state, he said.  He praised the state’s investments in behavioral health in recent years but stressed the state needs to take a deep analytic look at the data and issues before supporting more funding. 

“We’ve made huge investments and decisions, and many of them are based upon values that I believe in, but we’ve done that without really taking a hard look at what infrastructure would you need to be potentially successful for that,” he said.

As a lawmaker, he said it’s important to make a realistic assessment of the situation beyond hoping for a desired outcome and cited House Bill 4002 as an example. It will create a new misdemeanor for drug possession and new programs that will start in September. 

Duty said he commends the Legislature’s work on that issue, but remains concerned about what will happen when it goes into effect. The complex problem needs more public defenders and counties have a short period to get programs in place by September, he said.

“I’m worried that we’re going to struggle for a period of time, and that’s going to result in some pretty severe unintended consequences,” he said. 

Duty’s supporters include the Oregon Medical Association PAC, the Service Employees International Union,  SEIU Oregon, and Dr. Bruce Goldberg, a former director of the Oregon Health Authority. 

Pete Grabiel

Grabiel said his background as an attorney who has worked in environmental and international law would be an asset to the Legislature.

He is a commercial litigation attorney and partner in a Portland firm, Pitzer Law. Earlier in his career, he worked as an attorney on international climate issues and drafted  legislation on environmental regulations. As part of that work, he worked with the United Nations and African nations on international agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

He said he had to forge a consensus with business groups, industry and environmental groups – all skills that a legislator needs, he said. 

“That’s the kind of thing that a legislator is going to have to do if you’re going to pass a cap-and-trade system,” he said, referring to a market-based approach for lowering emissions. 

Grabiel wants Oregon’s Bottle Bill changed in response to the fentanyl addiction epidemic. The bill requires companies to charge a 10-cent deposit for bottles that is refunded in cash to Oregonians when they return the bottles. But with lethal fentanyl pills selling for less than $1 on the streets, concerns have grown that the Bottle Bill provides a quick way for people to fund their habit while turning drop-off sites into drug havens.  

Earlier this year, Gov. Tina Kotek issued a temporary exemption from the Bottle Bill to a Safeway and Plaid Pantry in downtown Portland after it became a hotspot for drug users. The Willamette Week reported on the connection between fentanyl and the cash from cans and bottles. 

“They turn around and literally drug dealers are on the streets,” Grabiel said. “They’re just selling fentanyl, and people are just all over the place and having psychotic episodes.”

The Bottle Bill works as it was intended to in rural regions that don’t have robust recycling programs like Portland by offering an opportunity for consumers to get their money back while recycling containers, he said. But in Portland, it also supports drug users, with people rummaging through recycling bins that are left out overnight, Grabiel said.

Grabiel supports recycling. He said he would like to see changes to the Bottle Bill to discourage drug deals by giving people credit rather than cash when they return cans and bottles – especially in a city like Portland with a mandatory recycling program. 

“Someone needs to go to Salem and say, ‘Listen, that bill has to apply differently to the circumstances in Portland,” he said. “We have drugs everywhere. We should be able to get an exemption or at least change it from cash to some kind of credit.”

He said he supports the Legislature’s work in passing House Bill 4002, which creates a new misdemeanor for possessing small amounts of drugs, while creating new pathways for people to avoid criminal charges if they enter treatment programs and work toward recovery. 

Grabiel’s supporters include former Gov. Barbara Roberts and the Portland Metro Chamber. 

Shannon Jones Isadore

Isadore has a career that includes working in behavioral health as a family psychotherapist and as an investment broker in the finance industry. She’s also served in the Marine Corps. And in 2021, she founded the Oregon Change Clinic, a southwest Portland nonprofit that provides addiction treatment and supportive housing in a 37-bed former motel.

That work puts her at the forefront of the state’s fentanyl addiction crisis. Isadore said her priorities in the Legislature would include increasing access to treatment for behavioral health and eliminating red tape that delays the start of recovery housing projects. 

“In the Legislature, I want to bring a treatment provider’s perspective,” Isadore said. 

Isadore said her work as a provider at the clinic demonstrated the need for housing to help people stay in treatment. 

“I knew that I needed to get in the housing space because clients needed it for their treatment,” Isadore said. 

She experienced the negative impact of drug addiction early in life.  Isadore grew up in the Albina neighborhood of northeast Portland, mostly without her father who was in and out of prison due to drug addiction. 

“I know how drugs can destroy families and how being locked up for drugs without access to treatment can destroy families,” Isadore said. 

Isadore’s clinic has received Measure 110 funding from the state. Voters passed Measure 110 in 2020 to decriminalize drug possession and put a share of cannabis revenue towards services to help people in recovery. The clinic has received $3.6 million of a $4.4 million allocation so far for screenings, support services, housing and treatment, state records show. 

Isadore said she was hopeful when Measure 110 passed that it would help address the addiction crisis, but said it hasn’t had the desired outcome. She saw that the law’s $100 citation system drug users had little effect in discouraging drug use. 

She said she supports House Bill 4002 and planned deflection programs to emphasize treatment over jail time. So far, 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties have opted to start the programs. 

If elected, Isadore would be the only Black woman in the state Legislature because Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clackamas, is running for a seat in Congress.

Former Gov. Kate Brown has endorsed Isadore as have Bynum, the Oregon Education Association PAC, Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, and Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland.