Jefferson Smith

Early life and education Smith was born in Portland in 1973 to former Umatilla County district attorney and Oregon representative Joe Smith and family therapist Suzanne Peck. His grandfather was Joseph Fielding Smith, a patriarch to the church and a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is a great-great-great grandnephew of Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism.

His parents split before his second birthday, and he moved with his mother to South Pasadena, California. His mother died of breast cancer when Smith was a teenager. The incident involved a dispute where Smith admitted to reacting physically after his advances were rebuffed. Despite initial discrepancies in accounts between Smith, the victim, and police reports, Smith acknowledged the altercation's seriousness and its implications on his public image, particularly when attempting to reconcile with the victim prior to media involvement.

Career

Early career Smith began his professional career as a member of the Oregon Club during his time at Harvard University. Following law school, Smith took a job at the New York City law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. His second day on the job, he was asked to take a case defending tobacco companies. Bus Project is now known as NextUp.

In 2003, Smith formed a brief partnership with Jason Skelton, forming the law firm of Smith & Skelton LLP.

Political career In 2008, Smith was elected with no opposition to the Oregon House of Representatives representing House District 47. The seat had been vacated by Jeff Merkley, who was running for the United States Senate.

In the Legislature, Smith collaborated with representatives from rural Eastern Oregon to develop a statewide water strategy. He co-led the initiative called "Cool Schools" to create jobs by helping Oregon public schools begin retrofitting for energy savings. Smith co-led the legislature's budget transparency initiative to put Oregon government spending information online, and carried a bill to reduce the ratio of middle managers to line employees in state government. Smith also co-led the initiative to create online voter registration in Oregon, and carried a bill in the Legislature to allow trafficked minors to expunge their prostitution convictions upon reaching age 21 if they have had no other trouble with the law.

In April 2011, Smith released the results of a video he compiled of Oregon state representatives reciting the lyrics of Rick Astley's 1980s pop hit "Never Gonna Give You Up".

In September 2011, he announced he would run for Mayor of Portland in 2012. In the May 2012 primary election, Smith defeated most other candidates to become one of the two candidates advancing to the November general election. He received 32.9% of the vote in the primary, while Charlie Hales received 37.2%. In the general election, closing on November 6, 2012, Smith received approximately 31.3% of the vote and was defeated by Hales, who received 61.2%.

Smith served in the 2012 Legislative session, but to facilitate his run for mayor he did not run for reelection to the House and vacated his seat in the Legislature after serving four years. In July 2012, The Willamette Week revealed that Smith had been banned from an intramural soccer league in early 2011 after pushing another player, and subsequently ejected from a pickup basketball game at the Harriet Tubman School gym in North Portland after punching another player. Smith conceded to reporter Nigel Jaquiss that he had thrown a punch, but argued that the blow was not aimed at the player's genitals, as alleged by witness accounts. Smith had previously declined to provide complete information about his driving record to the press. Smith's account of the incident to the press following the revelation was challenged by the victim and contradicted by the police report. As further details from the case emerged, Smith lost the endorsement of the Portland Police Association and the Portland Firefighters Association. Although Smith had been the mayoral frontrunner early on in the campaign, he would go on to lose to Charlie Hales by more than 30 percentage points.

1993 fraternity party incident In 1993, Eugene police cited Smith for a misdemeanor assault charge stemming from an incident with an 18-year-old woman at fraternity party. Smith tried to speak with the victim at her home before reporters contacted her, but she told him to leave. Smith occasionally fills in as guest host of the Thom Hartmann Program. In 2018, his company Flying Ant, LLC purchased radio station KUIK (1360 AM) in Hillsboro.

In November 2020, staff of XRAY.FM alleged that Smith engaged in unprofessional behavior and financial mismanagement of the station. A report in Willamette Week quoted an outside audit of the station, which had found its payroll was in disarray and that the station was in significant legal risk of minimum wage and overtime violations for its contract workers. Six former employees who spoke to the paper described Smith as bullying and intimidating, especially towards women.

Personal Smith is married to Katy Lesowski, also a Portland native, and a co-founder of the Bus Project. His late stepmother, Meredith Wood Smith, was chair of the Oregon Democratic Party from 2006 to 2012.

Electoral history