A Democratic congressional candidate’s first televised ad has drawn criticism from Republicans and a police group for featuring stock footage of a Ukrainian actor and touting a public safety message.
State Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Clackamas County Democrat challenging first-term Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, released the 30-second ad last week. It features a voiceover from Bynum and footage of her family and the Legislature, as well as stock video of police officers, fentanyl and an officer walking a handcuffed prisoner down a hall.
“In the Oregon state Legislature, I worked to pass bipartisan legislation to re-criminalize fentanyl and other dangerous drugs,” she narrates. “In Congress, I will work with local enforcement to keep us safe and fight to ensure our communities have the resources they need.”
The clips of police officers are from a stock photo site, Shutterstock, and one was added to the site by a Ukrainian company, M_Agency. As Politico reported last year, campaigns have increasingly used stock images and videos filmed in foreign countries in political ads – sometimes with embarrassing results. One example is a May 2023 ad supporting Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin that featured a scene of an Italian fighter jet.
Republican critics of Bynum cast the stock footage in her ad as proof she doesn’t have support from local law enforcement.
“Extreme Janelle Bynum’s fake ad perfectly captures her fraudulent attempts to pull the wool over voters’ eyes,” said Ben Petersen, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Bynum has foreign actors posing as cops because real Oregon police officers say her radical agenda is too dangerous.”
Dan Gottlieb, Petersen’s counterpart at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, characterized it as a “desperate attack.”
“Ultimately, these desperate attacks from Lori and her allies just aren’t going to cut it – especially as they fail to explain away her record of attacking reproductive freedom and her trail of broken promises on the issues that matter most to Oregonians,” he said.
Competitive district
The 5th District includes Linn County, most of Clackamas and Deschutes counties and parts of Multnomah and Marion counties. It’s one of the most competitive districts, and between 2009 to 2023, it was represented by a moderate Democrat, Kurt Schrader.
Chavez-DeRemer and her Republican allies have latched onto Bynum’s record on police reform as a potential weak point, with the National Republican Congressional Committee running digital ads calling her “Oregon’s most pro-criminal politician.” They’ve cited audio of her on a podcast praising 2020 racial justice protests in Portland that spurred Oregon lawmakers to pass a set of police reform measures in 2021. While the months-long protests were largely peaceful, some events turned into riots with injuries, millions of dollars worth of property damage and the shooting death of a counter protester.
Bynum, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee at the time, played a key role in shaping and shepherding new laws governing policing, including laws that limited officers’ abilities to arrest protesters or journalists covering protests for failing to follow orders and required officers in larger cities to wear their name, badge number or other identifying information on their uniforms. She worked closely with Republican vice chair Ron Noble, and most of the laws passed with widespread bipartisan support. The Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association, Oregon Association Chiefs of Police and Oregon State Police also supported that set of laws.
Bynum said in a statement to the Capital Chronicle that she was proud of her record, and accused Chavez-DeRemer of voting to defund police by supporting a Republican-led budget that would have cut millions from public safety.
“I’m proud of my record working to keep our families safe and funding the resources that our law enforcement community rely on most,” she said “That’s why the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association, Oregon Association Chiefs of Police, League of Oregon Cities and Association of Oregon Counties applauded the overwhelmingly bipartisan effort I led in the state House to make our streets safer. Unlike Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who quietly voted to defund our law enforcement agencies, I’ll always vote in the best interest of Oregonians’ health and safety.”
Police coalition weighs in
The Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs, which lobbies for law enforcement, issued a lengthy and scathing statement about Bynum and her ad, saying that she proposed and passed bills that crippled police’s ability to keep communities safe. It cited a 2023 law that stops police from pulling people over for equipment violations, like a burned-out headlight, unless that broken equipment is currently interfering with safe travel, as well as the 2021 laws that limited use of tear gas and impact munitions.
Portland Police Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, the organization’s president, said Bynum was “gaslighting” by saying she worked across the aisle to recriminalize fentanyl. He noted that she endorsed Measure 110, the 2020 voter-approved law that decriminalized drug possession and aimed to provide more funding for treatment. Lawmakers walked the law back this year.
“Janelle Bynum’s actions in the Oregon Legislature are crystal clear: Bynum views law enforcement as the problem and has advocated for defunding at every turn,” Schmautz wrote. “Oregon is less safe today because of policies she not only supported but led.”
Bynum, like most legislators, voted this spring to create a new misdemeanor classification for drug possession, which takes effect Sept. 1. In February, she was also one of a handful of Democrats, most representing swing seats, who joined Republicans in an unsuccessful attempt to force a vote on a House Bill 4036, a GOP measure to recriminalize drug possession. At the time, Bynum told the Capital Chronicle that she felt the Legislature needed to do something, and it wasn’t clear whether the Democratic bill would pass.
“I wanted us to do something, and if 4002 didn’t pass, at least I would have been on record saying we’re going to do something. We cannot walk away from this building with an incomplete answer to the public,” she said. “We should hold sacred this idea that citizens can bring forth things to vote on – that’s part of our Oregon constitution and our Oregon history – but we also have a responsibility to make sure that it works for people and when people say it’s not working, we have a responsibility to do something about it.”
Chavez-DeRemer on Thursday announced that she received endorsements from more than 50 current and former law enforcement officials and firefighters across the 5th District, including the Republican sheriffs of Deschutes, Linn and Marion counties. She’s also backed by the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs and local fire unions.
“Oregonians are fed up with soft-on-crime policies that have failed to keep them safe, and that’s why I’ve fought to hold criminals accountable and let law enforcement do their jobs,” Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement. “My record speaks for itself, and I’m honored to have endorsements from groups like ORCOPS, the Oregon State Fire Fighters Council, and now this coalition of honorable men and women who have put themselves in harm’s way to keep our communities safe.”
Julia Shumway is the Capital Chronicle’s deputy editor and lead political reporter. oregoncapitalchronicle.com