A mailer sent by an Oregon commissioner featuring a swastika has caused controversy in Portland. Image by Facebook

By Ari Feldman November 6, 2018

A county commissioner from the Portland area offered a half-baked apology for sending out a campaign mailer that featured a swastika just days before the midterm elections, the Willamette Week reported.

Last week, Bob Terry, a commissioner for a district in the western part of the Portland metro area, sent out a mailer attacking his opponent, Kathryn Harrington. The mailer says that Harrington will “bring Portland’s problems” to the western suburbs, a reference to anti-fascist and Black Lives Matter protests shown in sepia-tinted photographs on the mailer.

“Vote to stop ‘Portland Creep,’” the mailer adds.

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Many noticed that the mailer features a swastika in the bottom righthand corner. There is a faint line running through the swastika as it is shown in the mailer, and a color copy of the photo shown to the Oregonian has a clear red line running through the swastika, indicating that it is from an anti-fascist demonstration.

“The swastika is obviously crossed out, and anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty would know exactly what this is,” said Shelby Blake, a spokesperson for the Terry campaign, told the Oregonian.

Not all officials in the region agreed.

“I just don’t think it’s okay,” said a local city councilor, Juan Carlos Gonzalez. “I don’t know if it’s intentional or not.”

In a Facebook post, Terry apologized to members of the media whom the swastika may have offended.

“I apologize to anyone that may have been offended from the media and Kathryn Harrington’s portrayal of the photo,” Terry wrote. “I will aggressively fight anti-Semitism and any form of racism as Washington County Chair.”

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

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