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's eventual account of the incident to the press was challenged by the victim and contradicted by the police report. A year after the election, Smith admitted that the woman had rebuffed his advances before the altercation. Although Smith denied knocking the woman off of a couch later in the evening, he conceded to grabbing her and then hitting her above the eye when she confronted him. == Radio entrepreneur and personality ==