Forward Oregon

I just got to see Jeff Merkley’s excellent fundraising numbers for the last quarter of the year:

That puts them at $913,000 raised in just 4.5 months, which as far as I know, blows away any other OR Senate challenger two-quarter totals by far. For comparison, in 2002, Bill Bradbury raised $562k through his second quarter the Merkley campaign didn’t raise for the entirety of our first quarter. These numbers exceed the expectations from even Novick supporters like TJ over at the semi-official Novick media mouthpiece Loaded Orygun who had said that $500,000 was the expectation level. Also, Merkley raised more in this quarter alone than Novick has the entire race. Especially since both D’s running have low name id being able to have the funds available to define yourself is crucial. Merkley is well on his way to being able to afford to use the airwaves to set the frame of both the primary and the general election.

Earlier Oregonian columnist Jeff Mapes made some astute observations about the possible path of the Oregon Senate race:

1)If Merkley can out-raise Novick (very possible) and win the major labor endorsements (tougher), he can probably easily shrug off anything Novick will throw at him. Democrat Ted Kulongoski won the Oregon AFL-CIO endorsement for governor in 2002 and raised enough money that he was able to easily defeated two pretty strong primary rivals, Jim Hill and Bev Stein.