Why Pres. Obama Needs OR-D Jeff Merkley In the US Senate

When President Obama is sworn in on January 20th, 2009 the fight to bring progressive change to America will not be over. We have already seen what a nasty partisan and obstructionist minority can do abusing the rules of the United States Senate to cause gridlock and block the common sense progressive policies that our country so desperately needs to get back on the right track. That is why I spend my volunteer hours trying to give President Obama 60 progressive votes in the US Senate by helping Democratic Speaker of the Oregon House Jeff Merkley defeat Republican Gordon Smith this fall.

Jeff has an amazing story. The son of a sawmill worker, Jeff was the first member of his family to go to college. After graduating from Stanford University and getting his masters at Princeton, Merkley was a Presidential Management Fellow in the Office of the Secretary of Defense where he did work safeguarding American military technology, verifying arms treaties, and assisting the U.S. delegation to NATO. Jeff continued his public service at the Congressional Budget Office, analyzing programs and policies for strategic nuclear weapons.

In his first diary on Kos (which shot up the rec list) Jeff talked about the importance of foreign policy experience:

I think these experiences in international affairs and national security is important. It would be a great thing if every senator and candidate for President had to have some international affairs experience. We might have avoided some of the biggest mistakes of the Reagan and current Bush administrations. It’s important to have senators who can distinguish between real threats and manufactured threats like those conjured up by Perle, Wolfowitz and President Bush.

Merkley moved back to Oregon and lead the Habitat for Humanity and the World Affairs Council but I met him during the 2006 election cycle. As Democratic Minority leader Jeff Merkley led a grassroots campaign to wrest control of the House from Republicans after 16 years of their oppressive control, something the pundits said couldn’t be done. I was privileged to be a part of both the Democrats efforts that won back the House in the 2006 election and in the 2007 legislative session. For those who were a part of those efforts, it couldn’t be more clear that we need the kind of leadership that Jeff Merkley showed in the United States Senate.

Jeff Merkley led a legislative session that was incredible. Having only a one vote majority, Merkley led a session that passed anti-discrimination legislation and domestic partnerships just two years after Oregon voters overwhelmingly put a ban on gay marriage in our constitution, put Oregon at the forefront of the fight against global warming by passing some of the toughest renewable energy standards in the country, the state version of the Employee Free Choice Act for labor rights, and radically expanding college financial aid which are just some of the policies that had people calling the session the most progressive and productive in years.

Now Jeff Merkley is running for US Senate. He is the right man for the job. After I did an interview with Merkley for my blog I wrote:

I have always been impressed with Jeff’s wonky side and today was another opportunity to see it, but it was more than that. The way Merkley interacts with the people that were asking the questions was really amazing. He is clearly smart, but unlike many people of his intelligence, he comes off being really accessible and someone that you can connect with. Often Merkley delves not only into the issue in great detail but honestly asks questions of those he is talking with, authentically caring about their opinion. I think this is a skill that makes him extraordinarily likable and will inspire both a lot of activists and a lot of regular people to get out on the campaign trail, building the kind of grassroots organization needed to take down Gordon Smith.

With Senator Obama’s campaign leading the way we need candidates that can run grassroots campaigns like Speaker Merkley has. Jeff has brought together a coalition spaning from the AFL-CIO, to SEIU, to the Council for a Livable World, to every Democratic State Representative, and to the Sierra Club to defeat Smith. Progressives are standing behind Jeff Merkley because, not only can he beat Gordon “I vote 90% of the time with Bush” Smith, but because once he is elected Speaker Merkley will bring his outstanding talent as a legislator to the table. President Obama is going to be able to lead our party with oratorical vision but he is going to need unrelenting progressive Senators like Jeff Merkley to forge good legislation that can really change this country.

When President Obama is sworn in on January 20th, 2009 the fight to bring progressive change to America will not be over. We have already seen what a nasty partisan and obstructionist minority can do abusing the rules of the United States Senate to cause gridlock and block the common sense progressive policies that our country so desperately needs to get back on the right track. That is why I spend my volunteer hours trying to give President Obama 60 progressive votes in the US Senate by helping Democratic Speaker of the Oregon House Jeff Merkley defeat Republican Gordon Smith this fall.

As many of you know there are only five more days for this quarter. The special legislative session took Jeff away from the campaign for about a month, so it is up to us to help the fundraising from the grassroots. My blog Forward Oregon started a Actblue page so please please give to an unbelievably deserving candidate. I am personally trying to raise 350 dollars on my Act Blue page by the end of the quarter and so I am going to match the first 100 bucks that is donated there. President Obama needs great Senators like Jeff Merkley to change America.

We need to see this picture in Washington D.C.:

The link to my Actblue page again