Forward Oregon

Earlier this week, a KATU poll showed that Jeff Merkley has some work to do trailing his main primary opponent and lacking name identification.  The KATU poll also showed that 40% of likely primary voters as undecided in the contest.  However, a recently released poll by Riley Research gives the Speaker encouraging news about courting those undecided voters.

The poll shows Democrats having a +17% approval rating of the just finished speciall session. Riley’s poll indicates that the Democrats who are aware of the Legislature’s work approve overwhelmingly, with only 13% of Democrats registering a negative opinion of the session.  The bigger news for Merkley, who has centered his campaign themes around the progressive policies and his leadership in the legislative session, is that when he gets that message out, Democrats approve overwhelmingly.

Merkley seems poised to push that message, hitting the airwaves with a $88,000 ad buy to put this new spot up which highlights Merkley’s legislative message:

Merkley’s effort will also be boosted by a strong voter’s pamphlet statement, which can be seen as the key to last minute swing voters.  These voters will see the long list of Merkley endorsers and the legislative accomplishments that Riely’s poll suggests are viewed very favorably by the Democratic electorate.  If Merkley can up his name identification and push his message in the coming weeks before the primary, he should be in a excellent posistion.