Forward Oregon

Gordon Smith decided to wade into the Oregon Democratic Senate Primary, yesterday, launching an ad attacking Oregon Speaker of the House Jeff Merkley. Some questioned Smiths motives, speculating why Smith would go after Merkley but speculation is no longer needed.  A new Rassmussen poll tells us all we need to know. Jeff Merkley is the best Democratic candidate to take on Smith, and despite a contested primary Merkley is statistically tied with Smith in a general election match up. That is why Gordon Smith is going after Jeff Merkley, because he is trying get Steve Novick to do his dirty work, dispatching Smith’s strongest opponent in the primary.

Rassmussen’s polling coupled with SUSA’s earlier polling, paints a clear picture of the Oregon Senate race. The polling shows that early in the race both the Democratic primary and general election match ups were muddled by a lack of name identification. That was before Merkley had made any advertising buys. Now, Jeff Merkley is surging in the polls as voters learn about who he is, his accomplishments in the legislature, and his vision for Oregon and our nation. Voters are clearly responding to his message, with a 17 point improvement in the Survey USA primary poll in just three weeks, and gaining 15 points against Smith since February.

Jeff Merkley is getting the kind of traction that Gordon Smith fears. Smith has been cultivating his nice guy moderate image farce for years and will be able to brush attack dog Steve Novick, whose penchant making “undiplomatic” statements has already gotten him in trouble, out of the way with ease. So Smith, by hand picking Novick as his opponent, is trying to use Novick to do Smith’s most difficult task, defeating Jeff Merkley. There is no other compelling explanation to why Smith would go after Merkley and only Merkley in a Democratic primary.

Jeff Merkley will beat Gordon Smith. He is a fantastic legislator that has methodically passed good progressive legislation while Speaker, and even when he was in the minority. Merkley has a way of framing progressive values as shared values, that Smith won’t be able to undermine with attack ads.  Merkley has also created a broad coalition of both local grassroots activists and national groups to take on Smith.  Jeff Merkley is what Smith fears.

We cannot let Gordon Smith’s attacks on Democrats in a primary allow him to hand pick a weak opponent. As Oregon Democrats lets do our job before May 20th to make sure Gordon Smith trembles in fear for the next six months by nominating Jeff Merkley.