The Senate ad war keeps on getting nastier.

Last week, after sitting on the sidelines for the past few months while being attacked by the Democrats, Sen. Gordon Smith took on both Speaker Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick in one ad. Now Smith has narrowed his sights on Merkley, once again focusing on the Speaker’s fundraising activity during the February special session, launching his attack less than two weeks before the Democratic primary.

On Thursday night, superdelegate Rep. Peter DeFazio joined his colleagues, of Reps. Earl Blumenauer and David Wu, in endorsing Sen. Barack Obama.

DeFazio’s endorsement tips the superdelegate count in Oregon: three for Obama, and two (Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Rep. Darlene Hooley) for Sen. Hillary Clinton. There are seven superdelegates in Oregon are still neutral.

Republicans smell a flip-flop and are homing in on it.

Chairman of the Oregon Republican Party Vance Day’s conference call with reporters over Obama’s impending visit to Oregon wasn’t centered on the war in Iraq or health care or tax cuts. The first topic out of the box was…. NAFTA.

Only in a campaign between two lawyers—in this case Attorney General candidates John Kroger and Greg Macpherson—will political discourse be marked by words such as code, title and case law. The jargon isn’t being thrown around in a battle over policy, however, but rather in a back and forth over whether Kroger has ever ‘practiced’ law in Oregon.

Macpherson’s latest ad portrays his opponent as a courtroom neophyte, akin to a seventeen year old newly licensed driver, and hinges on the statement that Kroger has “never practiced law in Oregon.” Macpherson's campaign butressed the statement with the fact that Kroger was only certified by the Oregon bar in September of 2007.

Jeff Merkley released his April fundraising numbers today, following Novick’s announcement yesterday that he hit the $1 million mark last month. 

Merkley raised over $485,000 over the month. Novick’s campaign received almost $139,000.

Portland mayoral candidates Sam Adams and Sho Dozono are both Democrats. There are two Republicans in the race—Christopher Rich and Jeff Taylor—but party loyalty didn’t seem to weigh in when Multnomah County Republican Party when they threw their support behind Dozono.

The Multnomah County Republicans’ endorsement called Dozono “a man of proven leadership in increasing society’s wealth,” while encouraging Rich and Taylor to run for other offices. “This is not their year for mayor.”

For those following the U.S. Senate primary between Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick, Merkley’s new television spot, which went on air yesterday, will sound familiar notes.

The ad is a cheat sheet of Novick’s sometimes harsh words about his fellow Democrats: in 2006, he wrote "Obama gives me nothing to like very much and one thing to intensely dislike," as the conclusion of a run-down of the voting histories of John Edwards and Barack Obama.

U.S. Sen. Gordon SmithThe Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which does not endorse in the primary, has still been hovering in the background of the U.S. Senate race here in Oregon. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the DSCC, hand-picked Jeff Merkley and the DSCC donated to his fledgling campaign back in December.

One might have therefore expected that the DSCC's long awaited first ad in Oregon would mention Merkley. The Speaker is, however, absent from the spot, which instead focuses on U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith.

State Rep. Greg MacphersonJohn Kroger's Oregon pedigree was the subject of another ad released yesterday by his opponent in the Attorney General's race, State Rep. Greg Macpherson.

The ad equates Kroger to a fictional Fred, who just got his driver's license and now wants to drive a bus or Sue, who just graduated from medical school and now wants to operate.

Of course, Kroger has taken issue with not only the statements in the ad but the timbre of the ad itself; "Macpherson's negative, misleading attack ads are exactly what you would expect from a professional politician who cares more about getting elected than he cares about the significant issues facing our state," said Kroger.

Click more to view the Monty Python video clip this cartoon is based on.