Merkley campaign: 'Smith is so desperate'

State House Speaker and Senate candidate Jeff Merkley’s (D-Portland) campaign responded Wednesday afternoon to accusations of violating campaign finance laws by accusing Senator Gordon Smith’s (R-Pendleton) campaign of creating a legal circus to distract voters.

“Gordon Smith is so desperate to not talk about real issues that he’s created a frivolous, absurd legal claim to distract voters from the issues that matter to them,” said Merkley campaign spokesman Matt Canter.

Canter says the complaint filed by the Smith campaign to the Federal Elections Commission Wednesday morning that claimed Merkley conspired with the Oregon Democratic Party to create non-campaign campaign television advertisements is off base because there was no conspiracy. According to Canter, the Oregon Democratic Party asked Merkley to participate because as Speaker of the House he had a big hand shaping the party’s most successful state legislation, including the anti-meth bill and a bill to protect children from internet predators.

Still, even if the allegations did not violate the strict interpretation of the campaign finance laws, might they have violated the spirit of the law?

“Absolutely not,” Canter said. “The Democratic Party is trying to highlight the issues that are important to people,” Canter said. “The fact that the Smith campaign is trying to stop the discussion on those issues is very telling.”

Earlier on PolitickerOR: Smith campaign files FEC complaint against Merkley