Darlene Hooley

U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-West Linn) announced Thursday she would be endorsing state Sen. Ben Westlund (D-Tumalo) in Oregon’s State Treasurer’s race.

Mike Erickson has problems.  Problems so serious they may likely preclude any Republican hopes of re-capturing Oregon's fifth congressional district currently held for the past 12 years by Democratic Rep. Darlene Hooley.

DENVER--U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield) spoke enthusiastically on Wednesday about congressional nominee State Sen. Kurt Schrader’s (D-Canby) chances of holding onto outgoing Rep. Darlene Hooley’s (D-West Linn) seat because of a continuous line of controversies surrounding Mike Erickson (R-Lake Oswego).

DENVER -- Outgoing U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-West Linn) paid tribute to former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as she urged her fellow Clinton supporters to move past the divisive primaries and unite behind Barack Obama.

"I know many of you worked hard for Hillary. I did too," Hooley said at the Oregon delegation's breakfast Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention. "It will take years to fully understand what she did for our country. But the next woman that runs for president and becomes the Democratic nominee will be able to hold her head a little higher and walk a little taller because of Hillary Clinton."

Hooley also warned disaffected Clinton delegates not to stray into Republican presidential candidate John McCain's camp because, "John McCain is not a friend to women."

To say Monday has been a rough day for 5th Congressional District candidate Mike Erickson’s campaign is probably something of an understatement.

In a stunning 1,200-word piece published over the weekend, The Oregonian detailed a 2004 trip Erickson took to Cuba which the Republican businessman has said was a humanitarian relief trip. But the paper reported that the jaunt was instead a “pleasure trip” filled with partying and Cuban cigars.

Sensing the potential damage the story could do to a candidacy that has already been roiled by allegations that Erickson paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion, Erickson’s campaign is holding a press conference Tuesday afternoon to address the 2004 trip.

Erickson is facing off against state Sen. Kurt Schrader (D-Canby) for the seat of U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-West Linn), who is retiring after six terms. Erickson defeated former state party chair Kevin Mannix in the May primary.

PolitickerWA.com’s The Inside Edge reports that Joan Evans, the Chief of Staff to retiring U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley, is hoping Darcy Burner unseats a Republican Congressman in Washington so that she can join her staff when the new Congress takes office next year. 

Read the PolitickerWA.com report:

All five of Oregon’s congressional representatives donated tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars, to their respective party congressional campaign committees, according to numbers released by the Federal Elections Commission Friday.

This week children's toys are a bit safer and the Erickson campaign is stirring up controversy at local county fairs. Here are this week's Winners & Losers.

Between the months of April and June, retiring Rep. Darlene Hooley disbursed a total of $163,956 with a large chunk $100,000 going to her colleagues at the DCCC and over $28,000 going back to her contributors.