Gordon Smith

Over the past couple of days, Jeff Merkley is taking the fight to Sen. Gordon Smith, releasing a new television spot and hammering on the political ties between Smith and President Bush.

The campaign’s newest ad features a conversation between the candidate and his young daughter, who despite being “just a kid” can see that “Gordon Smith is afraid of [Merkley.]”

Don't expect Oregon's U.S. senators to be a presidential runningmate. In a survey of the U.S. Senate's membership not already running for president on whether they'd accept an offer to be vice president, The Hill newspaper found a variety of responses to the veepstakes question. Some were accompanied by laughs, others took the question seriously.

So, how did Republican Gordon Smith and Democrat Ron Wyden respond?

Over the last two weeks, candidates for the U.S. Senate seat flooded the airwaves with ads, most of them negative.

Novick highlighted issue differences with his ‘opponents’ (Social Security taxes), Smith hit Merkley and Novick (accusing them of fundraising hypocrisy and celebrating taxes, respectively), Merkley hit Smith back (“Smith is just another special interest Senator”), and also took a swing at Novick (playing a few blog quotes attempting to demonstrate that Novick divides Democrats), and Smith came back at Merkley (fundraising again.)

Phew.

And today, Novick jumped back into the fray, releasing a new ad which aims to dispel “negative politics as usual” (in other words, Merkley’s “Believe” ad, which receives a couple of seconds of cameo.)

Despite the conventional wisdom that Gordon Smith is a strong bet for re-election this fall, a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows the Republican U.S. Senator us still below the 50% level of support mark, and has him with just a single digit lead over his potential Democratic challengers.  Smith leads House Speaker Jeff Merkley by 3 points, 45%-42%, and is ahead of lawyer Steve Novick by 6 points, 47%-41%.  In February, Smith led Merkley by 18 points and Novick by 13. 

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.

Remember those reports that Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee are pullling out of Oregon? National Democrats are still airing negative television spots aimed at ousting U.S. Senator Gordon Smith.

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.

Although John McCain failed to submit a statement for the Oregon Voters’ Pamphlet, the Democratic Party of Oregon has got his back. The DPO is helping out the Republican Senator by supplying one for him.

The faux statement—which the DPO posted on its website—hits on many of the Democratic Party’s talking points regarding McCain, which all fall under the blanket of the claim that the Republican would simply provide a third Bush term.