Matt Canter

Rosenbergs, move over. There's a new commie in town.

Jeff Merkley's spokesman might want to blacklist Steve Novick. According to Matt Canter, Novick's base is from the liberal heart of downtown Portland, or as he described it to The Politico, the "inner circle of the Kremlin."

Novick has been infiltrating Merkley's once assured chances at taking on Sen. Gordon Smith come November. Now Novick wants Merkley to recant his reference and liberate the citizens of Portland from the Soviet fortress.

"Apparently it wasn't enough for Jeff Merkley to divide Democrats by trying to manufacture controversy about some previous comments I made on the internet, now Merkley is adopting two classic Republican tactics: red-baiting and trying to divide rural and urban Oregonians," said Novick.

Rep. Jeff Merkley

Tibetian independence-an unusual campaign issue- has been thrown into the spotlight as of late due to the impending Olympics in Beijing.

Rep. Jeff Merkley has brought the issue up two times this week; once, in the televised debate on Tuesday night and again on a pro-Sen. Edwards blog on Wednesday.

Matt Canter, communications director for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley, is hitting reporters’ inboxes Tuesday morning with a campaign memo outlining how “over the past week the dynamics of the Oregon Senate race have changed. Gordon Smith has emerged from the shadows to launch two new false attacks on Jeff Merkley.”

When veteran pollster Bob Meadow joined Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick’s campaign last year, he had some concerns.

With the Democratic U.S. Senate primary now less than three months away, the campaigns for Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick are increasingly engaging in a war of words.  read more »