Russ Kelley

The Merkley campaign knows that in order to beat Sen. Gordon Smith in November, it will have to build the largest grassroots organization Oregon has ever seen.

With their grassroots leadership teams in place, Russ Kelley, the campaign's spokesman, believes the campaign is well on its way to that goal.  read more »

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley  was unhurt in a rollover accident on U.S. Highway 20 near Sisters Thursday afternoon, the AP is reporting.

Merkley was travelling with an aide, who was also uninjured.

So – who won Tuesday night’s Democratic Senate debate between Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick?

Today’s East Oregonian takes the position that Novick had an edge for style points.

The AP is reporting on the Merkley campaign’s complaints about a spy.

“Russ Kelley, the campaign spokesman for U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley, said he recently spotted a young man with a video camera at a Merkley event. Kelley learned his name was Tim Lussier, who said he was a fan of the Democrat and hoped to meet him.  read more »

Now the Merkley campaign is responding on the debates.

"We are glad to finally have the schedule of debates set," Merkley spokesman Russ Kelley tells us. "Jeff looks forward to bringing his message of change and opportunity to voters across the state."

Russ Kelley, spokesman for the Jeff Merkley U.S. Senate campaign, is responding to Democratic rival Steve Novick on the issue of debate negotiations.

“It sounds like the Novick campaign can’t take yes for an answer,” Kelley tells PolitickerOR.com Wednesday evening. “It seems, no matter how many times we agree to do the debates, we just can’t satisfy.  read more »

Republican U.S. Senator Gordon Smith is facing questions today about comments he made on the Senate floor yesterday regarding then-Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott’s 2002 comments about Strom Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat presidential run.  read more »

Democrat Steve Novick, running for the Democratic nomination in the race for the U.S. Senate, today criticized the Senate's passage of the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act.

"Today's Senate vote to continue expanding the failed free trade system that has cost this nation millions of jobs is deeply disappointing," Novick said. "With the record of NAFTA, CAFTA, permanent trade relations with China, the WTO, and a host of other trade agreements, it couldn't be clearer that more unfair trade pacts are not what we need to help the working people of this nation."

But a spokesman for Novick's primary opponent noted that House Speaker Jeff Merkley said the same thing nearly one month ago.

"Jeff, of course, feels the same way today about the deal as he did then," said Merkley spokesman Russ Kelley.

Jeff Merkley's Senate campaign picked up another significant labor endorsement Tuesday, as Oregon AFSCME Council 75 announced their members had voted to support him.

Merkley has already been endorsed by both the UFCW Local 555, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Don Loving, Public Affairs Director for AFSCME, said the union's members certainly had nothing against Steve Novick, but that a historically beneficial relationship they had enjoyed with Merkley led to the endorsement.