As many folks know because of the Presidential primary, Oregon's day is May 20--and along with the choice between Obama and Clinton are a number of statewide and federal races. The Secretary of State race is between three Democrats with one token Republican, and the Attorney General's race has NO GOP contender, so the primary is for all the electoral marbles.
But by far the most interesting race to me is to replace Gordon Smith, primarily (pun intended) between Steve Novick and Jeff Merkley. I'll say up front I'm fully backing Novick; I think he's the more progressive candidate, the more honest candidate, the better-informed candidate, and he's exactly the right kind of change we need in Washington to get BETTER Democrats, not just more Democrats to fill the seats.
Recently the top 3 candidates participated in the biggest debate of the primary season, televised live statewide and sponsored by KGW and The Oregonian.
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You can watch the hourlong debate yourself, broken into three parts. This is Part One, here is Part Two, and then Part Three.
There's certainly no shortage of information from a variety of sources on Steve, if you are interested. His issues pages are VERY extensive, and even include a set of videos discussing major points. For instance, here's what he has to say about battling poverty, and this is a good one on the war. There are also a host of current-affairs policy statements and press news, on topics as varied as his applause for the House standing firm on FISA and stopping a liquefied natural gas plant on Oregon's coast.
But the best way to understand why Steve has a double digit lead over his closest competition is to watch his closing statement at the KGW debate. In 90 seconds, you get that he gets it. Watch the video...
A lot of us here in Oregon are getting pretty excited--ballots for the all-mail primary go out around the first of May, under two weeks from now. With his fundraising up 57% from last quarter, leading in the polls and about to release new ads to run across the state, Steve is primed to seal the deal and take on the real prize--beating Gordon Smith. Considering he wrote the template on how to do it, we're pretty confident Gordo won't know what hit him--he's never faced a Democrat who fought back before.