After a long and hard-fought Democratic Primary for US Senate here in Oregon, Jeff Merkley will now be our candidate against John McCain's running mate Gordon Smith (R-Bush) in this November's General Election. We're now one step closer to taking down the last Republican Senator on the West Coast; and with the combined energy of the fantastic people from both the Merkley and Novick camps coming together, we'll do just that.
Meanwhile, while Oregon Democrats turned out in record numbers for this year's Primary...nearly one-in-five Oregon Republicans voted against Gordon(e) Smith (in favor of a 14-year long 'actively retired opthalmologist' who has never held elective office!) in the Republican Primary here yesterday, which is an eye-opening indicator as to just how weak Gordon(e) Smith actually is heading into November's election against Democrat Jeff Merkley.
Gordon Smith's been running scared from Jeff Merkley for quite a while now, and it's certainly no time to let up on the little weasel!
Democrats far surpassed record Primary turnout here in Oregon yesterday -
More than 68 percent of 867,000 registered Democrats cast their ballots, breaking a 1976 record of 61 percent turnout for a primary.
And we'll be working hard on the ground here nonstop until November to make sure that we go way beyond that in the General Election...
From here on out, the choice here in Oregon is no longer between two solid progressives. Steve Novick and his supporters fought a great fight, and I hope to one day even work with them to send Steve to another office. And I'm sure I'll get the chance to do that one day soon, too...since we're all mostly scattered around right here in SE Portland anyways...
But in this race the choice is clear - we have Jeff Merkley, a proven progressive leader (Yes, I just quoted myself. So sue me!) who's been fighting for us in the Oregon House for a decade now...versus Bush Republican Gordon Smith, a man who likes to pretend that he's a "moderate" even though his record clearly proves that he dances to whatever tune the national Republican Party tells him to.
Now, we need to go after Gordon Smith with everything we've got. We'll never have a better chance to beat him than this year, and there's no reason a Bush Republican should be able to win an election here in Oregon in 2008, in this political climate. As we saw even before votes were cast in our primary, Gordon Smith's going to go hard negative on Jeff Merkley nonstop. And as we all know, Republicans are certainly not above lying about themselves and others...
Unfortunately, what Gordon Smith lacks in integrity he certainly makes up for in cash.
We're going to win this race, and Jeff Merkley will prove to be one of the leading progressive fighters in the United States Senate for all of us. But we can definitely use all the help we can get!
Please spread the word for us; and we can all get involved here...and if you can, please consider donating to Jeff's campaign. We're going to win this one!
The fight against Gordon Smith starts today!