With none of the hoopla of his campaign's kickoff tour through Oregon's populous Willamette Valley, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley began a swing through rural Eastern Oregon this morning with an informal breakfast in The Dalles with local party leaders, activists and office holders this morning.  There were no banners, and no stump speech.  Instead, the candidate for Gordon Smith's vulnerable Senate seat had a frank and unscripted conversation with rural voters -- the very demographic which conventional wisdom views as Smith's remaining constituency.

Highlights of the give and take, which I think was informative for both the attendees and the candidate, follows after the fold.

Photograph: Leah Nash for The New York Times

Two different papers today published looks at two different cities in Oregon that have suffered economic downturns in the past quarter-century.

The Oregonian's Laura Oppenheimer wrote an article about The Dalles, where Google has decided to buy 30 acres for a new server facility. In The New York Times, Erick Eckholm writes about Oakridge, a former logging town which faces a grim future. And present.