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Despite the conventional wisdom that Gordon Smith is a strong bet for re-election this fall, a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows the Republican U.S. Senator us still below the 50% level of support mark, and has him with just a single digit lead over his potential Democratic challengers.  Smith leads House Speaker Jeff Merkley by 3 points, 45%-42%, and is ahead of lawyer Steve Novick by 6 points, 47%-41%.  In February, Smith led Merkley by 18 points and Novick by 13. 

Barack Obama leads John McCain by a 52%-38% margin in Oregon, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll released on Saturday. His 14-point lead is more than double his six point lead just one month ago.  The poll shows McCain with a problem among Republicans: he’s getting just 68% of the Oregon GOP vote. 

The Senate ad war keeps on getting nastier.

Last week, after sitting on the sidelines for the past few months while being attacked by the Democrats, Sen. Gordon Smith took on both Speaker Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick in one ad. Now Smith has narrowed his sights on Merkley, once again focusing on the Speaker’s fundraising activity during the February special session, launching his attack less than two weeks before the Democratic primary.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazioOn Thursday night, superdelegate U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio joined his House colleagues, Reps. Earl Blumenauer and David Wu, in endorsing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential candidacy.

DeFazio's endorsement tips the superdelegate count in Oregon: three for Obama, and two (Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Rep. Darlene Hooley) for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton. There are seven superdelegates in Oregon that are still publicly undecided.

Republicans smell a flip-flop and are homing in on it.

Chairman of the Oregon Republican Party Vance Day’s conference call with reporters over Obama’s impending visit to Oregon wasn’t centered on the war in Iraq or health care or tax cuts. The first topic out of the box was…. NAFTA.

Only in a campaign between two lawyers—in this case Attorney General candidates John Kroger and Greg Macpherson—will political discourse be marked by words such as code, title and case law. The jargon isn’t being thrown around in a battle over policy, however, but rather in a back and forth over whether Kroger has ever ‘practiced’ law in Oregon.

Macpherson’s latest ad portrays his opponent as a courtroom neophyte, akin to a seventeen year old newly licensed driver, and hinges on the statement that Kroger has “never practiced law in Oregon.” Macpherson's campaign butressed the statement with the fact that Kroger was only certified by the Oregon bar in September of 2007.

Jeff Merkley released his April fundraising numbers today, following Novick’s announcement yesterday that he hit the $1 million mark last month. 

Merkley raised over $485,000 over the month. Novick’s campaign received almost $139,000.

Portland mayoral candidates Sam Adams and Sho Dozono are both Democrats. There are two Republicans in the race—Christopher Rich and Jeff Taylor—but party loyalty didn’t seem to weigh in when Multnomah County Republican Party when they threw their support behind Dozono.

The Multnomah County Republicans’ endorsement called Dozono “a man of proven leadership in increasing society’s wealth,” while encouraging Rich and Taylor to run for other offices. “This is not their year for mayor.”

For those following the U.S. Senate primary between Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick, Merkley’s new television spot, which went on air yesterday, will sound familiar notes.

The ad is a cheat sheet of Novick’s sometimes harsh words about his fellow Democrats: in 2006, he wrote "Obama gives me nothing to like very much and one thing to intensely dislike," as the conclusion of a run-down of the voting histories of John Edwards and Barack Obama.