5th CD campaigns start hiring

Sources to the Inside Edge report that congressional candidate Kurt Schrader recently hired Paul Gage, the former chief campaigner for the Senate Democrats in 2006. Gage, currently a principal with Ken Snyder Communications in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, will be heading back to Oregon to manage the Schrader primary campaign for the fifth congressional district. It's not clear whether he will remain with his firm while working for Schrader. Meanwhile, Schrader's primary opponent Steve Marks decided to keep it local when he hired consultant Stacey Dycus from OneSource Strategies.

On the GOP side, businessman Mike Erickson is sticking with former NRCC shrewd campaigner Cary Evans, while his newly debt-free primary opponent Kevin Mannix brought on board former Oregon GOP Executive Director Amy Langdon to manage.