Merkley camp says Smith’s Obama ad ‘trying to create an illusion’

U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith's new campaign ad was available on YouTube for a matter of minutes before Senate candidate Jeff Merkley's campaign began strongly objected to it.

Matt Canter, spokesman for the Merkley campaign, believes the ad is misleading, and in some instances, flat out wrong. He points to a part of the ad that he believes implies that presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is a supporter of Smith. The ad shows a press release with a picture of Obama on screen while the voice in the background asks, "Who says Gordon Smith led the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment? Barack Obama."

"Where does it say that?" Cantor asks. A full read of that press release shows it does not say that anywhere.

"This is a pattern," Canter says. "He is spending all this money trying to reinvent the past. He has spent the past eight years voting with President Bush 90 percent of the time. His policies have been a disaster, so he's trying to create an illusion. The fact is he's the campaign chairman for John McCain, not Barack Obama."

Smith's campaign says the Merkley camp missed the point entirely. The ad was not supposed to imply that Obama supports Smith in this election, but was to clarify Smith's past votes in the Senate.

"The point of this ad is Senator Smith's bipartisanship and his record on energy efficiency," says Lindsay Gilbride, spokeswoman for the Smith campaign. "His record has been under attack this past week, and this ad sets the record straight."

Canter countered with four votes Smith cast against increasing fuel efficiency; two in 2002, one in 2003, and one in 2005. The bipartisan votes the Smith ad was referring to occurred in 2006 and 2007.

Meanwhile, in light of the ad, Obama's presidential campaign rushed to clarify whom he supports in the Oregon senate race.

"Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment, and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton in an e-mail. "But in this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate."