Smith campaign files FEC complaint against Merkley

Brooks Kochvar, campaign manager for U.S Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton), filed an official complaint with the Federal Elections Commission Wednesday against Oregon House Speaker and U.S Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland), accusing the Merkley campaign of exceeding election law limits on funds received from the State and National Democratic Party.

Two television ads paid for and distributed by the Democratic Party of Oregon in the past week prominently feature Merkley. While neither ad says anything about his candidacy, and while the Merkley campaign claims that the ads were not created to support his candidacy, Smith's campaign believes it is a blatant move to try to use extra funding from the party for more summer television advertising.

"Jeff Merkley would have us believe he appeared in ads paid for by the DPO and DSCC that have nothing to do with his candidacy for U.S. Senate," said Lindsay Gilbride, spokeswoman for the Smith campaign. "That is laughable, ridiculous and illegal."

According to the Smith campaign, the Merkley campaign has violated the FEC rules that state a candidate running for U.S Senate in Oregon is not allowed to receive more than $485,200 from the candidate's state or national party. Merkley had already received $386,088 from the Democratic Party before the ads were released. If the FEC rules that the $440,000 that the Oregon Democratic Party spent on the ads featuring Merkley went toward promoting Merkley as a candidate, he will be in violation of those campaign finance laws.

"These are issue ads. Gordon Smith knows that," said Oregon Democratic Party spokesman Marc Siegel said. "It is part of a broad effort to discuss issues important to Oregonians, and the Smith campaign is just desperate because they know their candidate is in trouble."

Even if there is no connection between the Oregon Democratic Party ads and the Merkley campaign, there are some striking similarities.

The first comes from a television ad released last Wednesday. It shows U.S troops coming home from Iraq with a Merkley voice-over. Language Merkley used in the commercial, such as, "We need to start giving [the troops] the respect they deserve," was used by the campaign in a release the next day talking about Merkley's policy toward American troops, where he said, "It's time to give our troops the respect they deserve."

The other ad funded by the Oregon Democratic Party, and features Merkley discussing achievements by Oregon House Democrats in Oregon in crafting a tough anti-meth law and pass bills protecting children from online predators. The ad was released on Tuesday, and no obvious connection to Merkley's campaign is evident.

Unfortunately for Smith, the campaign says it's unlikely the issue will be ruled on until after the election. But, Gilbride says, there is more at issue than an FEC ruling.

"This is not a petty political argument," she said. "Jeff Merkley's credibility is at stake."