July 10, 2008 - 9:40am
Bend Bulletin: Merkley, master of muddle
By Britten ChaseThe Bend Bulletin blasted Oregon House Speaker and U.S Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) in its editorial on Thursday morning for his attempts to claim that television ads he appeared in that were paid for by the Democratic party were not supposed to help or promote his campaign.
"When asked about the FEC rules, Merkley's campaign claimed the ads were just permitted ‘issue' ads and their purpose was not to help Merkley or hurt Smith. Merkley must possess a cocktail of self-righteousness and egotism to believe that fantasy," the editorial said.
Merkley's comments came Wednesday when Senator Gordon Smith's (R-Pendleton) campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, accusing Merkley of trying to circumvent campaign finance laws by participating in the ads. If the FEC rules that the ads did in fact promote Merkley or his campaign, then the money spent on the ads will put Merkley over the dollar limit of campaign contributions from the state party.
Read the editorial here (subscription required).
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Quote of the Day
October 7, 2008
"Gordon Smith has not been a leader on this issue. The only time he led was when it was time to take credit."
- Matt Canter, spokesman for Democratic senatorial candidate Jeff Merkley, on why the campaign doesn't believe U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R) deserves as much credit as U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D) and U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D) for reauthorization of county timber payments.
-PolitickerOR.com
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Employee Free Choice Act
In addition to his outrageous claims that these are not advocacy ads, Merkley is also wallowing in hypocrisy when it comes to big labor unions and their support of his campaign.
Merkley supports the tragically mis-named "Employee Free Choice Act" because his buddies, the big union bosses, tell him to do so. And when your "friends" are going to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to your faltering campaign, you do what they ask, right? Even it means crippling small businesses in Oregon or putting thousands of Oregonians out of work.
But as long as your union boss buddies have the opportunity to take away the private ballot in the workplace and replace it with a card check system so that they can intimidate, coerce and threaten workers, even in their homes, then it's OK, right?
Even if you accuse your opponent of taking money from "big special interests" like the oil companies and other legitimate industries who actually create something and employ people while still taking money from a big special interest yourself like big labor unions, it's OK, right.
Wrong.
Merkley is exactly the kind of hypocritical politician we don't need in Oregon and his support for the business-killing Employee Free Choice Act proves that.
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