Merkley, Oregon delegates proud of their convention moment

U.S. Senate candidate Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) said Thursday he was pleased with the speech he gave to the Democratic Convention Wednesday night.

“I felt really good about it,” Merkley said. “It was very daunting, speaking to such a large crowd, and when I first started the speech the podium wasn’t quite right. But after about the second sentence it was fine. I just wanted to capture in my short amount of time what I can do for working families in the senate.”

Oregon’s delegation had assigned seats in the corner of the arena, but when Merkley took the stage, they lept out of their seats with cheers that could be heard on the C-SPAN broadcast.

“The Oregon delegation really backed him, and he looked over and smiled at them,” said Robert Jones, whose wife is a delegate.

Oregon leaders were also supportive of Merkley and urged the delegates, most of whom are returning to Oregon on Friday, to redouble their efforts to help Merkley win re-election.

“We’ve got a lot of heavy lifting in the weeks ahead,” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Portland) said. “We are going to get outspent. But I will always take principle and passion over money from special interests.”

Even Merkley’s primary foe, Steve Novick, gave Clinton-esque style speech, asking his supporters to rally around Merkley.

“Thirty years from now when people are skiing Mt. Hood, people won’t care that there’s snow because we passed legislation to combat global warming, and it was Jeff Merkley not Steve Novick that cast the deciding vote,” Novick said.

Merkley talked to the crowd about the election ahead, telling them that while Democratic senate candidates were ahead in states like New Hampshire and Colorado, Democratic senators and Barack Obama, if he is elected, will need more help to pass legislation. But he also thanked them for their support while he was in the spotlight.

“I had a little bit of trepidation and concern facing the stadium,” Merkley told the delegation. “But the first thing I saw when I was walking toward the podium was you all screaming. You all were incredible last night.”