NRSC refuses to comment on Smith article

The National Republican Senatorial Committee refused to comment Wednesday on how an article published by the Willamette Week accusing Smith’s factory of employing illegal workers will affect Smith’s re-election chances this November.

NRSC spokesman John Randall would not elaborate as to why the committee would not rush to defend Smith, whose family owns the factory in question, Smith Frozen Foods in Weston.

Smith blasted the article as left-wing attack journalism. The article bases its claims on secondhand information that Smith’s company may have employed illegal workers.

“It is wholly compromised of unsubstantiated and ridiculous allegations from a liberal tabloid,” Smith said in a statement.

Willamette Week reporter Beth Slovic, who wrote the story, noted that accusations of hiring illegal workers derailed several political careers on both sides of the aisle, including President Clinton’s one-time attorney general nominee Zoe Baird and President Bush’s nominee to head up the Department of Homeland Security, Bernard Kerik.

But, Slovic wrote, there is one distinct difference between those politicians and Smith.

“None of those candidates faced voters,” Slovic wrote.