Matt Miller

The campaign for U.S. Senate candidate John Frohnmayer, who is running on the Independent ticket, is aggressively pushing out to reporters today a Riley Research poll finding that in a prosepctive general election race, Republican incumbent Gordon Smith receives 39%, with Frohnmayer picking up 14% - ahead of Democrat Jeff Merkley, who receives 12%. The poll of 401 Oregon voters was conducted between November 30 and December 12. It has a margin of error of 4.89%.

But Democrats express reservations about Michael Riley’s research. Advisers said that the poll – taken over a span of several weeks as opposed to the customary several days – fail to produce a “snapshot” of the electorate. “401 voters contacted over 13 days is some of the worst basic methodology I've seen in a long time,” said one Democratic campaign aide.

Republican U.S. Senator Gordon Smith is facing questions today about comments he made on the Senate floor yesterday regarding then-Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott’s 2002 comments about Strom Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat presidential run.  read more »