Oregon primary

Although last night Kevin Mannix would not let hope die, pledging to wait until every vote in the 5th Congressional District's Republican primary was counted, he conceded this morning to Mike Erickson. But, according to his campaign, Mannix will not endorse Erickson for the general election.

Erickson received 48.35 percent of the district's votes, according to the Secretary of State's unofficial results, while Mannix, got 46.05 percent.

Jeff Merkley is moving quickly. Minutes after winning the Democratic primary against Steve Novick, the campaign started honing in on Sen. Gordon Smith.

Matt Canter, Merkley's spokesman, cited the support of all of "all of Jeff's friends in labor organizations" as one of the factors that propelled the Speaker to victory.

Shortly after his victory over Steve Novick in the U.S. Senate race's Democratic primary, Jeff Merkley got some words of encouragement from Sen. Charles Schumer, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

After acknowledging that voters chose from "an impressive field of candidates," Schumer's statement looks toward the general election campaign against incumbent Sen. Gordon Smith:

"Gordon Smith made clear that he was afraid to run against Jeff Merkley when he launched negative attack ads against him before the primary was even finished. But voters rejected Smith's false attacks today and chose a nominee who has the courage and integrity to take on the special interests and bring change to Washington. Jeff Merkley can win in November, and I hope the party will now unite behind his candidacy."

After a long and close primary, Speaker Jeff Merkley ultimately won the Democratic nod to take on Sen. Gordon Smith in November.

Merkley won with 45 percent to Novick’s 41 percent, and Candy Neville garnered seven percent of the total vote.

Novick conceded with his trademark humor, saying that the last phase of the campaign reminded him of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; “a couple of outlaws against an entire army.”

PORTLAND - Chants of "MVP! MVP!" filled the air at the Green Dragon in Southeast Portland. No, Brandon Roy wasn't in the room, but Jules Koppel-Bailey was. As of 10 p.m., Koppel-Bailey had 40.8 percent of the Democratic primary vote in the 42nd District race for state representative. He leads Regan Felice Gray (29.9 percent), Teddy Keizer (27.0 percent) and Gordon Hillesland (2.2 percent).

After joking that he was the shortest candidate in the race, Koppel-BaiIey stood on a table to address his supporters who were hungry for an encore speech from the leading candidate.

The first thing he said was, "I want to thank my mom."

Kate Brown walked away with the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State tonight, scoring 51 percent of the vote, while opponents Rick Metsger and Vicki Walker had 28 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Brown’s victory was aided by her large campaign kitty; she has spent $480,000 since January, and was supported by large checks from many of Oregon’s largest unions.

Ultimately, state Representative Greg Macpherson’s legislative experience and ties to Oregon could not overcome John Kroger’s massive grassroots effort in the contest for Attorney General.

Kroger, who took 55 percent of the vote to Macpherson’s 44 percent in the Democratic primary, was swamped by supporters at the Benson Hotel.

He called Macpherson a “formidable” opponent, but ultimately attributed his win to their field effort.

“I think this shows that grassroots politics is real and that people respond to real ideas and a passion to tackle the challenges that face Oregon.”

With a 500 vote lead in the 45th District Democratic State Representative primary, the Michael Dembrow camp is confident and excited at their election night party in Hollywood.

An hour and a half after the ballots were due, Dembrow carried his small lead over Cyreena Boston and Jon Coney in the northeast Portland district.

An hour after results started flowing in, KGW has called a number of races, including John Kroger for Attorney General, Kate Brown for Secretary of State, Kurt Schrader for the Democratic primary in the 5th Congressional District and Mike Erickson for the Republican nomination in the same district.

Sho Dozono has also conceded to Sam Adams in the Portland mayor’s race.

Sen. Barack Obama will win Oregon's Democratic primary, the Associated Press and television networks project, just hours after Sen. Hillary Clinton claimed a landslide victory in the Kentucky primary.

Obama leads Clinton 57 percent to 42 percent with 78 percent of the estimated ballots counted, according to the Oregonian.

Although the candidates split Tuesday's two primaries, Obama continues to carry the momentum in his charge toward the nomination.

Obama, however, did not declare an outright victory in the long-running nomination battle.

Before the deadline for Oregon's ballot submissions even passed, Obama did tell a crowd in Des Moines, Iowa, "With the help of those who stood up from Portland to Louisville, we have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people.”

He continued, "You have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States."