Democratic National Convention

According to Barack Obama’s Oregon campaign spokeswoman Sahar Wali, Dean will be appearing at two rallies as part of his Register for Change tour. The first event will be at Lewis & Clark College at 1 p.m., where Dean will address students on the importance of registering to vote. The second event will be a volunteer appreciation event at Obama’s campaign headquarters in southeast Portland at 5 p.m.

MINNEAPOLIS -- A Democratic National Convention delegate for Hillary Clinton said Thursday that the convention speech delivered by Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) would not be influencing Clinton loyalists to vote for GOP nominee John McCain.

ST. PAUL – Jeff Merkley did not waste much time between returning to Oregon from the Democratic National Convention to getting back out on the campaign trail.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Seeing hundreds of people in purple Service Employees International Union T-Shirts on Monday morning passing out signs supporting Democratic presidential nomiee Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was a Democratic Convention déjà vu. It certainly seemed out of place at the La Quinta Inn, which was home to Oregon and Iowa's delegations for the Republican National Convention.

MINNEAPOLIS--New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told Oregon’s democratic delegates on Wednesday that New Orleans was a city that was still struggling with the affects of Hurricane Katrina, shortly before he had to leave the Democratic National Convention in Denver early to prepare for Hurricane Gustav’s landfall.

Check back next week to view my Convention Sketchpads from the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

DENVER -- Oregon Republican Party chairman Vance Day said Thursday that U.S. Senate candidate Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley's (D-Portland) speech before the Democratic National Convention didn't seem to be a very big deal.

"I really don't think the Democrats gave a whole lot of emphasis to Jeff Merkley's speech," Day said via phone from Minneapolis, where he was preparing for the Republican National Convention. "They gave him an odd time to speak, and it was kind of hard to hear him with all that clamor. I'm really not sure if he was up there to give a speech or take up podium space."

DENVER -- Former U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick had some advice for the man who beat him in the primary, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley (D-Portland), as Merkley heads home for the general election campaign.

"I've told Jeff that everyone should take advantage of their natural strength," Novick said. "And Jeff is a hard-working, honest, geek."

Novick said that geekiness was actually a strength for Merkley, and after eight years of the Bush administration he estimated that Oregon's voters were looking for someone with a little more policy background and a little less polished.

"With the start of school, it's a great time to do a commercial showing Gordon Smith finally coming around on global warming, or the Iraq war," Novick said. "Then you show Jeff on the screen looking really geeky, and say something like, "but Jeff does his
homework so he always knew the war was wrong, global warming a threat."

DENVER -- Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley was pleased on Thursday that a judge upheld a lobbying gifts limit law that the legislature passed in 2007.

"I think that's great," Merkley, the state House speaker, said. "I really worked to change the culture in Oregon so that politicians are accessible to the public, and accountable to the public."