US Senate

Sen. Gordon Smith has inserted himself in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary over the past couple of weeks, spending half a million dollars on ads attacking the candidates.

Smith’s focus has been primarily on Speaker Jeff Merkley, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s hand-picked candidate. After an initial double-hit on both Merkley and primary opponent Steve Novick, Smith has been narrowing his sights, airing radio and television ads attacking Merkley’s fundraising history, and his inability to understand the rural economy and way of life.

Steve Novick is taking some heat today from organizations including the SEIU, AFL-CIO, and Oregon Nurses Association over wording in on one of his recent pieces of direct mail, which raises the question of just what constitutes negative campaigning in this heavily contested U.S. Senate primary.

The piece points out a number of differences between Novick and Democratic primary rival, state House Speaker Jeff Merkley, including early opposition to the war in Iraq, Social Security taxes and, for these unions, the kicker: Health care.

The line that is causing all the fuss says that Merkley "failed to deliver on Healthy Kids legislation that would have increased taxes on cigarettes. The result, 125,000 Oregon kids today are without health care."

Over the past couple of days, Jeff Merkley is taking the fight to Sen. Gordon Smith, releasing a new television spot and hammering on the political ties between Smith and President Bush.

The campaign’s newest ad features a conversation between the candidate and his young daughter, who despite being “just a kid” can see that “Gordon Smith is afraid of [Merkley.]”

Steve Novick with Palestinian-American and Jewish peace activists: Novick Campaign Photo

Senate candidate Steve Novick today received simultaneous endorsements from Palestinian-American and Jewish peace activists, who cited his consistency in discussing Israel, a Palestinian state and the Middle East Peace Process.

Consistency was Novick's key here, and is especially relevant due to the fracas that surrounded Novick's primary opponent Jeff Merkley's comments on the Middle East back in April.

Last month, a number of Merkley's campaign contributors were upset by statements made by the candidate on the Arab-Israeli peace process. One of them, Hala Gores, a Palestinian American peace activist was especially disillusioned after Merkley seemingly solicited contributions from the pro-Palestinian community (and then returned Gores's) and consequently released a public statement on Middle East policy that represented what the community termed as an about-face.

Yesterday, former Gov. John Kitzhaber joined Senate candidate Steve Novick in lambasting the negativity of ‘politics as usual’ in a spot released by the Novick’s campaign. Now another, more unexpected, pol is chiming in: fellow Senate candidate Candy Neville.

Neville issued a statement urging Jeff Merkley to pull his “Believe” ad from the air, saying his negative campaign is “disappointing, misleading and misrepresentative” in its depiction of Novick.

Rosenbergs, move over. There's a new commie in town.

Jeff Merkley's spokesman might want to blacklist Steve Novick. According to Matt Canter, Novick's base is from the liberal heart of downtown Portland, or as he described it to The Politico, the "inner circle of the Kremlin."

Novick has been infiltrating Merkley's once assured chances at taking on Sen. Gordon Smith come November. Now Novick wants Merkley to recant his reference and liberate the citizens of Portland from the Soviet fortress.

"Apparently it wasn't enough for Jeff Merkley to divide Democrats by trying to manufacture controversy about some previous comments I made on the internet, now Merkley is adopting two classic Republican tactics: red-baiting and trying to divide rural and urban Oregonians," said Novick.

Don't expect Oregon's U.S. senators to be a presidential runningmate. In a survey of the U.S. Senate's membership not already running for president on whether they'd accept an offer to be vice president, The Hill newspaper found a variety of responses to the veepstakes question. Some were accompanied by laughs, others took the question seriously.

So, how did Republican Gordon Smith and Democrat Ron Wyden respond?

The candidates aren’t the only ones at odds in the Senate race; Portland pollster Tim Hibbits weighed on the Jeff Merkley Steve Novick matchup with decidedly different numbers than were generated by than the SurveyUSA poll.

Hibbits—who uses live interviews as opposed to recorded voices a la Survey USA—found Novick leading Merkley 29 to 23 percent, with 43 percent of voters still undecided. The poll had a margin of error of 4.8 points.

The poll also found Barack Obama leading Hillary Clinton by 20 points.

With the May 20 primary just around the corner, a wave of new polls are out in the Democratic race for the U.S. Senate.

A new poll conducted by SurveyUSA shows House Speaker Jeff Merkley and attorney Steve Novick in a dead heat heading into the final week of the campaign.

The poll of 1,700 Oregon adults, 1,554 of which are registered to vote, shows Merkley leading Novick by a statistically insignificant margin of 31 percent to 27 percent.

The poll was conducted May 9 – May 11 and has a margin of error of 4 percent.

Over the last two weeks, candidates for the U.S. Senate seat flooded the airwaves with ads, most of them negative.

Novick highlighted issue differences with his ‘opponents’ (Social Security taxes), Smith hit Merkley and Novick (accusing them of fundraising hypocrisy and celebrating taxes, respectively), Merkley hit Smith back (“Smith is just another special interest Senator”), and also took a swing at Novick (playing a few blog quotes attempting to demonstrate that Novick divides Democrats), and Smith came back at Merkley (fundraising again.)

Phew.

And today, Novick jumped back into the fray, releasing a new ad which aims to dispel “negative politics as usual” (in other words, Merkley’s “Believe” ad, which receives a couple of seconds of cameo.)