Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley flew out to Austin Texas to meet with bloggers from all across the country. He was very excited about the event as was I. Follow me below the fold to find out about Jeff Merkley's visit to Netroots Nation....

Full disclosure; I am the netroots director for OR-Sen candidate Jeff Merkley

A new Rasmussen Reports poll of the Oregon senate race (500 LVs, July 15, MOE +/- 4.5%) shows Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley with the momentum against faux moderate Bush enabler Sen. Gordon Smith. This represents a phenomenal net gain of 11 points for Merkley since Rasmussen's June 11 poll (June numbers in parentheses.)

Jeff Merkley 43 (38)
Gordon Smith 41 (47)

41% is a new low for Smith in this poll and represents the 5th straight month that he has been under 50%. Smith does a little better once leaners are added, tying Merkley 46%-46%, which may indicate that Smith has lost some support among Republicans as he's sought to portray himself as a moderate, hardly distinct from Merkley on major issues.

Merkley has made great gains in favorability over the past month. Whereas in June, Smith was viewed favorably by 58% and unfavorably by 38% and Merkley was at 42% favorable, 38% unfavorable, now it's 53/45 for Smith and 51/34 for Merkley. Looks like in Oregon, the more people get to know Merkley, the more they like him and the more Smith pretends to be a Democrat, the more they decide they prefer the real thing.

To help Jeff Merkley build on this momentum, show him some love over at Act Blue.

Update [2008-7-16 14:20:58 by Todd Beeton]:Rasmussen Reports also finds Barack Obama holding onto a comfortable lead over John McCain in Oregon, 46%-37%.

Update [2008-7-16 14:54:37 by Jonathan Singer]: I think we realizing more and more why Smith decided to knife his good friend John McCain (who was an early and ardent supporter of) in the back by running ads trying to tie himself to Barack Obama...

Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley is heading to Austin to attend Netroots Nation! Jeff has always believed that the netroots is a critical part of how we make progressive change in this country. He also knows that upstart, passionate Democratic challengers like Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown need the netroots to defeat entrenched incumbent Republicans like Gordon Smith.

The Merkley Campaign has been gaining momentum in the online community. Not only did Jeff out-raise Gordon Smith this past quarter, he also had an amazing showing online. He raised over $420,000 online which was twice the amount he raised online from all three quarters combined! Pretty amazing isn't it?

Follow me below the fold to find out more about Jeff's visit to Austin...

Full disclosure; I am the netroots director for OR-Sen candidate Jeff Merkley

In order so that those of you who have been reading my Oregon politics diaries can understand who these people are I have been talking about, I present the following entry.  For brevity's sake, only statewide and congressional candidates will be discussed.

For your information, my last Oregon elections preview is here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/10/ 12954/7313/791/549408.

Cross posted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/showDiary.do ?diaryId=1234

The following is my latest read on this fall's Oregon elections.  This update is prompted by the release of some new registration data that goes down to the state legislative district level, thus allowing me to more correctly analyze the races.  This update includes all candidate races at the state legislative level and up (excluding local races) but does not include ballot measures.

For information, see my previous OR politics diaries:

Oregon Ballot Measures: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/25/ 113448/828/338/541717
Oregon's Vote By Mail System FAQ (Written for the primary): http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/19/ 124239/061/359/518313.
My first post-primary update: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/16/ 121742/983/269/536725.

Crossposted from Loaded Orygun: Crossposted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/showDiary.do ?diaryId=1227

In the last couple days, there have been several posts across the blogosphere citing what various candidates running for Congress have said on FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecoms.  But so far, it's been all over the map.  I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.

First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill.  They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.

Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

Many of my fellow bloggers are most likely aware of Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley's work in the House on equal rights, workers' rights and combating climate change. Jeff Merkley was the director of Habitat for Humanity and became one of the most effective progressive legislators my state has ever seen. He has a very impressive record on domestic issues, but I'm not sure my fellow bloggers know that Jeff Merkley is one of the strongest national security candidates we've had in a long time. Follow me below the fold to learn about the progressive legislator from Oregon who has serious foreign policy chops.....

Full disclosure, I am the netroots director for OR-Sen candidate Jeff Merkley

Wow, how desperate is this guy? Incumbent Republican Senator from Oregon, Gordon Smith, who has already tried casting himself as the change candidate against his Democratic rival in one ad, is now actually using Barack Obama to promote his own candidacy, even implying a quasi endorsement with the opening line:

Who says Gordon Smith helped lead the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment? Barack Obama!"

Watch it:

What's funny is that while the voiceover talks about Obama "saying" something nice about Smith, the image actually points to a quote from Smith that appears in a press release on Obama's senate website (although clearly Smith would like everyone to think it's his presidential website) as though the fact that Smith is mentioned on Obama's site alone is akin to some sort of endorsement.

So did Obama actually praise Gordon Smith's leadership on energy? Nope, not anywhere in that press release, he didn't and, quite to the contrary, today the Obama campaign made sure the whole world knows just whom he's supporting for the Oregon senate.

"Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate. But in this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate. Merkley will help Obama bring about the fundamental change we need in Washington," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Awesome.

What makes this even more satisfying is that Smith was an extremely early McCain endorser yet here ends up reinforcing the idea that Obama is the consensus builder that he says he is, which completely undermines two central messages being pushed by the McCain camp: a. that Obama is the most liberal senator in congress and b. that Obama is just a typical politician.

And in the process, Smith himself, rather than coming off as cool or even a team player, instead just ends up looking desperate.

Sort of makes you wonder whose side Smith's ad guy is on.

For more on the man who's going to retire Gordon Smith, check out Jeff Merkley for Senate online HERE.