Merkley Campaign: Must Be Spring...Endorsements are blooming in new web ad

House Speaker Jeff Merkley's campaign for U.S. Senate today unveiled a new web advertisement that features thousands of progressive Oregonians that are coming together to defeat Gordon Smith and elect Jeff Merkley the next U.S. Senator of Oregon.

View the ad and check out a complete list of all the Oregon progressives that are coming together to elect Jeff Merkley.

Thousands of Oregon progressives who want affordable health care, good family-wage jobs, and an end to the Iraq war, have endorsed Jeff's campaign to bring the change we need to Washington D.C.

In all, more than 250,000 steelworkers, nurses, firefighters, electricians, truck drivers, teachers and thousands more Oregon families have endorsed Jeff Merkley's campaign, including:

*Over 145,000 hardworking men and women from the AFL-CIO
*More than 11,000 teachers from the American Federation of Teachers
*Over 11,000 Oregon nurses from the ONA
*More than 24,000 environmentalists from the Sierra Club
*More than 50,000 health care workers and other service employees from SEIU

Jeff's campaign has also been endorsed by Governor Ted Kulongoski, Governor Barbara Roberts, 4 other statewide office holders, 15 Oregon mayors, 30 State Representatives, and 13 State Senators, and over 100 community leaders across Oregon.

Jeff Merkley spent his early years in rural communities where the children of loggers and mill workers learned the value of honest work, good neighbors, and strong families. Jeff earned scholarships and became the first in his family to go to college. To stop nuclear proliferation, he went on to serve as a national security analyst, first for the Pentagon and then for Congress. After returning to Oregon with his wife Mary, Jeff led Habitat for Humanity and worked with low-income families to rebuild neighborhoods and purchase their first home.

Eighteen months ago, Jeff led a band of progressives to take control of the Oregon House and became the first Democratic speaker in sixteen years. The Register-Guard called Jeff's session as speaker "one of the most productive in decades." He fought special interests to make health care more affordable, clamped down on pay day loan scams, passed landmark environmental legislation, and created thousands of family-supporting jobs in Oregon.

Today, Speaker Merkley lives in East Multnomah County with Mary and their two children, Jonathan age eleven and Brynne age ten.

Posted March 19, 2008
Press