Gordon Smith's partisan nature
As the national economy worsens, families and business in Oregon are feeling the pain. The unemployment rate in Oregon rose to 6 percent last month. The latest news from Washington is that George Bush has delivered record deficits and the tax burden on the middle class continues to rise.
So last week when Gordon Smith decided to ignore America's problems and launch a bogus political attack focused on capitol furniture, editorial boards across Oregon cried foul.
Smith is desperate for a parachute
Quit hiding behind TV ads and tell us what you'd do with a third term, senator
The big issue in Oregon's election of a U.S. senator is apparently not Iraq or the economy. If you measure this contest between challenger Jeff Merkley and incumbent Gordon Smith by television advertising, it's about the cost of a desk. Sen. Smith is making a big deal of the cost of refurbishing Oregon's capitol building in Salem. House Speaker Merkley was a player in the capitol remake. Of course, so were many other legislators, including a bevy of Republicans.
As The Oregonian noted last Friday, the capitol refurbishing cost less than the amount that was budgeted. That's quite different than the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, which Smith and his political party have overseen, at a major cost overrun.
The expensive desk gambit it like Smith's earlier television commercial that criticized Merkley for enacting a rainy day fund, which also had Republican support. Both ads reveal an incumbent who's desperate to find a parachute.
The real question in this election is why Gordon Smith is running for a third term. It is abundantly clear that Smith lacks the legislative gene. That becomes painfully apparent when we look at Smith's colleague Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden. While Sen. Wyden in the last two years has written a tax reform bill and a health care finance bill, Sen. Smith has offered very little of great substance and original authorship. Tax legislation and health care legislation such as Wyden has authored, are the most substantial bills one might write.
Smith's lack of enthusiasm for his job shows in many ways. For instance, Smith has long maintained a conviction that America needed to upgrade its rail network, for passenger and freight purposes. Now that fuel costs have given new importance to the national rail network, this issue is hot. But Smith has not raised his voice or moved legislatively to make it happen.
One may debate the matter of when and why Sen. Smith turned against the Iraq War. But the basic question about Smith is much simpler. Why return Sen. Smith for a third term when he's done so little in two terms? Smith must come out from behind a phalanx of television advertising and answer that question, in person.
[Editorial, The Daily Astorian, 8/11/08]
LOSER: Sen. Gordon Smith's latest campaign ad. It berates his Democratic challenger, House Speaker Jeff Merkley, for a $34 million upgrade of the Oregon Capitol. Memo to Smith: Those renovations and new furnishings had bipartisan support from legislators. P.S. The Oregon Legislature manages to balance its budget, unlike Congress.
[Editorial, Statesman Journal, 8/11/08]
During most of Smith's time in the U.S. Senate, Congress has been building a visitor center onto the U.S. Capitol. Four years late and $325 million over its original $300 million budget, it's scheduled to open in December -- reportedly because Congress didn't want it getting too much attention before the election.
During most of the construction, Smith's Republicans were in charge of Congress, and Smith himself was on the key Senate Committee on Finance and Upholstery.
[Editorial, The Oregonian, 8/8/08]
EAST OREGONIAN
Gordon Smith would be well-advised to send his crew back to the drawing board on the matter of furniture for Oregon's newly remodeled state capital...
What should really bother us is the fact that gasoline is more than $4 a gallon, food prices continue to rise and the home mortgage system has tanked. We are engaged in funding a war that threatens to undermine our well-being and that of our children...
Yes, there are lots of genuinely meaningful issues that need to be addressed in this important race for the Senate.
New furniture for Oregon's capital is not one of them.
Please focus on the issues that really matter.
[Editorial, East Oregonian, 8/10/08]
Jeff Merkley was born in the small town of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, the son of a sawmill worker. He's fought hard for working families in Oregon and he's ready to help lead America.
As Oregon's Speaker of the House, Jeff Merkley led one of the most effective, efficient and progressive legislative sessions in Oregon's history - with big achievements for schools, ethics, health care, jobs, alternative energy, and protections for working families.
Discover why Jeff Merkley is ready to lead.
Read the Oregonian profile of Jeff Merkley's life before politics.
© 2008. Jeff Merkley for Oregon. P.O. Box 29136, Portland, OR 97296. 503-274-4439
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