Rep Barnhart: Jeff Merkley will defeat Gordon Smith and move progressive legislation through the U.S. Senate

Posted by Carla Axtman on April 1, 2008

Over at Blue Oregon, Rep. Phil Barnhart left a comment in response to this post (emphasis Carla):

Interesting you should mention Chris Edwards… You will recall that he took on Debi Farr and beat her. Chris was and is an excellent candidate. He deserved to win, but a number of things had to come together for that to happen.

Yes, 2006 was a great year all over for reasons we all know. But it is also true that we were ready. The Democratic House Caucus was organized and ready. We recruited some great candidates, including Chris. We worked hard to raise money. We set up the campaign support system to maximize our chances. We had a winning strategy that gained us two seats in 2004 when the smart money thought we would lose two.

The engineer of these victories? Jeff Merkley. It was Jeff’s vision of how to do it that got us to the majority in two cycles. He hired Jon Isaacs and kept the campaign team together during session so that we were ready. He devised the strategy and guided all the important turns in our tactics. We all worked very hard, none harder than our great candidates, but there is no question at all that the leader and guide was Jeff Merkley

Chris Edwards deserved to beat the incumbent. But he probably would not have won had the Republican caucus spent a couple hundred thousand more, money that Brading tied down in District 49. I think the same thing is clear in District 10. Jean Cowan deserved her win, but she beat a popular veteran legislator who could have benefited from some of those dollars Minnis spent in her own race because Brading very nearly beat her.

I have always believed that politics is a deadly serious team sport. It takes very bright hard working candidates, consultants, campaign managers, lots and lots of volunteers and donors, but most of all it takes a great leader who has a great plan and the ability to motivate everyone else and focus their energy productively on the goal. We have been very fortunate to have Jeff Merkley because he has been that leader.

There were two heroes in 2006. Rod Brading is the public hero who worked very hard and ultimately sacrificially to tie down Karen Minnis and eat up her treasury. Jeff Merkley was the hero behind the scenes whose leadership was crucial to allow us to take advantage of the chances that Republican errors, Democrats’ energy, and circumstances allowed us.

Jeff has been endorsed by ALL of his Democratic colleagues in the House. It is easy to think of us as a monolithic block. Not true. We all have our own priorities and concerns. Yet, Jeff held us together through the 2007 and the short 2008 session to pass some important progressive legislation. And he has the deep respect of all of his colleagues after all of it.

Jeff Merkley will become a very productive United States Senator. He has demonstrated in spades the skills that a legislator needs to get things done. As we get his story out, I expect the excitement to grow. He will beat Gordon Smith and then use the skills he has demonstrated to move progressive legislation through the Senate.