Talking Points Memo: New ad suggests Smith is vulnerable and afraid of Merkley

Posted by Carla Axtman on May 15, 2008

Eric Kleefeld of the highly popular and well-respected Talking Points Memo Election Central blog, sees the obvious with Smith's latest attack ad:

If this new attack ad from GOP Senator Gordon Smith is any indication, he may recognize that he's facing a tough reelection fight and that the Dems have a shot at picking up this plum Oregon Senate seat this fall.
What's particularly interesting about this attack ad is that Smith doesn't know who is opponent is yet.

Jeff Merkley, the state House speaker and the target of this ad, is still locked in a tough fight against attorney Steve Novick for next week's primary. So the attempt by Smith to drive up Merkley's negatives at this point could be a sign that he'd rather face Novick.

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Merkley raced [quarter-midget cars] as a child, and once owned -- and crashed -- a Harley. He roomed with an impoverished family in Ghana as a teen, hitchhiked across Israel as a young man and went on, as he puts it, to help shut down one of Portland's worst crack alleys.

"I've lived," he says, "a pretty unconventional life."

Read the Oregonian profile of Jeff Merkley's life before politics.

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