Another endangered Repug?: Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon

[marmar]

from Bloomberg:



Republican Smith Buffeted by Economy in Oregon Re-Election Bid

By Laura Litvan

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senator Gordon Smith bucked the White House on the Iraq War and stem-cell research, worked with Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, and favorably features Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in campaign ads.

He is going to need all that and perhaps more ammunition to withstand a backlash in Oregon against President George W. Bush and the Republican Party.

Polls show the two-term U.S. senator locked in a neck-and- neck race against state House Speaker Jeff Merkley. Democratic voter registration in Oregon has soared in 2008, and voters said the incumbent's toughest opponent may be the increasingly hostile political and economic environment, not Merkley.

``He's a Republican, and that's his biggest challenge,'' said Marlene LeMarche, 59, a Republican voter and retiree who lives in Happy Valley, southeast of Portland.

Oregon conducts its elections by mail, and voters will begin receiving their ballots Oct. 17. This will force Smith, 56, to face the polls less than three weeks before Election Day, smack in the middle of the worst financial crisis in recent history. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=ago.KgrKdnI8&refer=home

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Perhaps Smith should become a Democrat... :D

[Pyrzqxgl]

2. Oregon's Wayne Morse became a good liberal Democrat back in the day,

after being elected to the Senate as a Republican.