When is a campaign ad not a campaign ad? The outcome of the Gordon Smith – Jeff Merkley Senate race could hinge on the answer.
The Democratic Party of Oregon, with money from the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has produced a couple of ads in which Merkley brags about his role as speaker of the Oregon House in passing laws to crack down on Internet predators, sex offenders and the meth epidemic. (See the latest one here.)
The Smith campaign is crying foul. It filed a complaint yesterday with the Federal Elections Commission charging the Democrats have broken the federal limit of $485,000 on the amount of money party committees are allowed to spend on an individual candidate’s campaign.
The dispute is important, The Oregonian’s Jeff Mapes blogs, because Smith has buckets of his own campaign cash while Merkley doesn’t.
“Smith had nearly $4.9 million in the bank as of April 30 and is saturating the airwaves this summer,” Mapes writes. “Merkley is still rebuilding his campaign war chest after a hard-fought primary against Steve Novick and can’t match Smith on TV. But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has plenty of money in the bank – $37.5 million as of May 31 – and a strong desire to see Merkley topple Smith.”
The Democrats are claiming the ads aren’t really campaign ads because they don’t mention that Merkley is running for the Senate – in fact, they don’t mention the Senate race at all.
Be that as it may, they definitely give Merkley more visibility and tout his legislative achievements, which can’t hurt him in the campaign. So it looks to The Eye like the Democrats, if they’re not exactly breaking the law, are stretching it to the utmost.
And while we’re on the subject of the Smith-Merkley campaign, Jesse Springer of Eugene has done a really funny cartoon about Gordo’s attempt to hitch a ride on Barack Obama’s coattails.
This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2008.
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Let’s remember that a U.S. Senator serves for six years — and Gordon Smith has been raising money for this race for six years. That’s why he has $5 million on hand. Let’s also remember that campaign election laws allow Smith to open up his own wallet and spend his own money: he can dump a million out of his own pocket on this race in Sepetember and October.
Let’s also remember that Merkley was busy as Speaker of the House in 2007 — getting a lot done for Oregonians — and waited while other potential candidates passed on this race (Kitzhaber, DeFazio, Blumenauer). So Merkley started late, and had a difficult primary race with Novick. Despite that, this is a close race — a recent poll by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had Smith up by only 3 points (and that’s not a pro-Democrat polling entity).
So Gordon Smith is whining that the Democrats are on the air with ads that help Merkley? That’s enough to make a bleeding heart liberal…bleed.
What Gordo is really worried about is that in May 2007 there were 750,000 registered Democrats and 690,000 registered Republicans, but as of May 2008 there were 870,000 registered Democrats and 671,000 registered Republicans. Smith sees the writing on the wall, and he’s spending loads of campaign cash to re-brand himself in the Portland and Eugene markets as a Democrat. He’s Barack’s homeboy, now.
Smith has flip-flopped on the war in Iraq, on global warming, on drilling in ANWR, on national health care, and more…the only thing that Gordon Smith really stands for is his own re-election. What he’ll do if given six more years is anybody’s guess.
He endorses John McCain. His PAC gives money to McCain. He’s chairman of McCain’s Oregon campaign. Simply put, Smith is a Republican who’s voted for Bush’s agenda all the way. Only he wants to get re-elected, and is running a phony campaign targeting Democrats.
How dare the Democrats actually put up their own ads…
There’s an air of entitlement in Gordon Smith’s whining. He’s an arrogant patrician who needs to be pushed on to his next career — best dressed lobbyist in D.C.
Update: The DPO is ignoring the Republican complaint to the FEC and in fact has launched another “non-campaign” ad, this one with Merkley calling for better treatment for veterans.
To watch his expressions on his face when he found out he lost…..PRICELESS….
OBAMA IS OUR FUTURE. Bush and Cheney need to be prosecuted for treason, for stealing our money and having wasted American lives in Iraq