Gordon Smith (R-OR) Running as a Democrat
Gordon Smith is following my prediction that more and more Republicans are going to “forget” to include in their campaigning that they are. . . Republicans. Smith is falsely quoting Barack Obama as praising him in his latest advertisement. He’s trying to confuse Oregon voters. Sly tactic, but a GOP thing to do, eh?
I’m not sure there is any other way to look at it. Gordon Smith has served the citizens of Oregon since 1992, and has served in the Senate for nearly 12 years. He’s up for election in trying times for the Republican Party. Smith, it appears, has decided to deny that he’s a member of the GOP. At the very least, just check out the Gordon Smith for Senate web site. Do you see the word “Republican?” Nope, not on the first page. Take a close look and the word “Democrats” is there, though. But there’s more in the last couple days to show that Gordon Smith is running from the Republican Brand as fast as he can. Like a new advertisement where he tries to link himself with Barack Obama…
The video is at the Washington Post, and here’s a bit of what they say:
“Who says Gordon Smith helped lead the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment? Barack Obama!” the ad’s announcer declares. “Truth” is a 30-second spot that also cites Oregon Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s support of Smith’s bipartisan efforts on energy legislation.
But Obama does not support Smith’s reelection bid.
“Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate,” says Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. “In this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate. Merkley will help Obama bring about the fundamental change we need in Washington.”
This is the first example we’ve seen of a Republican airing an ad that casts Obama positively, in the hopes of winning voter support. Considering how anti-Obama ads backfired in recent special congressional elections — and the record crowds Obama attracted to an Oregon campaign rally — Smith might be helped by admitting his political “crush on Obama.”
They’ve got other videos where the major testamonials in support of Gordon Smith are from Democrats. One thing is for sure, Gordon Smith would not accept a testamonial from George Bush.
The real fact is that Smith is running scared from Democrat Jeff Merkley. According to the Merkley web site, Smith spent $500,000 during Merkley’s primary campaign with negative advertising. The Rothenberg Report is showing only a narrow edge to the incumbent Smith, The Fix calls the race competitive, SurveyUSA’s April Approval ratings for Smith aren’t that hot, and Rasmussen has shown Smith with only a 3-9% point leads in the last month, a very small margin for an incumbent. I’m thinking a big registration effort in Oregon for Obama could knock Gordon Smith out of his sweet seat.
OK, if Gordon Smith were the centrist he claims to be, it wouldn’t be a huge calamity to see him lose. I’m normally not the militant type who demands an “off with their heads” approach to all Republicans. But the Senate is important this year. If the Democrats can get to 60 members, then Obama nominees will sail through. That’s vital to the success of his Presidency. Of course, I’m getting ahead of myself. Obama isn’t President yet, but the Realclearpolitics reporting on the various polling has got to be driving the McCain folks crazy. Maybe Gordon Smith is hooked into those polls and wants nothing to do with McCain? Oh, McCain’s people have some whiney excuses, for sure. From Jeff Mapes at the Oregonian:
Over on the Republican side, Rick Gorka, a spokesman for John McCain, said that Smith “has his campaign to run” and that the McCain campaign wasn’t worried about the ad. But it seems to me that it doesn’t provide any help for McCain in Oregon for the state’s top Republican to be cozying up to Obama in his advertising.
The truth of the matter is that a whole bunch of other Republicans are going to be running away from the Republican brand before this is all over. Yeah, I’ve said it before. I stick by my analysis.
I find it amusing that the Republican campaign strategy is based wholly on the ignorance, stupidity and laziness of the American people. As though everyone out there in his state is incapable of using net resources o figure out who he is what he’s done and what he stands for.. Sure some of them won’t but there are a lot of people who will especially among the last two generations of voters who grew up with the internet.
Here’s a sampling of what I was able to find with 10 seconds of searching.
[OpenSecrets.Org]]
[GovTrack.Us]
[OpenCongress.Org]
[Congress.Org]
[Wikipedia]
How about that, over 5 million in money from PAC’s with almost 300,000 coming from the Oil & Gas industry, over 300,000 from electrical utilities and almost a million from Forestry & Forest products. GovTrack has him as a middle of the roader on the Ideometer and says he has about a 52% approval rating amongst his constituents. Yet instead of fixing the environment, fixing the energy crisis or stopping the war in Iraq - he introduces a bill to prohibit text message spam (s 3138) and a bill for World War II War Crimes Accountability (s 3007) and of course the ‘Affordable Footware Act of 2007′ (s 2372)
This is a con game pure and simple and I hope like hell he loses because I for one am completely tired of being conned and now more than ever we have the tools to shine some light on the con men.
Nobody said Gordon was a legislative genius, did they?
As for you, I’d like to see you write more. You’ve got an angle on this I didn’t think to mine.
Here in WA, the only way you can tell the Repub candidate is by the lack of party affiliation on their signs.
The recent misleading ad with Gordon Smith falsely quoting Obama is just the tip of the iceberg. Smith has been airing misleading ads constantly for months now. Recently he aired an ad with Elizabeth Furse claiming that Smith was one of the first to oppose the Iraq War. That’s simply not true. Both Obama and Merkley were opposed to the war from the start, Gordon Smith otoh voted for it and has continued to fund it.
Thanks for the post, and keep checking in on the Oregon race at the Merkley website
-sarahlane, netroots director for OR-Sen candidate Jeff Merkley
Good to see you here, Sarah. We’ll surely check in on this race again before its over, mostly to test how far Republicans are going to go in pretending to be Democrats in order to keep their hands in the public till. These guys are going to get desperate before it is all over.