Merkley hits back on Smith's furniture frenzy

[sandnsea]

In My Email:


America is facing severe economic challenges. George Bush has delivered record deficits and the tax burden on the middle class continues to rise.

So last week when Gordon Smith decided to ignore America's problems and launch a bogus political attack focused on furniture, editorial boards across Oregon cried foul.


The Salem Statesman Journal said Smith's ad was a "loser":

LOSER: Sen. Gordon Smith's latest campaign ad. It berates his Democratic challenger, House Speaker Jeff Merkley, for a $34 million upgrade of the Oregon Capitol. Memo to Smith: Those renovations and new furnishings had bipartisan support from legislators. P.S. The Oregon Legislature manages to balance its budget, unlike Congress.

The Oregonian Editorial Board slammed Smith for trying to score political points when the capitol renovation project was so badly needed. They praised the project for being on time and under budget, while slamming Smith's fiscal record in Washington D.C.:

During most of Smith's time in the U.S. Senate, Congress has been building a visitor center onto the U.S. Capitol. Four years late and $325 million over its original $300 million budget, it's scheduled to open in December -- reportedly because Congress didn't want it getting too much attention before the election.
During most of the construction, Smith's Republicans were in charge of Congress, and Smith himself was on the key Senate Committee on Finance and Upholstery.



Senator Smith's hometown newspaper, the East Oregonian also slammed Smith and his furniture ad:

EAST OREGONIAN

Gordon Smith would be well-advised to send his crew back to the drawing board on the matter of furniture for Oregon's newly remodeled state capital...

What should really bother us is the fact that gasoline is more than $4 a gallon, food prices continue to rise and the home mortgage system has tanked. We are engaged in funding a war that threatens to undermine our well-being and that of our children...

Yes, there are lots of genuinely meaningful issues that need to be addressed in this important race for the Senate.

New furniture for Oregon's capital is not one of them.

Please focus on the issues that really matter.



Gordon Smith has spent more than $2 million on ads pretending he's bipartisan, but Mr. Bipartisan is more than willing to throw Republicans and Democrats overboard to distract from his record in Washington: a bridge to nowhere, the Capitol Visitors Center boondoggle and lavish trips to more than 20 foreign countries on the taxpayer dime.

Oregon voters are looking for leaders with solutions to the serious problems families face.

Jeff Merkely has a plan to grow rural Oregon. Gordon Smith does not.
Jeff Merkley has a plan to cut taxes for 95% of Americans and help our middle class. Gordon Smith does not.
Jeff Merkley has a plan to lower gas prices and provide Oregonians with real relief at the pump. Gordon Smith does not.
What does Gordon Smith have...? Furniture.

[roguevalley]

1. if an eastern oregon paper slammed him, he's toast. :)

[LWolf]

2. I'm glad to see that there has been a response.

I don't see too many campaign ads; I think I watch the wrong channels. I saw Smith's furniture ad, though, and it concerned me. Without a smackdown, it could be effective.

That's a good response.

I have to be honest, though, and say that I have some reservations about the "grow rural Oregon" thing.

I've read his plan, and it sounds good, guardedly. If "growing rural oregon" doesn't mean growing the population, and thereby growing rural areas until they are no longer rural.

I've lived my whole life, in 2 states, trying to outrun the suburban plague. I'd like to think that economic development for rural areas can be accomplished without losing the "rural" part.

The area I'm in currently has been growing too rapidly, with suburban housing developments spreading around the small town like a cancer. There's ANOTHER huge golf resort for the wealthy planned across the rural highway from me; we have one north of us already, and there are TWENTY-TWO already operating in this area. They sink wells to water multiple big courses, swimming pools, etc., that impact the local water table and the wells of local rural residents.

Keeping rural areas rural, rather than turning them into suburbia and/or playgrounds for the wealthy, is a sensitive issue with me.

Which is beside the point, of course. I'm glad to see Smith get slapped for that ad.