Abandon Ship!: GOP on the run in Oregon

This diary is a fun one for me to write.  Simply put, it is about how the Republicans are absolutely losing faster than I even thought possible in my home state.  Be confident of a win in Oregon folks.

Cross-Posted from Loaded Orygun: http://www.loadedorygun.net/sh…

This diary will consist primarily of three examples of how the GOP appears to be giving up on the Beaver State:

What McCain Campaign?:

Oregon was always at best a marginal swing state for John McCain.  However it appeared for a while that he might at least try and make a show of force to at least divert some of our efforts.  As a result of that he opened an office in Oregon City (which is a fairly competitive area in Clackamas County, the least blue county making up the Portland metro).  That office now appears to have closed and the McCain campaign has officially turned over all of its efforts to the state GOP’s small group of field offices.  If there was any doubt before, McCain has now basically conceded Oregon’s 7 EVs to Obama.

Gordon Smith’s New Ad shows he has trouble with his base:

In the new ad posted below, Gordon Smith takes aim at the longstanding criticism of rural Oregonians of the role Portland plays in controlling much of the state’s politics.  This is an ad that can only be truly seen as a panicked move spurred on by weak polling among his base.  Given that Smith, and other Republicans,  now face a 9% D vs. R registration gap (which was around 3-4% when Smith last ran), the fact that he is having trouble speaks volumes about how much Jeff Merkley is surging.

The ad:

The Oregon Dems aim for five state house pickups:

Just six years ago, after the 2002 election, the Republicans held the state house by a 35-25 margin, after 2004 it was 33-27 and the Democrats took control in 2006 by a narrow 31-29 edge.  This year, sensing GOP weakness in many areas of the state, the Oregon Democrats aim for a minimum of two to three pickups this year, with hopes for more.  The GOP is not offering much resistance, as their spokeperson said a recent article (linked below), “Right now, our focus is on keeping every single seat that we have.”

Link to recent article: Democrats hope to add numbers in Oregon House

Let me know what you think.