OR-Sen: Merkley Hits Back

Over the weekend, skywaker9 diaried about Gordon Smith’s outrageous new ads accusing Jeff Merkley of being soft on sex offenders. The ads, of course, are bogus and misleading, and Merkley is hitting back with a pair of his own spots released today:

The first ad features Kristi Gustafson, an Oregon law enforcement officer, defending Merkley against Smith’s “lies and innuendo”. It’s an effective spot.

Gordon Smith is making a dangerous play with his ads, hoping to saddle Merkley with a Willie Horton-type of situation. It’s a kind of nastiness I haven’t seen in an ad since the 2005 Virginia gubernatorial campaign, when Tim Kaine was pilloried in attack ads for serving as a defense attorney to clients charged with homicide. We all know how that one turned out for Jerry Kilgore.

I sort of wonder if this could be Gordon Smith’s Nancy Johnson moment — an example of an incumbent who everyone thought was “nice” suffering from a heavy backlash after releasing over-the-top attack ads against their political opponents.

It’s a bit too early to tell, but Gordo is skating on some thin ice.

39 thoughts on “OR-Sen: Merkley Hits Back”

  2. Gordon Smith’s internals must have him sliding fast (tied or possibly even losing) otherwise he wouldn’t risk getting Kerry Healy-ied.

    I find the first Merkley response ad to be pretty effective.

  3. I can’t see this resulting in anything except a significant Merkeley bump.  These are two great spots in response to some pretty horrible Smith campaign tactics.

  4. That the next round of SUSA and Ras polls are going to have Merkley ahead.  The more I hear about this race the more confident I’m getting.  The DSCC should be able to close the money gap in this race for us.

  5. …to overcome the devastating “reality” ad where Jeff Merkley is  stuffing his face while he responds to a question about Georgia with “witty” references to Jimmy Carter and Atlanta. If I were Smith’s campaign, that’s the only ad I’d run for the next 40 days and I’d saturate the airwaves with it.

    It’s very close to a Macaca moment. Actually, for a lot of people I know, it is a macaca moment.

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