We have been coming up with a lot of good information on Smith recently - information voters need to know.

How do we get this good info off this blog and out to voters? Especially since the Oregonian is loathe to do anything other than kiss Gordo's butt.

It is important that we all write letters to the editor as often as possible. Eventually, we will canvass and phonebank. What else can we do from now until the campaigns really ramp up?

In a New York Times article on Gordon Smith with the curious title, "Courage Without the Uniform" (June 30, 2007) Timothy Egan advised his readers that if Gordon Smith could take back a word from his famous speech of December 7, 2006 he would take back the word "criminal" regarding administration policy in Iraq and change it to "insane." This would be a worse assessment. At least with criminals there is a chance that they know what they are doing and might draw the line somewhere; whereas, you never know what insane people will do next.

I wouldn't mind doing some door hangers right now. Maybe DPO could produce them and distribute them through the county offices? The door hangers should highlight Smith's "greatest hits", i.e., extreme mendacity and duplicity, with actual quotes, votes and dates.

Especially target the counties in advance of a Smith town hall if possible. Otherwise, we should pick another target event, maybe the return of Congress in the fall? Maybe handout flyers in front of/near WalMart, Target, etc. to get the back-to-school shoppers?

Maybe we could even get some media coverage of the activity - why we are focused enough to do this so early.

Let's prime the pump with the voters.

Great idea, anon! How should we go about getting something like that moving? I'd be more than willing to help.

If DPO cannot afford door hangers right now - an alternative may be to have DPO produce a flyer that we can download and copy for ourselves...

Smith's numbers among self-identified liberals are actually rather high.

Indeed, and don't forget that Smith was (is?) a darling of the (gay advocacy group) Human Rights Commission. And why not given such surprising support the Oregon Republican (and devout Mormon) has given certain pieces of gay rights legislation.

"Federal workers should be able to extend their benefits to loved ones. It’s a matter of fairness and I think the government should be leading the way rather than following. I believe we need to rid the workplace of discrimination..." [Gordon Smith]

I wouldn't say that the libs who voted for Smith in '02 were "bamboozled," not because this is false, but rather it's poor form to insult the very ones you wish to persuade.

There was a time when even a liberal might have believed that Smith was beginning to morph into a true independent, moderate Republican, somebody who could represent a broad spectrum of Oregonians, especially when his party was in power. They were (id est, I was) not bamboozled, but rather simply wrong, and it's a shame.

So back to Kari's point, right on. Even the überliberals here have friends who need to cross back over party lines and get behind the Democratic nominee, whoever he/she/it may be. So spread the word!

(That said, again... tactically, we must be tactful. Just as we recently read in the comments regarding the Paul Evans/DSCC post, the left wing doesn't take kindly to "Thou shalt toe the party line.")

The door hangers should highlight Smith's "greatest hits", i.e., extreme mendacity and duplicity, with actual quotes, votes and dates.

A door hanger that highlights Smith's hypocrisy, cynicism and flip flops? ... You'd need one Hell of a huge door to hang that thing on.

Maybe the door to the hangar that houses the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen AirCraft Museum. There's always those two giant hangars out by PDX. Maybe you could fit it on the door for one of those.

I wrote Rassman a couple of weeks ago and urged him to think about running for the senate. He seemed like a natural politician when he campaigned with Kerry in '04 and must have built quite a network during that time.

"How do we get the word out?"

Jim Rassman's guest opinion was printed in the Oregonian. Someone was visiting who had met someone who knows Jim Rassman. I handed that friend the folded over newspaper and said that guest opinion had been written by the friend of someone he had recently met.

That's not scattershot approach like letters to the editor or door hangers. But haven't recent studies said that person to person contacts with someone the voter knows are about as effective as any other strategy?

Kari, in my "funny little world", a friend who has always voted for Gordon Smith (but also sometimes for Democrats like Kitzhaber and Hooley) is the sort of person who now wonders if the Gordon he originally voted for is the same guy now serving--or has he changed? Why would such a person react positively to the votes/quotes comment? Has anyone here met someone who voted for Gordon previously who would change their vote based on that slogan alone?

There are lots of Democrats who would appreciate a bumper sticker like "Gordon Smith: his votes don't match his quotes". But have they ever voted for Gordon?

The sort of person I'm talking about is the kind of person who voted for Gordon before but might think twice about voting for him again. Does Oregon change US Senators in 2008 without attracting such votes?

My point is, to use a random example, such a friend as I gave the Oregonian column to might consider a message like John Frohmayer for better Oregon representation in DC, or sending a small town doctor like Alan Bates to the US Senate. How do Oregon Democrats attract such voters?