since we're passing off press releases as news these days, i feel comfortable posting Steve's response to the announcement.

"When you're the underdog candidate, running against the insiders' candidate, you expect the insider will have a lot of big names," Novick said. "This doesn't change the fact that the Governor and I have a high regard for each other, and after I win the primary, I know I'll have the Governor's full support against Gordon Smith."

Novick said that sports nicknames played a role in the Governor's decision. "As you know, the Governor comes from Missouri, and roots for the St. Louis Cardinals. Speaker Merkley went to Stanford, and roots for the Stanford Cardinal. There's a natural congruence there. But I, of course, am a Duck," said the 1981 University of Oregon graduate, "so to me, this is just water off a Duck's back."

as i've, and others, have said, we're going to have a better chance at beating Smith with a "non-traditional" candidate, someone who's a little different. Govs Kulo and Roberts are backing the "safe candidate."

It's unfortunate, since I think they're committing too early. I realize that there's a desire to try and direct potential donors towards one candidate, but I think that this is going to be counterproductive in the long run.

I think this is going to be a very interesting battle between grassroots activism and the establishment machine. We've seen it play out recently in at least two notable Senate races, but this one will be different for one important reason, Jeff Merkley is no Harris Miller or John Morrison (though his last name does also begin with M). In Merkley, the establishment actually has a good candidate with solid progressive and legislative records. He will likely have a very respectable grassroots following of his own (no, not astroturf, the real thing).

I have to say, I'm really looking forward to this race. I sometimes feel like I'm alone on this board in not having made up my mind yet (and thusly avoided the emerging prickly disposition towards supporters of the other candidate). I feel both are fine people and excellent candidates, and the one who wins will be the one with the best chance to beat Smith. I think Steve is brilliant and capable of anything so I'd never count him out, but Merkley is going to draw enough activists combined with his establishment base that he's going to be very tough to beat. I look forward to seeing the best of both men in the months to come...

I think either candidate could win a fair and vigorously contested primary.

I just hope we are allowed to have one.

Ah, good, I haven't missed the endorsement parade yet. I wonder who will be on the next float.

Stephanie wrote... I think either candidate could win a fair and vigorously contested primary. I just hope we are allowed to have one.

Agreed. I'm hoping that both sides are able to keep their daggers and their spitballs holstered - in the interest of keeping their own positives up, and not giving Gordon Smith any ammo for the fall.

Whichever candidate we wind up with, we'll all need to unite around in May. So, here's to keeping it above board -- both from the campaigns, and from their supporters.

I'm hoping for a vigorous debate on the issues here at BlueOregon, not on the personalities and other silliness.

Whichever candidate we wind up with, we'll all need to unite around in May. So, here's to keeping it above board -- both from the campaigns, and from their supporters. I'm hoping for a vigorous debate on the issues here at BlueOregon, not on the personalities and other silliness.

I really think Stephanie was worried more about those not "in" either campaign, but attempting to influence the primary's outcome from the sidelines. We're ALL trying to influence it in one way or another, of course, and other than timing certainly no one begrudges the governors their choice. But there are others who don't necessarily deserve the right to push our choice. If Novick supporters see that and call foul, I feel confident this would not be labeled "negative campaigning," right? Simply being the beneficiary of undemocratic (little d) practices doesn't make you dirty, but bringing it up can't be squelched on the basis of it being a "personal attack."

That's my concern for fairness. I trust the kids in the debate; it's the parents and the coaches (and the league office) I'm worried about.

But there are others who don't necessarily deserve the right to push our choice.

I disagree. You're talking about the DSCC, I presume, and that's a debate we've had in many venues. We've agreed to disagree.

I think any American has the right to express their view to Oregon voters. That's what democracy is all about. But like I said, we can disagree - and I'm OK with that.

(I suppose I should full disclose again here: I built JeffMerkley.com, but I speak only for myself.)

"We" equals me and TJ. That's it. Nothing more.

I disagree. You're talking about the DSCC, I presume, and that's a debate we've had in many venues. We've agreed to disagree. I think any American has the right to express their view to Oregon voters. That's what democracy is all about. But like I said, we can disagree - and I'm OK with that.

You misread, Kari. I agree any American has the right to express their view. Shoot, any human does, period--remember the British people who wrote letters to Ohio telling them how they should vote? That went over well.

What I said was I don't believe some DESERVE to have that input. Nor do I find it ultimately productive.

In any case that wasn't the point of my comment. I know we disagree on the propriety of the DSCC's influence. What I said was that in the future, if and when it occurs, I sure hope it is not labeled as "negative campaigning" or a "personal attack" to note what is being done on one Democrat's behalf in order to squeeze out another Democrat.

Governor Kulonoski quietly and quickly informed himself about the War in Iraq. He has attended every Oregon soldier's funeral, he personally visted Iraq, he searched for and firmly decided he is oppossed to the war in Iraq.

Merkley's campaign just got keys to their office last week. Several venues have been selected for Representative Merkley to do Q & A's through out the state.

Merkley didn't make up the story of growing up modestly in Mytle Creek. His "up-by-the-boot-straps" tale is genuine just as Governor Kulongoski's working in steel mills and joining the Marines so he could pay for his education is genuine.

Smith has his opposition research machine on overtime. It behooves Merkley to get everything in order for this opportunity to finally take out Gordon Smith.

Democrats will work very hard to support the winner of the primary between Merkely and Novick. In the mean time, like Kulongoski on Iraq, we'll inform ourselves, we''ll listen respectfully, we'll ask questions and hope that the best candidate emerges to become the Democratic Senator of Oregon.

W&W... as the guy responsible for building that website, let me just share a little behind-the-scenes for you.

Jeff Merkley told the public that he was going to spend July figuring out what he was going to do. He said he'd decide by July 31, and announce that decision on August 1.

About a week out from there, as the guy that hosted his old State Rep. website, I was asked to pull something together. A face-lift, a volunteer form, and a donation mechanism.

On August 1, true to his word, Merkley announced his intentions. The official "announcement" or campaign roll-out is happening in early September.

As you can imagine, he's still getting staffed up. We debated whether to hold the website until the fall, to wait until we could get all the materials together that you're asking for -- or whether we should start with a minimalist site, and grow it from there.

Look, the guy has been a U.S. Senate candidate for two weeks. It's not really fair to expect him to have fully-detailed twelve-page policy proposals on health care reform, tax reform, the War in Iraq, etc. Heck, some of our presidential candidates who've been running for years don't have that stuff up yet. Jeff's a "get it right" guy, not a "get it up fast" guy.

The primary election is in nine months. Rest assured that we'll have lots more details for you, long before then.

Meanwhile, I encourage you to look to his record if you'd like to understand his values and his vision. This is a guy who fought the Republicans tooth and nail when they were in charge, and yet was able to make the transition to the Speaker's chair, holding on to the 1-vote majority, and getting lots of progressive stuff done.

Merkley's campaign just got keys to their office last week.

Actually, no. Still working on finding an office.

I'm going to offer a little push-back on what has become conventional wisdom, blogosphere style: Jeff Merkley is the "establishment" candidate who won't have the balls to speak truth to power (either his own party or the GOP).

Steve Novick's bona fides on this point are well-established, and even though I'm pulling for Merkley, there seems no great reason to get in a pissing battle about them. But let's be clear about one thing--Novick is untested in a political campaign and the idea that his backers know he'll be the most effective truth-teller is based on a lot of speculation.

Conversely--and the reason I'm for Merkley--Jeff has spent ten years in the trenches proving he can speak truth to power. He is definitely the front-runner, but to argue that that somehow means he's a moderate, Liebermanesque Washington milquetoast isn't supported by any of the facts. He's liberal, he's a tough campaigner, and most importantly, he sticks to his values. Look back through his record as a politician and see if there's evidence that he's the "establishment" candidate he's quickly being pegged as.

It's cool to back Steve and advocate strongly that he's the better candidate. But I hope his backers will take a page out of his own playbook and recognize that Merkley, if he emerges from the primaries, is a hell of a candidate and a great replacement for Smith.

"Conversely--and the reason I'm for Merkley--Jeff has spent ten years in the trenches proving he can speak truth to power. He is definitely the front-runner,"

Based on what is he the front runner? I'm not saying these things can't change, but he currently has less money, less name recognition, and does no better in polling against Smith than Novick. He's winning the governor-endorsement race so far, that's it.

You want to hear truth being spoken to power?

If Gordon Smith simply said, "In a contest between farmers and fish, I want farmers to win," you could almost respect the guy. But he won't say that. Instead, he will ignore science, reinvent history, believe whatever he has to believe to escape the implications of his policies.

That's not acceptable. Oregonians might re-elect an intellectually honest, well-informed, genuine conservative. But I don't think we'll re-elect someone who doesn't bother to learn simple facts that a United States Senator worthy of the title really ought to know. I don't think we'll re-elect someone who makes false pronouncements on issues of fact without, apparently, having made any effort to check the facts first. I don't think that that we'll re-elect a Senator who, like George W. Bush himself, consistently puts ideology and politics before science and responsible government.

What's Jeff's take on Klamath?

Picking the damn fish will lose the election. The urban far left in Portland and Eugene will love ya, but most moderates around the urban suburbs and rural communities around Oregon who have families to support will turn away in droves. They probably won't vote for Smith....most will just sit the race out.

Do you think the fish just hop out of the lakes and rivers and onto dinner tables around the world? It's not "picking the fish;" it's picking the commercial and tourism fishing INDUSTRIES, either of which is worth more to the state than a number of potato farmers on arid land in the lower Klamath. There are THOUSANDS of people who have families to support that do it from fishing.

"It's a losing proposition...and has been for 25 years."

Standing on the wrong side to try to appeal to a phantom belief, as opposed to using the power of persuasion, is not the answer. It's what Democrats have been doing for 25 years, and it's got to stop.

To whoever "kari" is... could you please use a last name, or an identifier of some sort - so that you don't get confused with me?

A last name is best, from "Kari from Beaverton" or "Kari X" would be fine too. Thanks!

Do you think the fish just hop out of the lakes and rivers and onto dinner tables around the world?

TJ, that's hilarious. I'm gonna steal that line, my friend. I'm rolling around on the floor laughing!

Nate,

Certainly your not the only one undecided. There are many people on here with concrete views on which of the two candidates they will support, but I for one haven't decided.

Personally, I consider myself one of those people who you might refer to as a early decision maker in terms of who I will support as a candidate. However, I too have a lot of questions and want to find out more about both candidates. The May primary is still a long ways out.

"TJ, that's hilarious. I'm gonna steal that line, my friend. I'm rolling around on the floor laughing!"

I hope everybody steals it. It's an important distinction.

Rolling around on the floor? Are you perhaps also flopping like a fish? :)

FOTFL!

Do you think the fish just hop out of the lakes and rivers and onto dinner tables around the world?

TJ, that's hilarious. I'm gonna steal that line, my friend. I'm rolling around on the floor laughing!

All I can add to that is, good thing they're salmon and not sturgeon.

Beyond policy, two issues come to mind: 1) Electability against Gordo, and 2) Impact on the Senate and the national polity. Both have a lot to do with personality.

Yes, they do, especially if when you say "personality" you include style, approach, etc.

In 2008, in Oregon, do you beat Mr. Establishment with Mr. Establishment Lite? Or do you beat Mr. Establishment with a brilliant outsider who has the rhetorical tools to call out all of the contradictions and the breaches of faith, and persuade the voters to focus on them? And as to the second issue, pause for a moment to imagine the immense karmic transfer (for want of a better phrase) that would result from Oregon's replacing Gordon Smith in the US Senate with Steve Novick. All progressives should be giddy with excitement at the prospect, and working as hard as they can to achieve it.

"My uneasiness is that I don't think he's electable in that particular race."

Why is it you think that, honestly?

As I said on KPOJ this morning, Jeff Merkley certainly has some insider to him -- after all, he's the Speaker of the House! But so does Steve Novick... he's the consummate insider's insider. Worked on senior staff for the Governor, for the Supt of Public Instruction, for a policy shop funded by Oregon's leading unions, etc. (And I say this as a compliment, so don't misunderstand me.)

Kari, I think he's the outsider's insider. He's been on staffs and been a part of the system, but he's never been OF the system. That's what's so appealing to me. Unlike a typical electoral novice who really doesn't know what it's like on the inside, Steve knows exactly what it's like. He even has a little edge on Jeff in that sense, since he's already been a part of a federal administration in DC.

But Steve can take the good part of that--the knowledge of how things work on the inside--and not stay beholden to the requirements of staying in that system. He doesn't have to answer to anybody but the voters.

Steve's been in the system. Jeff IS the system, at the moment.

farmers vs. fishermen

More like a handful of farmers vs. the entire Oregon fishing and tourism industries.

The only thing I have to say after reading some of the comments here is this: I'm glad both Steve and Jeff are classier than their fanboys. Especially Steve. He's much classier than many of these posters - who seem to think that they're the ones who get to decide who is a "real" Democrat and who is not.

If all you can do is just express juvenile alienation and trash good Democrats (both Steve and Jeff), just put a sock in it. We have a hard choice to make, between two absolutely superb progressives. No matter who gets picked, we're getting someone good. And anyone who doesn't recognize that is an absolute idiot.

I haven' t noticed anyone accusing either candidate of not being a real Democrat.

Pointer, please?

He even has a little edge on Jeff in that sense, since he's already been a part of a federal administration in DC.

So has Jeff. He was a policy analyst in the Pentagon in the early 80s, figuring out how to "trust but verify" nuclear arms control treaties.

Then he came home and ran Habitat for Humanity. Now that's some range.

"So has Jeff. He was a policy analyst in the Pentagon in the early 80s, figuring out how to "trust but verify" nuclear arms control treaties."

Hey cool, I didn't know that! Thanks.

...and I retract the notion of any "edge." :)

Posted by: trishka | Aug 14, 2007 1:37:50 PM ... that's why, AFAIC, it's the job of both merkley & novick to hammer away at reframing the issue as "fisherman vs. farmers". the candidate who can successfully do this, and only that candidate, has the chance of beating smith.

BINGO.

This is exactly what I have been posting both over at dKos and LO. Steve and Jeff need to get up to speed at showing who can shake up the GOP-framed echo-sketch the most along this very line.

trishka said: the other thing that i think we need to keep in mind is that there are different kinds of intelligence - there is the wonkiness, bookish, academic sort of intelligence and then there is political savvy. bill clinton is, for better or for worse, the embodiment of someone who demonstrated ample gifts in both areas.

we know that steve novick for sure has the former sort of intelligence, and merkley is by all accounts a bright guy as well. but the degree of political intelligence that each of them has is what, i think, is going to emerge over the next few months of this campaign.

trishka, you're certainly right about that, but in case you didn't see it, take a look at this recent BlueO guest column by Randy Leonard, to get some idea of Steve's political/strategic intelligence.

Ugh, it's started already...

i thought the one that immediately followed was actually spot on:

Posted by: Stephanie V | Aug 14, 2007 5:28:07 PM

I haven' t noticed anyone accusing either candidate of not being a real Democrat. Pointer, please?

"I'm still on the fence between Novick and Merkley but the more comments I read from Novick supporters (not him himself) the more I want to support Merkley."

If you're serious, I hope you see what a truly stupid way that is to evaluate a candidate. The supporters won't be making the laws.

The namecalling isn't helpful, but I am sure that Speaker Merkley is not responsible for the actions of his supporters.

Let's look at their records, their accomplishments, their statements, every window into their souls we can find, and let the voters decide on that basis. As a Novick supporter I will be 100% at peace with the outcome of that process, if it is allowed to occur.

Neal Patel, you are out of line.

Don't project your bizarre incoherent resentments onto me. You don't know me and you don't know what you're talking about.

Neal,

Your use of the dash is completely unacceptable. Perhaps you should consult this page.

Also, "voterfraud" is not one word. It is two words. Furthermore, no "voterfraud" was alleged, only that voters were being, essentially, herded by the Party establishment into supporting one candidate over another before the differences had sufficient time to be aired. These are two different issues, kind of like how "voterfraud" is two words.

I hereby, because of your last comment and Thom's comment about your apparent advocacy of violence, dub you a BlueO Troll. Future comments by you will likely be summarily ignored. (Tip jar anyone?)

For some reason I am reminded of that old Saturday Night Live sketch from 1980 or thereabouts, with Buck Henry, which takes place at an 18th century royal ball where the guests include Lord and Lady Argyle, the Earl of Sandwich, and other household names. A footman calls out the names as the nobles arrive. The next couple to be announced entering the ballroom are "Lord and Lady Douchebag!" There is cheerful banter about the resourcefulness of these individuals and at one point the king exclaims, "As I have always said, give me a Sandwich and a Douchebag and there is nothing I cannot accomplish!"

Looks like all Steve needs is a sandwich.

That sounds messy! Good thing we've got all these extra Douchebags.

Neal, your behavior and use of derogatory language upthread is 100% unacceptable. Such comportment has no business in this community.

Um, Mods?

Thanks, Colin. I'm on it.

<h2>thanks Kari.</h2>