Tracking Gordon Smith

Over at StopGordonSmith.com, the Democratic Party of Oregon explains the importance of having a tracker follow Gordon Smith during his campaign stops:

While trying to distance the Gordon Smith campaign from news that a Republican Party operative is using aliases when trying to get information on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley’s campaign events, Smith’s spokesman R.C. Hammond joked about why the DPO would track Gordon Smith.

“Asked about Lussier’s deep-cover espionage tactics, Hammond said: ‘Our experience with trackers during this campaign has come from watching the Democrats and their effort to catch the Bob Saget moment of Gordon Smith somewhere running around Oregon.’”
(The Register-Guard, 1-20-08)

“The Say Anything Senator’s contradictions, fact bending and inaccuracies may be amusing to his staff, but they are no joke to Oregonians,” DPO Chair Meredith Wood Smith said. “We’re tracking Smith for the same reason editorial writers, Smith’s supporters and political activists throughout the state have criticized him. He will say anything to win re-election.”

The post lists some of Smith's more notable campaign contradictions:

1.Smith told Oregonians during his 2002 campaign he would oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He got elected, and then ended up voting to drill in ANWR.

“Smith has been running spots in Portland that emphasize...his opposition to oil drilling in the arctic wilderness.”
(The Oregonian, 10-10-02)

2.After boasting about his coordination with Dick Cheney and the White house during his 2002 campaign – including running TV ads on the subject – Gordon Smith backtracked in 2007 on his coordination with the White House on diverting Klamath River water that decimated coastal fishing economies.

3.Last month, The Oregonian questioned Smith’s contradictions on U.S. Sen. Trent Lott and segregation.

“The senator's tribute to the GOP leader could have been more clearly, and less contradictorily, expressed.”
(The Oregonian Editorial, 12-20-07)

4.Early this year, former Portland area television host and 2006 Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Mary Starrett questioned if Smith is “genuine in his opposition to the war.”
(Mapes on politics, The Oregonian, 1-3-08)

Read the rest and comment at StopGordonSmith.com.

Jan. 24, 2008 Posted in elsewhere.