Allow me to kick this Open Thread off with a call for Democratic unity once we know who will be the Democratic nominee and Oregon's next U.S. Senator.

Let's work together to Stop Gordon Smith!

Yeah, tonight should be the kick-off party for the Stop Gordon Smith campaign! I'll tip my left-hook lager to that (and if Merkley had a beer, I'd tip that one too). :)

We'll be drinking some Left Hook Lager for sure... Either out of celebration or sadness, but either way Smith is going down in November.

A Novick victory is the only path to unity for me. He's the only reason I came back to the NAFTAcrats. A loss means a trip back to independence for me which might not be a bad thing.

That's the unifying spirit, Lou!

Here in Pendleton we are toasting Novick and anxiously awaiting the numbers...

About a 10,000 vote margin around 8:23 according to the Oregonian

Looks like Candy Neville might be the spoiler here, assuming most of her votes would have gone to Novick.

For the sake of those people without a TV, can someone post the current percentage and nominal differences? its so easy to find info on the presidential and not so much with the local races. A link to a constantly updating ticker would be even better, since Blue Oregon hasn't updated since 8:05 ;-)

Looks like Neville managed to be more important of a candidate than I thought. She became the spoiler. F**k!

Novick loses, Jeff wins the battle, but Smitty will win the Nov war against the mild Merkley. Too bad, it would been fun seeing the Hock carve up Smitty like a Thanksgiving Turkey.

Watch the oregonlive.com coverage...they are showing county by county results and updated regularly.

Neville became the "spoiler"? It's easy to believe that your candidate was somehow entitled to any vote that wasn't for Jeff Merkley, but the truth is a pill even more bitter than you. Check the map and you'll find that Multnomah is the only county that Novick wins with over 50% (51 to be specific), while Jeff Merkley take Marion (53%), Lane (52%), Douglas (52%), and Coos (50%). That has noting to do with Candy Neville. That is quite simply a superior ground campaign.

When this race started Novick and Merkley were equal footing in all of these areas. Jeff Merkley decisive victory is proof that he is best qualified to run a state wide campaign and best qualified to take on Smith in the general.

I'm checking the map ameeks. I think Multonomah at the end of the night either makes this a push or puts Novick over the top by about a thousand votes.

Update: In Lake County (with 75% reporting) the score is Merkley-57%, Neville-15%, and Novick-4% Who's the spoiler now?

The saddest thing I saw tonight was an inteview KATU did with Merkley. They said the interview took place about 7 p.m. So it wasn't going to air until the station's eelction coverage began at 8 when the POLLS WERE ALREADY CLOSED.

Yet there's Merkley, denigrating Novick as a "political insider" who does nothing but run campaigns, etc, etc.

What's a person supposed to think for Merkley after seeing that? So defensive. The word "turd" comes to mind.

The idiot who thinks Lake County means anything?

"The idiot who thinks Lake County means anything?"

Yes, Lake and the other counties where the "loser, bitter hicks with guns" live will mean something.... not tonight, but come November they will either help Jeff win against Smitty, or return Smitty to DC.

That battle will be won or lost not in Multno, but the other counties like Lake.

Lake County with 75% reporting: 438 Total votes

I'll vote for Merkley in the general, but that's it. No yard sign, no donations, no volunteering, no nothing. His "unite the party" ad disgusted me, and I will have hard time forgiving him for that.

Speaking of being disgusted, is anyone else incredibly disappointed with OPB's coverage? That Think Out Loud host is awful.

No, the battle as ever will be won in Washington and Clackamas County.

Lake will still be a sparsely populated country inhabited by sheepshaggers and shitkickers. I'm sure all 15 dogs in Paisley will be disappointed.

So the sentiment I'm hearing is that Lake County doesn't mean anything because it's a small county that always votes republican.... Strange, that argument sounds so familiar... but where does it come from?

I was a new Dem voter this year. I came over from the darkside. I voted for Novick because I like how he stood up to Lars on his show and stood up for what he thought was right. He expressed him self very well. Did Merkley ever go on Lars show? I think if Merkley wins we end up with gordo again. They are to much alike

On the excellent Oregonian map, Novick had early leads in several smaller counties like Columbia and several on the coast, Merkley ended up with the advantage in those counties. Looks like he got more "late" voters possibly swayed by his late ad barage. Mortgaging the house paid off.

Lake County might only have several hundred votes, but that could make the difference in the fall. The residents of Lake County are our fellow Oregonians and deserve our respect.

I voted for Novick--it was a hard decision--but now that Merkley's the nominee, I am ready to help him defeat Gordon Smith.

A Class act??? I'd say Merkley is anything but a class act. But hey, he's got national money and negative advertising sure pays off.

Congratulations on uniting democrats.

And Kari has a meal ticket for another 6 months. What's not to like about that?!

Oh and Neville wasn't just a spoiler candidate. She was a complete embarrassment - and she kept the best guy from winning. Sort of like if that opportunist Edwards would've stayed in the race and secured the nomination for Clinton.

Gee if only Neville wouldn't have re-written her school's escape plan in 6th grade, she might have tried to run for another office before the US SENATE!!!

Read her story on the DPLC's website if you don't know what I'm talking about. I dare you to honestly tell me that it is not a complete embarrassment for Dems running for office - especially for a federal office. Neville is a joke and she f*cked things up for everybody. Cause she is "anti-war".

TJ, where are you? How's that crow sandwich?

Class act?

No, he's not. You don't attack fellow D's like that and talk crap about them on the night of the election (8 pm news) and come out of it as a class act. You come out of it as a survivor.

Like Kari and this blog.

Blue Oregon has been sullied by this race.

Blue Oregon usually comes out sullied after every major primary.

Funny for Merkley folks to come in here and act like Steve has been all class the whole time when he wasn't even class during his interview tonight.

Merkley wasn't able to run an issues based campaign against a fellow Dem, what makes anyone think he will be able to run a good campaign against Smith?

Something like that Lestat. I must have made a Neville supporter angry.

I hope Steve Novick sticks around. KPOJ sure could use him. His concession speech was fantastic. I'm thinking Merkley should be counting on Obama's coattail in November, with the Dem presidential race netting 500,000 votes to the GOP's less than 300,000 (w. about 75 percent in), Gordon Smith will have to push for an impeachment of Bush or endorse Obama in order to stay in office. He is in a lot bigger trouble than I thought.

Ahhhh the joys of anonymous "cheap shots" on the internet.

Congrats to all - I find some of the comments from Novick supporters odd, but only because I know Jeff well (I worked for him for two years, ten years ago). I could not think of a better person to represent the State. I know the campaign was ugly, but campaigns are.

I don't understand why so much vitriol is aimed against someone who will be an effective Senator. Why didn't Novick run against David Wu, who I can tell you from a DC perspective, is a boob. Wu has done nothing for his party, nothing for his district. This will not be the case with Jeff, who knows how to operate in the Senate.

Did Jeff do such a poor job in the Legislature? If Novick supporters could have shown me substantive issues on which they based their choice, then maybe their opposition to Jeff would make sense.

From the Willamette Week:

Moments earlier, intense booing from the Merkley crowd had drowned out the words of opponent Steve Novick's concession speech, broadcast on television from the Benson Hotel across town. "Sore loser," someone shouted. "Fuck yourself," someone else yelled as Novick compared the last days of the campaign to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Go unity go

I almost had to flip a coin to decide between Steve Novick and Jeff Merkley, so I don't have a partisan bias. Please keep that in mind as I say what I'm about to say -

The comments Pat describes by a couple of Merkley supporters definitely show a lack of class on the part of those individuals, but at this point, it's much more important for Novick supporters to get behind Merkley than vice versa.

My question is: How long is Jeff going to just sit on his duff before he actually gets around to what he is saying he will do if elected to go to Washington. It took him 16 years or so to finally get him to be active in anything significant in the Oregon legislature, do we have the patience to wait that long with him as a senator? He will have to convince me he will hit the groud running in Washington and not sit in the back and wait for years to finally do something significant. We need action in Washington now, not waiting later for 'the good fight'.

Sorry 'bout that...it just seemed longer.

This is an open call to Merkley supporters: Please convince me that I should be enthusiastic about your candidate.

By all means I will vote for Jeff Merkley in November. My impression of him is that he is an effective and pragmatic legislator, qualities that will serve him well in the Senate. His positions on critical issues seem to be in line with those of the majority of Oregonians (and the overwhelming majority of my own), and this definitely helps his chances to defeat Smith.

That said, it bothers me somewhat that he was "recruited" by national Democratic party, if only because it makes me question how strongly he really wanted to run for this office. I wonder whether Merkley is running out of a sense of duty-or perhaps simply because he was presented with the opportunity-rather than because he intends to actually go to bat for Oregonians and the progressives throughout the nation. I worry that if elected he will go with the flow and take opportunities as they come (read: sponsor convenient legislation he can tout to get reelected), rather than actually introduce bills or fight strongly for the issues he believes in.

Obviously sending Merkley to DC would be a far, far better alternative to Smith. But the thought of sending a junior version Ron Wyden excites me about as much as tepid bath water.

So please, Merkley supporters, convince me that rather than just apathetically give Merkley my vote, I should battle alongside you to get him to Washington. If you can't do better than resorting to an argument resembling, "at least he's better than Gordon Smith," you have failed. And so will Jeff Merkley.

I second Alex' comment. Having Merkley as a wholly owned subsidiary of Chuck Schumer, the DSCC, and the corporate-owned DLC does not excite me one bit. Corporate America 1, Oregon 0.

John, you know for a fact that if Merkley is elected to the US Senate he will be a 100% reliable vote for Schumer and the DLC ?

Where did you derive that information?

Alex, I was dubious about whether Merkley would be a great speaker, then I heard him give a speech in 2006 at a dinner and I knew he would do a good job.

Someone I knew who was a Bruggere supporter in 1996 was at a Merkley town hall and thanked the Speaker for specific actions as Speaker getting legislation passed and a problem solved. Maybe not a problem Novick supporters were big on, but important to this person.

You have to find your own reasons to be inspired by any politician.

Oh, and another thing. I would not hold Steve personally accountable for everything his supporters wrote here on BO unless I had evidence he knew about it.

Please don't blame everyone who voted for Merkley for the actions of no-class drunken louts yelling at a TV at a party.

LT--Merkley could not possibly have won without the $400K dropped by Chuck Schumer into his campaign coffers. No, Merkley may not be a 100% reliable vote for Schumer, but in the quid-pro-quo world of politics, Schumer gave Merkley a pretty big quid--if elected, he owes his Washington career to Schumer. It just doesn't get much more beholden than that.

I think the editors of BO (Kari, et al) should consider having Jeff respond to alex and the others who have the same concerns dirctly with a Post from him and only him....if his handlers would let him.

Smith just got re-elected! Merkley doesn't have a chance. In a race between two professional politicians, pretty boy Smith and all his money win for sure. Even if it's a Democratic landslide in November, Oregonians like to split their ticket, and Smith will win. DSCC and SEIU made a big mistake.