Smith's latest ad, and Merkley's rejoinder

For the last several days, the Gordon Smith campaign has been airing a new ad - but only in the Bend and Medford media markets. From the O's Steve Duin:

The Smith campaign has begun to shape its narrative in TV ads that played only in the liberal Portland and Eugene markets. Smith is a maverick, an independent, the story goes, a dose of benevolent bipartisan balm in these vitriolic times. ...

In Bend and Medford, the Smith story has a different spin. Smith assures television viewers in those markets that "no one loves the land more than the farmers, loggers and ranchers who care for it."

Smith approves that ad, he says, "because what some call the rest of Oregon, we simply call home."

The Merkley campaign responded, noting the Smith hasn't done much for rural Oregon - despite his talk. From PolitickerOR:

Merkley's campaign responded with its own video Monday, accusing Smith of being disingenuous regarding his advocacy for his rural brethren. Merkley, who has rural roots of his own in Myrtle Creek, a southern Oregon town with a population of 3,419, charged the Smith campaign with failing to go to bat for rural Oregon and the timber communities earlier this month when he failed to find any support among fellow Republicans for a $250 million timber payments bill constructed by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield). The loss of those timber federal funds have led to drastic cuts in communities throughout rural areas Smith says he is an advocate for.

Here's the spot -- and the Merkley campaign's web-video response:

Discuss.