For Monica Wehby, last week didn't go so well.

Kari Chisholm

Monica Wehby was surely hoping that last week was the week that her campaign got back on target.

It started on Monday when she finally, at long last, addressed the media about those troublesome police reports. But her explanation caused guffaws from coast to coast. In her own words, as reported by the AP's J.J. Cooper:

"I think that the thing to learn from that is that I am a person who will stand up for what I believe in," Wehby said of the police reports. "I'm a person who doesn't easily back down. I will fight for Oregonians with very strong conviction. I'm a very committed, determined person."

As Daily Kos's Jed Lewison put it, "GOP Senate candidate cites harassment allegations as key qualification".

Or as Wonkette put it:

In fact, Wehby is doubling down on the whole thing and explaining that her stalking and harassing show a strength of character and oh dear god we love this woman so much already because we are gonna write about her forfuckingever.

Also, Wonkette noted that Wehby said, "But you know, I kind of like people who aren’t perfect; they’re easier for me to relate to."

Which probably means that her pollster isn't going to get fired. Because hey, who needs polling that's accurate? You see, the next day, her campaign said they had an internal poll that showed she was down just two points to Jeff Merkley -- 41 to 39.

That would be a bit of good news, but the next day's news brought another, much more reliable poll into the conversation. On behalf of KATU, SurveyUSA found that Senator Jeff Merkley was beating Wehby by 50% to just 32%, including a lead -- notes The Hill -- "in every gender, age, education and income group tested".

Of course, her pollster probably keeps his job because bad polling seems to be endemic to the Republican Party. Tuesday, of course, was the day that Rep. Eric Cantor lost to his primary challenger, after his pollster said he was winning 62 to 38. As GOP uber-pollster Frank Luntz put it:

Right now there are 230 House Republicans who are waking up praying that they do not have Eric Cantor's pollster. Honestly, and I'm one of them, we Republican pollsters suck. We have no ability to be able to analyze the electorate.

And then, there's the not-exactly-friendly reaction that Wehby's health care "plan" is getting from some erstwhile allies. Here's what conservative columnist Ramesh Ponnuru had to say:

I read Wehby's plan more than once. No matter how many times I read it, though, I couldn't make it make sense.

And then, in another column, this time on National Review -- the sort of publication that would normally be jumping up and down with glee about Wehby -- Ponnuru wrote:

So here’s where Wehby has stood on replace vs. fix, in chronological order: On the campaign website it outlined a plan of “fixes” with no mention of replacement; the campaign manager then said that Wehby was for replacement; and now the campaign is approvingly tweeting an article that commends her for not wanting a replacement. The tweet itself describes her plan as “reforming Obamacare.” All clear?

So, in short, bad public appearances, bad polling, and bad policy. Can it get worse for Wehby?

By Kari Chisholm June 16, 2014