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Smith-Merkley race is sweating the small stuff

By JULIA SILVERMAN and BRAD CAIN

Published August 30, 2008 at 4:04 p.m.
Updated August 30, 2008 at 4:53 p.m.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ Pop quiz: It's been three months since the Oregon primary pitted incumbent Republican Sen. Gordon Smith against Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley, and in that time, Oregon voters have been told:

A) Gordon Smith is a very wealthy man. He even (gasp!) owns a set of antique golf clubs that cost over $1 million.

B) Jeff Merkley was apparently never advised not to speak with his mouth full of hot dog, particularly when one is being followed constantly by a videographer from the opposing party who wants nothing more than to catch you stumbling over a geopolitical question.

C) Gordon Smith has some ideas about Mormons, polygamy and gay marriage that even several months after he voiced them at a Washington, D.C. forum are nearly impossible to decipher.

D) Jeff Merkley is personally responsible for lavish lawmaker furnishings in the Oregon State Capitol, while it's all Smith's fault that the Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, D.C., has come in far over budget.

E) All of the above.

The answer — of course, and unfortunately — is E.

What voters by and large haven't heard much about so far is where either of these two candidates stands on energy issues, even as the price of gas and oil seesaws up and down, and home heating bills skyrocket.

Nor have too many voters learned much about Smith and Merkley's plans for resuscitating the moribund American economy, even as layoffs are announced across Oregon, from Hynix in Eugene to Hewlett-Packard in Corvallis.

And there's been no serious back-and-forth between the candidates about their plans for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including what to do about the hundreds of National Guard families across Oregon who never knew that their fathers, mothers, sons and daughters would be gone for so long.

The two are certainly not alone in their tit-for-tat: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will see Arizona Sen. John McCain's Paris Hilton and Britney Spears and raise him seven — or is it eight? — houses.

But now that Labor Day is approaching, the traditional time when voters start truly tuning in to political campaigns, is the Merkley-Smith race finally about to get serious?

Voters are certainly hoping so.

"I have been totally bored by that discussion, I have just skimmed it," said Ted Chu of Garibaldi, referring to the kerfuffle over the cost of new furniture for legislators at the state Capitol in Salem. "I would like to see some discussion on salmon and dams. And I think they should be talking about this liquified natural gas proposal at the mouth of the Columbia."

Richard Emmet, a Portland Democrat, said he's happy to see Merkley take tough swings at Smith, but he'd prefer it to be over crucial issues, not whether, say, Smith was obligated to cancel a fancy-pants fundraiser at the Bandon Dunes golf course.

"The big issues for me are national health care, the access to health insurance, not censoring science for political purposes, finding alternate energy sources," he said. "I don't understand where the sense of outrage is after the last eight years."

There are signs that both Merkley and Smith are ready to have a deeper, more serious discussion with voters. The Merkley campaign has rolled out periodic policy proposals this summer, from a $309 million plan to pay for 50,000 local police officers around the country to an $88.7 billion proposal aimed at cutting middle class taxes.

Smith's campaign has sent out fewer substantive policy proposals, but they've highlighted actions he's taken in his 12 years in the Senate, particularly a clutch of late spring environmental votes in which he sided with Democrats on climate change legislation and for a tax package that included incentives for renewable energy.

Both have endorsed Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden's proposal on universal health care, which would exchange employer-based insurance coverage with government-regulated plans that consumers could buy on their own.

And both men recently launched new advertising campaigns that suggest a shift in focus: Merkley's is a traditional, getting-to-know-you spot that lingers over his support for "a woman's right to choose" — a point of contrast with Smith, who is philosophically opposed to abortion rights, although he hasn't pushed the issue in the Senate.

Smith's highlights news coverage of his high-profile break with the Bush administration over the direction of the Iraq war in late 2006.

Politics-watchers say that sooner rather than later, the two will have no choice but to get serious, particularly with debates coming up, and editorial board interviews looming.

"They are going to have to talk about what they are going to do for the state," said Jack Kane, a longtime Republican consultant who is not working for Smith. "People are worried about their gas prices, how they pay the mortgage, do I keep my job. All the other stuff will be ancillary."

Democratic consultant Mark Wiener, who is not working for Merkley, allows that both campaigns bear some responsibility for the pre-Labor Day "silly season." But, he said, it's Smith that has more to lose when the discussion inevitably turns substantive.

"People have deep, deep dissatisfaction and distaste for what has been going on in D.C., most of which is ascribed to the current administration." Wiener said. "Fairly or not, Gordon Smith is identified with those failures, and the things that people are frustrated about."

For their part, Merkley and Smith say they are ready to tackle the big issues — but also defend how they've conducted their campaigns so far.

"How else will people come to know Mr. Merkley, except to know his record?" Smith asked, in an interview with The Associated Press this past week. "There's two months left in this campaign for big-bore issues. But the public is entitled to know that Jeff Merkley is a hyper-partisan, tax increasing, big government type of lawmaker. That is not the change that Oregon is looking for."

Merkley points out that Smith has been advertising against him since May, even before he won the Democratic primary.

"Smith was the first Republican senator to go negative in the country, and the only one to have attacked a contender for the opposite party during the primary," Merkley said. "He will do everything he can to avoid focusing on his record — that's why he is skipping the convention, taking the word Republican off every piece of campaign material."

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EDITOR'S NOTE — Julia Silverman has been covering Oregon politics from Portland and Salem since 2002. Brad Cain has been writing about politics from his Statehouse office in Salem for 25 years.

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