videos tagged or-sen

Here's about as clear a sign of GOP desperation as you could wish for: GOP Senator Gordon Smith, who's locked in a brutal re-election battle in Oregon, has a new ad out hailing his work with not one but two Democratic nominees for president: Barack Obama and John Kerry, whom he routinely insulted back in 2004. And Kerry is now taking a hard whack at Smith over it. First, here's the ad: "Gordon Smith is my friend but the problem is that when it's come time to vote in the Senate he's been a much better fr

The DSCC is sinking some big TV ad money into the hard-fought Oregon Senate race, because national Dems think they need to hurry up and drag down GOP incumbent Gordon Smith's numbers before his own aggressive ad campaign succeeds in fortifying them. So they've just released this fun new attack ad. Check it out: "In Oregon, Gordon Smith will say anything to get elected," the announcer says -- a clear reference to Smith's pattern of running to the left during an election year, exemplified by his recent ad

A new series of ads by the Oregon Democrats raises an interesting question: Is the state party trying to evade campaign finance rules by running so-called "issue ads" -- which ostensibly aren't supposed to be about the candidates -- that just so happen to star their nominee for Senate? Since last week, the Oregon Dems have been running ads featuring Senate nominee Jeff Merkley, the state House speaker who is running against GOP Senator Gordon Smith. Here's one of them: As you can see, this "issue" ad do

This is a good one. Check out this new ad that GOP Senator Gordon Smith, who's locked in a tough re-election fight in Oregon, has just released. The spot highlights his work with Barack Obama, who, last we checked, is the Democratic standard bearer... "Who says Gordon Smith helped lead the fight for better gas mileage and a cleaner environment?" the ad asks. "Barack Obama! He joined with Gordon and broke through a 20-year deadlock to pass new laws which increase gas mileage for automobiles." This obviou

Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith's campaign makes an interesting claim in its latest ad: That the Republican incumbent who came out publicly against the Iraq War just after the 2006 elections was in fact "one of the first to stand up to George Bush and other Republicans to end this war," a questionable claim clearly meant to boost his image in this liberal anti-war state: Obviously, a whole lot of other people were against the war well before November 2006 -- and Smith himself voted for the war in 2002 and remai

This has to be one of the strangest things we've seen in some time. Take a look at this video of Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon -- a Republican who has supported both the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment and anti-discrimination laws and domestic partner benefits -- struggling pretty hard to clarify his position on gay marriage and equal rights for individuals. Smith appeared to be likening discrimination against gays to the persecution faced by his Mormon ancestors for their views on marriage: