Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Anything to Win

By Joan McCarter, 9-16-08

Republican incumbent Gordon Smith has been skating along this election season until now with one apparent goal in mind: to make independent Oregonians forget that he’s a Republican. In ad after ad on the television, Smith has been telling Oregonians that he’s worked hand-in-glove with Barack Obama and other Democratic colleagues, even that bogeyman of liberalism--John Kerry. Not one mention of George Bush or Smith’s voting record--he’s been with Bush 90 percent of the time.

That strategy hasn’t been working for Smith. In a Survey USA poll conducted right after the Republican convention, Smith hit a low for this cycle among Oregon voters polled by SUSA for KATU television.

The poll, released Wednesday, shows that Smith has a 56-percent job disapproval rating. The number of people disapproving of Smith’s work in Washington D.C. is the highest that poll has recorded since May 2005. The number of people disapproving of Smith also rose 9 percent since the company last polled Smith’s approval numbers on May 19.

Then came another poll, last week showing that challenger Jeff Merkley had gained and advantage in the race, and a whopping 70 percent of Oregon’s independent voters thought Smith’s job performance rated just a fair, or even poor, rating.

That topped off several really bad weeks for Smith. First there was the wastewater spill at his frozen foods plant that’s resulted in a DEQ levied fine. Then his fellow Oregon Republicans publically expressed their dissatisfaction with his attempts to distance himself from the party. Then the news broke that some workers at Smith’s food processing plant were likely undocumented aliens. Smith has denied the allegation, but hasn’t been able to explain away the fact that some of the workers at his plant don’t have social security numbers. At the very least, the issue has raised some questions about the company’s hiring practices. And finally, Smith has been hit with an FEC complaint for violating campaign finance law, in this case a pretty minor violation, but one that adds to his general woes.

Up until this point, Smith had been raising some pretty ticky-tacky issues against his opponent. First there was Furnituregate, the allegation that Merkley presided over a wasteful project to replace the furniture in Oregon lawmakers offices during a Capitol building overhaul. Smith didn’t point out in his ads that Merkley didn’t take any of that new furniture for his own office, or that the “renovation project was recommended by a public commission that included Smith’s Oregon director, Kerry Tymchuk, and it received bipartisan support in the Legislature.”

Then there was the hotdog flap, in which Merkley flubbed a foreign policy question while eating a hotdog, an event the Smith campaign and the NRSC apparently find groundbreaking enough to spend money and time on in advertising. Pretty weak tea.

Perhaps realizing this, the Smith camp decided to pull a McCain and start smearing Merkley with a real whopper: that the Democrat is soft on crime and is somehow responsible for a crime committed 13 years before Merkley was elected to any public office. At issue is two of Merkley’s votes in the legislature on the statute of limitations for violent crime, a charge that is belied by Merkley’s actual record. The accusation has brought a swift response:

Former Gov. Barbara Roberts spearheaded an effort on Monday to discredit U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith’s (R-Pendleton) attack ad against U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland), which accuses Merkley of being soft on crime by voting against a bill that increased the statute of limitations.

Roberts, Democratic legislators including Tina Kotek (D-Portland), and Maria Peyerwold, a child rape victim and Merkley campaign volunteer, gathered to condemn Smith for what they called vicious, untrue attacks against Merkley’s record....

A half-dozen other community leaders, including Democratic and Republican Attorney General candidate John Kroger, President of the Oregon State Police Officer’s Association Jeff Leighty, International Organizers for Victim Assistance Marlene Young and John Stein, made statements on Merkley’s behalf.

Call it “Willie Horton comes to Oregon.” Smith’s lies about Merkley on this issue might provide some red meat for Oregon Republicans who have been wondering where their Senator has been for all these months, and could help bring the base home. But it’s not too likely to sway any more of Oregon’s moderates or independents back to the Senator. More than any other state in the West, Oregon’s voters demand honest, clean campaigns, particularly the large ranks of independents. For those voters, the image of a moderate Republican rests in the likes Tom McCall or Mark Hatfield, giants in modern Oregon history. Stunts like this prove that Smith is no Mark Hatfield.

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