OR-Sen: Jeff Merkley Shares Our Values

Just finished up a blogger conference call with Jeff Merkley, Oregon's next US Senator. I met Merkley during the campaign and found him to be a solid progressive advocate with a background in international relations and diplomacy, so I think he'll be a good voice for our views in the Senate. Matt Stoller has a write-up, but I should mention that the very first thing Merkley said was that he wanted to do something about renewing our moral standing in the world, by dealing with illegal wiretapping, Guantanamo, torture and secret prisons. You just don't see many politicians willing to foreground that in such a way, and it impressed me.

Specifically, I asked Merkley about what he'd want to see in a second stimulus package if it's not finished during a lame-duck session, and he immediately said "I don't want to mail people $300 checks." He discussed the need for infrastructure and green energy projects immediately, which would create millions of jobs and stimulate the manufacturing side of the economy. He also would like to fold President-Elect Obama's proposals for middle class tax relief and eliminating tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas into whatever immediate stimulus emerges. And he said, "ending the war in Iraq will enable us to free up some money for these programs at home." That was very solid as well. In addition, when I saw him in LA during the campaign, he remarked that he would lose his health insurance provided by the state of Oregon (he was House speaker) if he lost the election - so I congratulated him on staying out of the ranks of the uninsured. Chris Rock said that it's good to elect leaders who can "see broke... they don't have to be broke, but they should be able to see broke." Merkley hasn't lost touch with where he's come from. And health care reform is definitely on his agenda.

I don't think we'll have much trouble holding Merkley to these promises. He wants to remain engaged with the netroots, and I think he'll be very approachable in the future.

Senator Jeff Merkley

This is fabulous news. The Oregonian is calling the Senate race for Jeff Merkley. Most of the outstanding ballots are in heavily Democratic areas, and Merkley had just taken the lead over Gordon Smith. Smith ran a dishonest and at times vicious campaign and I'm happy to see that cousin of Tom and Mark Udall not join his colleagues.

I met Merkley at a fundraiser this year and was very impressed with him. I think he will bring a fighting spirit to Washington not unlike Sheldon Whitehouse did in 2006. We need leaders willing to be unashamed progressives in the Senate.

So that's +6 for the Dems in the Senate, something like +20 in the House, with several seats yet to be called, the Franken-Coleman recount, whatever the heck is going on in Alaska, and the Martin-Chambliss runoff. With some luck, maybe the Democrats will capitalize on the wave atop their ticket, after all.

I think I'm just bitter about it because I'm in California.

Focus On The Senate

I came into the night thinking that we could get eight seats. Right now we have five, and four are still outstanding.

First, the winners. Welcome to new Democratic Senators Mark Warner, Tom Udall, Mark Udall, Jeanne Shaheen and Kay Hagan. Of these, Tom Udall is a good, solid progressive, and so that represents the biggest ideological shift. He will be a good addition to the Senate. The others will go along with modest agenda items like SCHIP and stem cell research (both of which will likely pass quickly in an Obama Administration), but will be tough to get for other directives.

Now, the four races still out there.

• Jeff Merkley is currently down by about 9,000 votes under 7,000 votes in the Oregon Senate race against Gordon Smith. However, only 73% of the vote has been counted, and only half of Multnomah County (Portland) is in. Merkley has already gotten 67,000-plus votes out of that county, so I think he's going to win once they all come in. A local pollster there sees it going for Merkley. As a progressive Dem, he would be a major asset in the Senate.

• The Al Franken/Norm Coleman race is going to a recount. Right now, the margin is around 1,000 votes with 2.9 million cast. Franken is not conceding, and the recount is set to begin. We're weeks away from knowing who won this one... But not if Norm Coleman has something to say about it



Apparently, not objecting to an automatic recount mandated by law is a betrayal of the process.

• Alaska is, well, Alaska. Ted Stevens is holding a lead despite being convicted in a court of law. The evidence there, combined with Don Young clinging to a small lead over Ethan Berkowitz, shows me that Sarah Palin had the biggest coattails of the night, at least in her home state. There are still about 40,000 absentee ballots to be counted and Stevens leads by 4,000 votes, so it's not quite over.

• The Georgia Senate race is going to a runoff. This could be an early test for the Obama campaign, to see if they can muscle through a victory in a low-turnout race to be decided by base votes. Saxby Chambliss couldn't manage 50% in the general election, but he would be favored to win a runoff. We'll have to see.

OR-Sen: Smith Freaks Out

Gordon Smith had a problem last week. Jeff Merkley's campaign released an internal poll showing him with a small lead, and there was a stirring controversy over his frozen foods plant hiring illegal workers. So, he decided to charge that his opponent is soft on rape.

In Smith's despicable ad, he enlists Tiffany Edens, a well-known rape victim in Oregon, "to appear in an emotional TV ad" that falsely accuses Merkley of "failing to crack down on serious sex offenders."

Here is the ad Gordon Smith approves:

Tiffany Edens is seen speaking on camera: "I was just 13 when he broke into our house, attacked and raped me. Later he confessed to raping eight others. But Oregon's time limits for prosecuting the rapes ran out. Jeff Merkley voted against changing that law. That's why I'm speaking out. Jeff Merkley, you should have voted to protect women, not rapists."

You won't be surprised to learn that the charge is false. But often, this kind of campaigning works.

The facts: Edens and Smith campaign officials acknowledge that Merkley's vote on the bill in 2005 had no impact on the Gillmore case, which was prosecuted many years before. The ad could leave voters believing it could affect the Gillmore case. Edens said she hoped toughening the law would help protect potential future victims.

Merkley spokesman Matt Canter says Merkley supported lengthening the statute of limitations for rape and several other serious crimes, and he pointed to his vote in favor of another bill -- House Bill 2015 -- that would have done exactly that. Canter said Merkley voted against the measure cited in the Smith ad -- HB 2316 -- as a protest against the "backroom deals" made by legislative leaders at the end of the session to determine which bills would go forward. At the time, Merkley headed the Democratic caucus, which was in the minority, and he was excluded from the negotiations. Canter says Merkley voted against the bill knowing it had enough votes to pass.

Merkley's returned fire with an ad calling out the lies, but of course, he's not a trusted source.

There's not much difference between political election season and Somalia. No rules, no laws, no arbiters.

Senate Campaign Report

Let's see what's happening in the races to move into that august body.

• VA - Mark Warner, who's all but assured of beating Jim Gilmore to become the next Senator from Virginia, will be the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in two weeks. There are two virtual locks for pickups on the Democratic side this year - Warner, a centrist, and Tom Udall, a progressive from New Mexico. Picking the former to deliver the keynote isn't exactly surprising, but it's a little depressing.

• MN - I really liked this YouTube debate - a real YouTube debate, where the questions and answers come from Web video - between Al Franken and Norm Coleman. I thought Franken made some excellent points and the issues were handled with an appropriate amount of seriousness. But this election in Minnesota has been more about silliness than seriousness, with allegations of improper payments of taxes and untoward language in jokes among the smears being lobbed at Franken. Now Coleman is getting a taste of this, as his sweetheart lease at a lobbyist friend's house in DC is being questioned.

Sen. Norm Coleman didn't have a lease for the first year he rented a garden-level bedroom in an upper-bracket Capitol Hill row house owned by a longtime friend and Republican operative.

In addition, Coleman didn't make a payment for utilities for the living space until last month, under a verbal agreement he had with his landlord -- St. Paul businessman Jeff Larson -- to settle up after a year in residence, Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said.

Coleman's Washington living arrangements, first reported in a National Journal article in June, have been a target of criticism by DFL officials and DFL election opponent Al Franken.

I'd rather stay on the issues in a perfect world, but when you're slimed like this you have to fight back. Good for Al Franken.

• AK - You know things are going bad for Ted Stevens when the governore who appointed him to the seat thinks his career is over.

• OR - Gordon Smith, in his time-honored tradition of painting himself as a moderate despite voting strongly with Republicans for the last six years, has dropped his state co-chairmanship for John McCain's election campaign. Very convenient, coming at a time when Smith is featuring Barack Obama and John Kerry in TV ads.

By the way, I've been remiss in mentioning that I had the chance to meet Jeff Merkley, Smith's opponent in Oregon, at an event last week. Merkley's an impressive guy - a former exchange student in the poorest parts of Ghana, a nuclear freeze activist who eventually worked in the Defense Department, the Democratic leader in the Oregon House who led them back into the majority and worked hard to pass a solid progressive agenda. Merkley and his family will have no health care after January - his wife went part-time during the election campaign and lost her coverage, and Merkley's coverage with the state will run out after he is replaced in the state House. This is someone who's really running for health care, and I found him to be intelligent, engaging and progressive on the issues. Oregon is really the tipping point - it will make the difference between a potential 5-seat Democratic pickup and something much larger.

• NC - The DSCC is pouring money into this race, attacking Elizabeth Dole in her battle against State Sen. Kay Hagan. I confess to not being Hagan's biggest fan, but Dole is a rubber stamp and a terrible legislator.

• NJ - The Republicans are bugging out of this race, pitting Sen. Frank Lautenberg against Dick Zimmer. Practically every year, Republicans pour money into New Jersey and come out with nothing. They appear to have learned their lesson. Republicans literally have only one pickup opportunity this cycle, in Louisiana.

...Senate Guru is always the best source for Senate campaign news.

Putting The "Better" In More And Better Democrats

In 2006 we had a crop of Congressional challengers that was poised to win in tough districts and take back the House and Sente. It was a cautious list, at times a moderate list, and while there have been some excellent progressive lawmakers from that group (Steve Cohen, John Hall, Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown come to mind), overall it was a list full of more Democrats instead of better ones. You never know what you're really going to get from a candidate until they're in office, but this year there are some promising signs that the class of 2008 is substantively better on several issues.

For one, there's the great news that every single Democratic Senate challenger with more than $500,000 in cash on hand has fully endorsed net neutrality. This was not necessarily a mainstream Democratic position just a few years ago, and now it's become standard. That's very positive. Furthermore, almost no telecom or cable money is going to the wide majority of these candidates, suggesting that they may not be as beholden to those interests as the current Congress. You can read the candidate statements at the link.

One of those candidates is Jeff Merkley, and he is unafraid to challenge his own Democratic leadership even while in the midst of a Senate campaign where he will probably need their help. We need less Democratic automatons and more lawmakers willing to speak their minds and even criticize their party when it betrays its own values and steps out of line.

But the majority of Merkley's interview with the Huffngton Post this past weekend was spent pinpointing areas in need of political improvement, even calling to task the Democratic-controlled Senate for not showing the requisite backbone.

"A major mistake has been not to force the Republicans to filibuster day and night on these issues," he said. "The public does not see that obstruction because they don't see on their televisions a senator on the floor of the senate going through the night reading out of a thick tomb of law, if you will, in order to block bills from being considered. We have to put that on show to the American public and show that it's unacceptable... And I am [prepared to start standing up]. FISA is a good example right there. I was proud of Senator Dodd and others for what they did. They lost the vote, but I'm proud of them." [...]

He even weighed in on one of the thornier issues facing Democrats today: what to do about Sen. Joseph Lieberman, whose surrogacy on behalf of McCain has been infuriating to many elements of the party.

"It is very disturbing," Merkley said. "I was there in 2000 as a delegate when he was our vice presidential nominee. I remember losing my voice for him and Sen. Gore and I am really disappointed in some of the stances he is taking and I understand he is addressing the Republican convention. Essentially we need him as a clear member of the team and I hope that we see it that way after the election."

He even criticized Sen. Obama for his FISA vote, as well he should. At a time when the progressive community is seeking to hold lawmakers accountable on FISA and civil liberties, it's great to have candidates with the same frame of mind.

In the House, Blue America candidate Joe Garcia is going up against an entrenched anti-Castro Cuban Republican in South Florida. He has no problem in this video calling out one of the top anti-Castro Cuban groups for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds. And Congress actually managed to act on this by freezing payments to these right-wing groups. And also in Florida, Alan Grayson is a man possessed.

Alan Grayson: I'm Alan Grayson, and I'm the Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida's district eight. And I'm the attorney of record in every single case now pending in Federal court involving war profiteers in Iraq. These are cases in which I represent whistleblowers. The Florida civil rights association named me Humanitarian of the Year for my work in this regard, taxpayers against fraud named me lawyer of the year, and I've been featured in Vanity Fair magazine, in media like CBS evening news, 60 minutes, and even Dailykos, imagine that.

I'm running because I'm fed up with the government mismanagement, the Bush administration's shameless pandering to war profiteers. I think they set out on a deliberate course to make this war good for the people who were their friends. And I want to try to hold them accountable when I'm in Congress. When I'm in Congress... the Bush administration's worst nightmare is going to be me with subpoena power because I know everything that they've done, and I'm going to hold them accountable for it.

Right on. Here's a guy who is no-nonsense, unabashed and a great conduit for American anger and frustration at the military contractor feeding frenzy. This ad is pretty awesome, too.



Put this guy on the Oversight Committee, give him a staff, wind him up and watch him go.

Between Merkley, Grayson, Garcia and a host of other reform-minded, tough progressive Democrats, I think we can actually vote our consciences this year, and donate to candidates who will defend our principles.

OR-Sen, AK-Sen: Glimmers of Hope

I mentioned Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley in the last post, and I have a very good feeling about him. Not just from the standpoint of him being possibly one of the few reliable progressives we can elect to the Senate (Tom Allen and Tom Udall and maybe Mark Begich being the others, IMO) - but Gordon Smith, the fake moderate Republican who every election year tries to wipe away the memory of his past far-right votes, is clearly frightened enough about his chances that he's running ads tying himself to Barack Obama.



It's pretty clear how popular Obama is in Oregon once you see that ad - no wonder they're not really competing up there for now. Obama, for his part, responded in this fashion.

"Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate. But in this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate. Merkley will help Obama bring about the fundamental change we need in Washington," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

I am not particularly happy with Obama for his FISA el foldo, but he is paying attention to electing Democrats across the country, which gives us an opportunity to try and change the balance between reactionaries, conservatives and actual progressives in the Congress.

As for the aforementioned Mark Begich, I thought this was a strong statement in the wake of the Supreme Court stepping in (activist judges!) to limit the damage awards to Exxon in the Valdez spill:

“The thousands of Alaskans whose lives were devastated by this disaster are hurt, once again, by this ruling," Begich said. "What we’re seeing today is another example of how Washington is out of touch with real people. The justices have sided with corporate America rather than with Alaska families who have suffered for nearly 20 years.”

Begich added that while the livelihoods of thousands of Alaska fishermen and others were destroyed by the spill, Sen. Ted Stevens has continued to work to serve the interests of big business, rather than put pressure on Exxon to settle the lawsuit or drop its appeals.

“Sen. Stevens continues to show he works hard for special interests, but where has he been when it comes to doing what’s right for Alaskans?” Begich said.

This is yet another shitty day for the country, but there are a few candidates with integrity and a commitment to serve the people. You just have to search for them.

Down, Down, Down

They actually went ahead and called a vote on the motion to proceed to a debate on the FISA bill.

It passed 80-15.

There are now 30 hours of debate available on FISA and I'm sure Sen. Dodd and Sen. Feingold are going to use every scrap of that, but realistically, I don't see how we stop this freight train. Delay is the only option.

From the "better Democrats" front, two Senate candidates weigh in on FISA. Jeff Merkley:

The bill will force federal district courts to immediately dismiss any cases against telecommunications companies that participated in illegal surveillance. This is unacceptable. The Constitution of the United States was violated. Over several years telecommunications companies turned over the records of millions of innocent Americans to the federal government without proper oversight and without a warrant.

The Bush Administration disregarded the Fourth Amendment when it authorized this surveillance and now Congress may provide the Administration and these companies a free pass. This is a mistake. The Senate is set to vote on the FISA bill this week. For the sake of our constitution and the foundation of our democracy, I urge all Senators to unite in opposition to this bill.

And Rick Noriega.

On Christmas Day in 2004, when I was deployed to Afghanistan, a group of buddies and I drove down to Jalalabad road to get to an outpost so that we could wake up our children and our families on that Christmas Day through
the internet.

As we approached that outpost, we encountered what we thought was perhaps a near-ambush. When we got on the computers to wake up our families on that Christmas Day, I suspect that the government probably listened in on my and Melissa's conversation because it was communication between two countries. And I know that whoever did, probably didn't notice a little change in my voice or the tone. But Melissa knew - she understood.

I went to Afghanistan and fought for this country, and to protect the Constitution of the United States, and I believe it's wrong that there's sweeping amnesty to those who have violated privacy laws that are protected by the Constitution.

That's great, but of course we have a Senate afflicted with DC disease and weighed down with telecom cash.

As I said, I'm not hopeful. 30 hours may just be enough if the other bills are foregrounded to delay this. But that's about it, and it may be delaying the inevitable.

UPDATE: Here are the 15 who stood up for the Constitution today.

Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Wyden (D-OR)

...no Obama on that list, he was campaigning. But it wouldn't have mattered anyway. He's el foldo on this issue.

"The bill has changed. So I don't think the security threats have changed, I think the security threats are similar. My view on FISA has always been that the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people."

A few weasel words from there, but Obama is totally cool with the precedent of the government giving a slip of paper to a corporation allowing them to break the law. He's cool with the premise of "we were just following orders" that was shot down at Nuremberg being revived. He's cool with if the President does it, then it isn't illegal. He's cool with a bunch of the other really dangerous aspects of the bill, including the vacuuming up of every communication that leaves or enters the United States without even the caveat that they be related to terrorism. He's cool with a national surveillance state.

Just plain cool with it.

Change I can't believe in.

Candidate Watch

Perhaps a semi-regular feature. Now that we're firmly ensconced in 2008, it's time to look at the candidates and the races that will determine the spread of the Democratic majority in the Congress.

• For the first time, Al Franken has a lead in a poll against incumbent Norm Coleman. He leads 43%-40%, which this far out is a very good sign.

• Earlier I mentioned Oregon Senate candidate Steve Novick's great ad. Something's in the water in Oregon this year, because this ad, playing off a scary incident where Novick's primary opponent Jeff Merkley flipped his car while campaigning, is pretty funny, too.



• I like these candidates that are true fighters, up against incredible odds. Marshall Adame, a candidate in NC-03 against Walter "Freedom Fries" Jones, is such a figure.

Despite running as a Democrat in a strongly Republican district, Adame has the sort of military past that is appreciated in these parts. "I am a retired United States Marine," he tells me. "I'm a Vietnam veteran. I spent nine months in Kuwait right after we kicked Saddam out, helping to rebuild the Kuwaiti air force. I spent four years in Egypt with Kaman Aerospace"—a military contractor—"as their logistics leader in that country." More recently, he spent three years in Iraq working on reconstruction projects, ultimately rising to a senior position with the State Department's National Coordination Team in Baghdad, where he oversaw the work of roughly ten Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Two of his sons have served in the U.S. Army in Iraq—one was seriously wounded in an IED attack and is still undergoing reconstructive surgeries; the other is currently on his second 15-month tour, stationed in Tikrit. Now back in North Carolina, Adame has even opened his home to a family of Iraqi refugees.

Yet Adame's recent public criticism of the private security industry's role in Iraq has caused him to become the target of a political attack from Blackwater. It all began in mid-January when Adame participated in a live question-and-answer forum on a North Carolina progressive blog called BlueNC. "People were writing in, and I was answering the questions," he says. "It just so happened that the first one was about Blackwater." He didn't mince words. "There is no place in the American force structure, or in American culture for mercenaries," he wrote on the blog. "They are guns for hire; No more, no less… Private Armies represent the very things we despise as a people. Servants to the highest bidder with true allegiance to no-one." [...]

Adame's comments about the company have enraged Blackwater employees, including executive vice president Bill Mathews. In an internal corporate email, Mathews encouraged his colleagues to barrage Adame with mail ("he was too cowardly to put a phone number on the web," Mathews noted in the message). "[H]e wants this company and all of us to cease to exist," Mathews wrote in the email, which was obtained by the Raleigh News & Observer and posted to the newspaper's web site. "Do you like your jobs? Are you sick and tired of the slanderous bullshit going on in DC? If so, would you all mind joining me in reminding Mr. Adame that he is running for office in our backyard…. Let's run this goof out of Dodge...!"

Since then, Adame has been on the receiving end of "some pretty rough stuff,” he says. "I received all kinds of hate mail from Blackwater people. They use a lot of vulgarity. They tell me how Blackwater is defending America's rights, and that we're free because Blackwater is fighting for us. Give me a break! That is so erroneous and misleading. It's just totally dishonest, but those people really believe it. Blackwater is a large organization, and they have a great way of propagandizing their product."

This is the kind of honorable American who will get my support. Anyone who scares the bejeebus out of Blackwater is well worth it.

UPDATE: See also this big-picture story about Republican difficulties at even keeping their numbers in the Congress, let alone regaining the majority.

A swelling exodus of senior Republican incumbents from the House, worsened by a persistent disadvantage in campaign money, threatens to cripple Republican efforts to topple the Democratic majority in November.

Representative Tom Davis, a moderate from Northern Virginia, on Wednesday became the fifth House Republican in the last week to announce that he would not seek re-election.

That puts the roster of retirees at 28, one of the highest numbers recorded for the party in the House.

Politicians have the numbers. They're not just retiring because they want to sit on their front porch. They see no way to continue in an even weaker minority position.

A Fairly Awesome Ad

I like Steve Novick and Jeff Merkley. Either of them are going to slaughter Gordon Smith in November.

But the take-away here is that you have to do more than just messaging in your ads. Be daring. Be funny. Pop out.