Oregon Public Broadcasting

With West Virginia in the rear view mirror, the next big stop in the Great American Electoral roadtrip is Oregon. But national political leaders aren't just watching the presidential race here.

It's also an election year for one of the state's U.S. Senate seats. Oregonians have been bombarded by ads for two Democrats running for the seat. But as the primary season wraps up, another candidate has made an appearance. Ethan Lindsey reports.

Oh yeah, that's right, Gordon Smith, the incumbant. . .

Until late April, voters could be forgiven for forgetting about him.

It was State House Speaker Jeff Merkley and attorney Steve Novick who were in the forefront. Stumping for votes, engaging in debates, running T.V. ads.

But Oregon's Republican Senator from Pendleton has now dropped several ads into the race, before he knows who his opponent will be.

He's trying to play up his moderate image.

Gordon Smith: “Partisan fighting. Gridlock. That's Washington's answer to your problems, not mine. I get it. I'm Gordon Smith and I've shown a better way. Thinking independently, working with Democrats and Republicans.”

In the past year, he's sponsored legislation with Democratic senators John Kerry and Richard Durbin.

And then there's December 7th, 2006. That's when Smith grabbed national headlines from the floor of the U.S. Senate.

He became the first mainline Republican to call for an end to the Iraq war.

Sen. Gordon Smith: “I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that anymore.”

Democrats accused him of pandering - he made the speech a month after Republicans lost control of Congress.

Smith's approval ratings rose after the speech. And consider, this is the state with the lowest opinion of President George Bush.

Which may explain why, when Democrats began to hunt for a worthy challenger, the high profile names backed out.

On a recent morning commute in Portland, state House Speaker Jeff Merkley remembers what he thought when he first heard Smith's Iraq speech.

Jeff Merkley: “He told folks that in July he had changed his mind about the war. Its too bad that he didn't make a point of personal courage, if he had truly made up his mind six months earlier, and go to the public and say that.”

Tall, handsome and the son of a millworker, Merkley looks like a senator.

Merkley says he has changed Salem, and helped pass several piece of key legislation that have changed the state.

National Democrats have even run ads for him.

But many wondered why they'd want to pick sides before Oregon Democrats chose a candidate.

Steve Novick: “They didn't see how a guy who didn't have a ton of money and hadn't held high elected office had a chance."

Attorney Steve Novick was the first Democrat to enter the race. He's a Harvard law grad and was the lead government attorney on the Love Canal case.

Novick also happens to be 4-foot-9-inches tall and was born without a left-hand. He says that actually plays well this year, when voters say they are looking for change.

Steve Novick: “I do have an advantage. Gordon Smith is a tall handsome Senator who looks great in a suit. I am 4-foot-9 and have a left hand made of stainless steel.”

State Democrats worry the bloody primary fight could weaken the party in the fall.

That's something they can't afford. Smith will outspend them. He's raised more than $8 million thus far.

Others on the left say the primary battle helps voters get to know their candidates and has kept Smith out of the public eye.

Jim Moore is a professor of political science at Pacific University, outside Portland.

Jim Moore: “It may be harder for him to define his candidacy because the primary has been so contested. The first ads he started running were basically saying Merkley and Novick were bad. If I were him, I would have started running ads three weeks earlier saying, 'I am Gordon Smith, look at me stand in front of a mountain, and I know what a cow looks like.'”

But Smith has reemerged now - and his ads explicitly say he is the candidate for change. That's something both Merkley and Novick find hard to stomach.

They say his ads sound more like they're promoting Barack Obama than the reelection bid of  a two-term senator.

But both Novick and Merkley do share something with Senator Smith - all three are hoping to hitch their wagons to the idea of change.