Oregon Public Broadcasting

Because the U.S. House of Representatives rejected the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package, the Senate probably won't be voting on the bill – at least not in its current form.

Oregon’s major party candidates for Senate have scuffled over the plan for the past several days, and may continue to do so.

Their views on the bailout reveal their contrasting economic philosophies. And as Ethan Lindsey reports, nothing demonstrates that contrast better than the issue of trade.

Barb Smiley and her husband Dave Howe welcomed Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley into their home Monday.

It wasn’t a private affair. As the local press corps crammed into the family room, the Democratic Senate hopeful gave a little bit of his stump speech about taxes, jobs, and trade.

The front yard of the house looks out onto what was Bend’s first paved street – and the yard reveals that Smiley and Howe, aren’t exactly the swing voters Merkley is looking to win over.

Barb Smiley: “You’re like, preaching to the choir here. We totally are with ya.”

In the yard, an Obama for President sign stands next to a Merkley for Senate sign.

Smiley and Howe say they think the economy and country are on the wrong track – and they’d be willing to vote for any candidate – from any party – who could get things righted.

Dave Howe: “We’d vote for an independent or a Republican if they reflected the views that these gentlemen are reflecting, but so far we don’t see that.”

Both incumbant Senator Gordon Smith and Jeff Merkley promise to reinvigorate the economy.

And both claim their policies on international trade will help do just that.

In one ad that started running in September, Jeff Merkley is shown standing in front of what looks to be a closed factory.

Merkley Ad: “They call it free trade, problem is, there’s nothing free about it.”

Merkley says Oregon has lost 70,000 living wage jobs since a flurry of free trade deals negotiated by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Jeff Merkley: “If we don’t make things, we won’t have a middle class.”

Gordon Smith says Merkley’s dead wrong.

Smith says 1 out of 5 Oregon jobs are directly tied to trade.

Sen. Gordon Smith: “Oregon is probably the most trade-dependent state in America. Portland is called Portland because it’s a Port. I’d like for him to sell that message of hostility to trade to Pendleton wheat farmers, to pear growers in Hood River, to Columbia Sportswear, to Nike, to Intel, our largest employers. And this guy is pointing a dagger right at the heart of all of these tens-of-thousands of jobs.”

That dagger comes in the form of revised or revoked trade agreements.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, who Jeff Merkley supports, has said he’d revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The next Senate will likely vote not just on NAFTA, but also on  a slew of additional free trade bills with Latin American countries and others.

Smith wasn’t in the Senate to vote for NAFTA, but says he would have if he could have.

And he did vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Merkley says if elected, he would vote against free trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA.

Jeff Merkley: “I would have voted against the initial NAFTA bill. When Ross Perot said this creates the ‘great sucking sound’ of jobs being sucked out of America, he was absolutely right. It did not have substantial labor or environmental protocols, and it didn’t have real enforcement mechanisms for those protocols.”

Economists say Merkley’s facts are correct. Oregon lost tens-of-thousands of jobs after Canada, Mexico and the U-S eliminated most of their trade barriers.

But many of those same economists don’t believe NAFTA is to blame – instead they say the jobs have gone to China and Asia.

Federal Reserve research has found NAFTA to be a positive force on the American economy, though a slight one.

There is one area of trade policy that Smith and Merkley do agree on – and it’s an issue the next Senate will likely vote on as well: whether to give long-haul truckers from Mexico unfettered access to American highways.

Here’s Smith.

Gordon Smith: “Look, if people want access to the American market, they should meet the standards required for the American consumer.”

Merkley agrees with stricter safety rules, but also has concerns about pay, worries voiced by the Teamsters union.

Jeff Merkley: “But my understanding is that it also involves whether the Mexican truckers operate below American minimum wage. I don’t think its acceptable to have truck drivers coming from another country, driving through America, and not being subject to American safety standards or American wage standards.”

Voters complain about the ad war between Smith and Merkley being waged ad nauseum on their televisions.

But, with the economy and jobs a major issue this year, one thing voters can’t do is complain that the candidates are basically the same.

On the issue of free trade, it’d be hard to create more of a difference.