Welcome Jeff! Congratulations on winning the Democratic primary — how does it feel?

Jeff, welcome to Firedoglake and CONGRATULATIONS on winning a tough primary. I’m sure Gordon Smith wasn’t rooting for you to win.

Egregious:

It feels tremendous! The battle against Smith is underway!

Howie:

No kidding. Smith spent $500k in the last 8 days on a smear campaign designed to knock me out in the primary.

Fortunately, folks didn’t buy it. And now Smith is worse off than if he hadn’t tried to intervene at all.

What are the issues that resonate the strongest in Oregon? Anything different from the rest of teh country? And will it be difficult to tie Smith to Bush and Cheney?

Welcome future Senator Merkley!

As a former Oregonian….. so excited to see Smith sent home packing….

Jeff, a Northwestie kind of question: What’s your position vis a vis salmon restoration on the Columbia Basin, especially WRT the three Snake River dams?

I ask because, with the arrival of $40-per-pound salmon, this really becomes (like energy policy) a breadbasket issue for the public. The lack of stewardship of our river systems is costing us at the grocer’s.

Howie:

It’ll be very easy to tie Smith to Bush/Cheney. Smith voted with Bush 90% of the time, which puts Smith out-of-sync with the citizens in a state who–I’m proud to say–have the lowest opinion of Bush of any state in the union.

Issues that resonate here: the war in Iraq, affordable health care, jobs, restoring the integrity of the United States and energy/the environment.

As compared to other parts of the country, my guess is energy and the environment register at a higher level of concern. Citizens are very concerned about global warming and it is one of my top issues.

katymine:

Wherever you’re living now, mobilize your friends and let’s have a “Send Smith Packing Party!”

Congratulations Jeff!!!

“Senator Merkley”…sure, we could get used to saying that!

I now live in AZ but have family & friends all over Oregon…. Portland, Florence, Sutherland, Springfield etc….. Have had conversations about your candidacy with them… :)

My Dad was a wildlife biologist for the US Forest Service….. he left when the FS turned into a timber auction service……. What is your position on timber sales, clear cut logging and erosion management?

David:

Salmon and the river economy are a huge issue in Oregon. Just last week there was a major deal struck with the tribes that established commitments for protecting salmon runs.

My opinion on the dams is that we have to get high quality science, which means ending the Bush Administration’s practice of taking the science out–or changing the papers to get desired political outcomes. I look forward to an objective debate on the dams.

As you may know, this year’s runs are really low and there is going to be a lot of effort to nail down the best way to save them.

Hey Jeff,

Thanks for stopping by tonight.

Gordon Smith is a master of blurring. He claims again and again that he is bipartisan and then rubber stamps Bush. The only way he can win is by tricking voters into thinking he is not the partisan Republican that he is.

What is your strategy to combat that and show the voters the Real Gordon Smith?

Thanks!

Future Senator Merkley thank you for taking time for us this evening. Congrats on the primary win.

Actually, I’m with Dave, how about the salmon? With the suspension of sport fishing already in CA. how, in your opinion, will this issue best be addressed?

I was really glad to see Steve Novick endorse you and offer to work for your election. Do you think there will be any problems healing the party after a pretty bitter primary? Or is it all over– let’s get Smith?

Never mind…

When you go around to communities across the state, what are the primary concerns and questions you are hearing from your future constituents? Does it vary between urban and rural areas?

Have to assume the poor Bush economy and the war in Iraq are much on their minds.

katymine:

I think the key word to guide us is “sustainability”. Some forests need to be dedicated to sustain ecosystems. Forests dedicated to timber production need to be managed in a manner that protects the environment and produces sustainable, long-term yields. Boom and bust harvests are a disaster for timber dependent communities.

There are some second growth forests in Oregon with far too many trees, too close together. These forests are a mess. They are prone to disease, fire, and of little use for either ecosystems or timber production. I think there is a possible win-win, here, in which some forests are thinned and dedicated to habitat and some are thinned for better timber production.

You mentioned erosion control. That should be a very important factor in the design of timber sales. Clear cuts that are too large or on steep slopes can do enormous damage to streams and even create damaging land slides.

Welcome and congratulations, Jeff. It’s good to have you here.

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Jeff, from your campaign website bio, this part caught my eye:

To control nuclear weapons, he served as a national security analyst, first for the Pentagon and then for Congress.

That sounds like an incumbent republican’s worst nightmare. What, in particular, did your time as a staffer at the Pentagon and Congress, teach you about how best to approach national security questions?

Are you finding a move, in voters minds, toward a more long term stewardship of forestry resources or is the mood still old fashioned log at any cost? Is a sustainable balance achievable?

Thanks, Jeff. Speaking of breadbasket issues … coming from farm country myself, I know how hard rising gas prices hit folks in rural areas, more so than in urban areas in most regards. Those are the areas of Oregon that have been the most Republican, too. Are you making a lot of headway with that issue as an example of Republican governance and its effects on “hard working Americans”?

never mind. again.

Populista:

Smith’s whole strategy is to disguise his conservative voting record in the Senate. We are going to bust up his “Smith Myth”. By the time this campaign is over, every voter in Oregon will know that Smith voted with Bush/Cheney 90% of the time, and supported every major disastrous strategy of the Bush Administration.

Smith also likes to talk about him and Wyden working together. The fact is that Smith has cancelled out Senator Wyden’s vote more than 1600 times. Thus Oregonians are left without a voice on the huge issues facing our nation.

Since Smith has been on the wrong side of every issue Oregonians care about, watch for him to run a campaign focused on the politics of personal destruction. We can’t let him get away with this!

Also, to counter Smith’s endless millions, we need to build an incredible, grassroots communication system. We need your help along with the entire netroots community to make this happen.

Your position will make an old Forester happy…

Will let Dad know as he will be voting for you in Nov…. and with a little discussion, the whole crew at the Florence Habitat for Humanity…

GOOD LUCK…. Jeff

Howie:

Prior to this primary, Steve and I had fought on the same side of issue after issue. He has been an incredible force for workers and for economic/social justice. We both believe that Oregon must seize this opportunity to help put America back on track by retiring Gordon Smith. I really appreciate Steve’s support and look forward to his advice and insights in the general election campaign.

Jeff, if elected, what would you do to restore the Constitutional status of Congress as a co-equal branch of government and to resist the “Unitary Executive”?

I realize this issue may seem less important if when we have a Democratic president, but how can we act now to prevent abuses like those of the Bush administrtion from recurring?

Soon-to-be Senator Jeff,

Karl Rove and Dick Cheney had a good time playing politics with the Klammath Basin and the water issues, screwing the science, the salmon, and many users. Will you call for a more in-depth investigation on those scumbags?

I am from Redding, CA originally so have been to the great wet north many times. Powell’s Books in Portland is a national treasure in my mind.

Great answer Jeff. Thanks so much!

I’m not sure if you’ll take a second question but if you feel like it here goes.

Outside of Ron Wyden who in the Senate do you admire most and think you will be the most like? A Russ Feingold / Bernie Sanders type? A Dick Durbin / Sherrod Brown type?

My main question is where do you think you would fall on a progressive scale in the Senate. Hope you understand what I mean.

Peterr:

My experience in international affairs includes both work/living in developing countries (Ghana, Mexico, India) and working as a national security analyst. As an analyst I spent 2 years as a Presidential Fellow in the Pentagon and then worked for Congress as a strategic nuclear weapons analyst.

This background in international affairs/national security are a big asset. Wouldn’t it be great to have a senator who can distinguish between a real threat to national security and a manufactured threat to national security?

My experience is that while military weapons are a hammer, not every problem is a nail. Indeed, we gain far more influence in the world through our relationships with partners;unfortunately our international reputation is now at an all time low.

We have to restore the integrity of the United States and that means we must quit trampling the Geneva Convention, and end our association with extraordinary renditions, secret prisons and torture. We must also reach out to the world in respectful dialogue rather than in an arrogant, go-it-alone monologue.

Questions:

How do you stand on No child left behind and school testing?

Do you have a position on the high cost of a college education and how to help kids/parents? (big reason I moved to AZ was the cost of college tuition)

neurophius:

The Bush Administration failed to notice that in the Constitution it is the Congress that is listed as the first branch of government.

Congress needs to be far more assertive in driving an agenda for the United States of America. It must also be aggressive in exercising oversight over the Executive Branch. I support robust investigations of the Bush Administration’s conduct.

If this Administration is not held accountable, then every future Administration will conclude it can ignore the law as well.

We also need strong oversight of government contractors. The spirit of the Truman Cmte–which went after war profiteers–must be reborn.

Aloha, Jeff! Congratulations! I noticed that your vote totals almost beat Smith’s, but, add in Novick’s and ya’ll doubled his… I noticed Novick endorsed you right away, will his voters naturally follow…?

Welcome, Jeff Merkley, to FireDogLake. Thanks for coming around so soon after your extraordinary victory in the primary!

I hope you’ll understand that we’ve had some bad luck with a fellow who used to work in the Pentagon and is now in Congress: Chris Carney, a Congressman from Pennsylvania, who worked for Douglas Feith. So would you mind if I asked you when you worked at the Pentagon, and specifically in what areas and for whom? Would your previous work there preclude you from supporting investigations into how the Pentagon’s Iraq war plans were developed and implemented?

I am also interested to know what steps you think the USSenate needs to take to restore the balance of power with the Executive.

And, finally, have you any thoughts about including Connecticut’s independent Senator Lieberman in the Democratic caucus next year?

Thanks again for spending some time here. Best of luck in your challenge to Senator Smith — he’s one of the more odious GOPs, to me, in that he lies to his constituents about who he is and what he supports. Bust that “Smith Myth!”

Interesting research paper in UC Davis found that a certain little fly larva that hatched in the flood plains apparently fed the Salmon fry that had just recently spawned, and also sustained fish making their runs. Growth onto the Floodplains and levees had impacted these feeding patterns and salmon populations plummeted. Fishing contributed to reducing the populations even further.

Be interesting if this has been happening all up and down the Pacific coast.

katymine:

We should shred No Child Left Behind and start over.

In regard to the high cost of education, we need immediate changes in policy. We should start by doubling Pell Grants, keeping the interest rates on student loans low, and providing tax credits to families with children in college.

One of the key factors in the success of our economy in the next generation is that we build a strong knowledge-economy education system. A key piece of this is that college has to be affordable.

Allow me, as one who voted for Steve, to answer that: YES! Unqualified yes.

Glad to have you running to take out Mr. Smith, Jeff, and be assured you’ve got my vote as well as my voice here in Portland.

Congratulations Speaker Merkley on winning on Tuesday!

Smith’s website seems to talk about lowering taxes constantly, which is quite ironic due to Smith’s willingness to raise the birth tax every time he gives money to special interests like big oil companies. Can you give us a preview of how are you going to contrast your record of balancing the budget every year in the state House with Smith’s fiscal irresponsibility on the campaign trail.

congratulations, sir. looking forward to watching you bust mr smith’s myth.

Thank you for that answer.

We need more people in the Senate who think like you do.

Having recently read a biography of Truman, I agree with your approach to government contracting and war profiteering.

See his reply to me @33.

Good stuff!

Before you suggest solutions to the high cost of higher ed, you should have a firm model on why the cost has gone up so fast. Doing things like increasing Pell grants can end up just allowing colleges to raise tuitions even faster. In other words, as an economist, I’d suggest that you figure out why colleges have such extrordinary pricing power before you give them even greater license to raise tuitions.

CTuttle:

The voting numbers really were incredible. Both Novick and I had vote totals in the 200k-300k level as did Smith. This spells big trouble for Smith. The key for the general election is for Democrats to remain far more excited and enthusiastic than Republicans.

I’m delighted to have Steve Novick’s support; I hope this will help bring all progressives and Democrats together to focus on retiring Gordon Smith.

Jeff… Ok this is for the parental units….

How would you preserve and strengthen Social Security?

What is your position on keeping the cost of Medicare B & D to our seniors?

What kinds of support and changes to the VA to help our WWII, Korean & Vietnam Vets who are having a hard time finding services due to the high demands of our current war Vets?

Duh…. preview is your friend … How to keep cost of Medicare down to our Seniors?

it’s us greedy economics and finance professors …

Mahalo for your reply! It was also a crowded field…! ;-)

“Mr. Smith goes to leaves Washington”

bdunn:

Smith has been incredibly fiscally irresponsible. The giveaways he supported to the most powerful special interests and wealthiest Americans reversed an anticipated $5 trillion surplus for this decade into a $3-4 trillion shortfall! This increases our total national debt to more than $9 trillion ( equal to $30k per man, woman and child).

Even worse, half the national debt is now owned by Saudia Arabia and China, meaning that the interest payments leave our national economy, undermining the strength of the dollar. This is no way to run a country. I believe that that it is immoral to be placing this debt on the next generation.

Congratulations for winning the primary. You say you support health care, so I hope you will support universal healthcare with single payor coverage, meaning, expand Medicare to everyone.
It’s time for Single Payor Healthcare for All.

Employers should not have to pay for the cost of health care: this is a policy left over from WWII and it is a bureaucratic nightmare for employers, employees, health care providers, and hospitals.

Employees should not be entrapped by employer-based health care plans. Citizens would be more productive and innovative if they had jobs they really cared about without the worry of losing insurance coverage. We all need the security of a single payor health care system that is not tied to our employment. Our freedom to make the best choices for ourselves and our families is violated by this constraint.

The insurance companies add NO VALUE to health care, and take at least 30% of the health care dollar. Why allow this unethical behavior? Let’s create a citizenry that feels secure and is healthy. We’d all be a lot happier if this worry was not part of every moment of every day of our lives. As a Senator, you’ve got the power to make this happen.

We need

Healthcare, not Warfare.

and HR 676 is in the pipeline.
I hope you will support it when it comes to the Senate.

The education industry is part of the Mafia of the Intelligentsia, along with the medical and legal industries, 3 of the top inflation components in any period you’d like to choose for the entire post-WWII period.

katy:

Here’s my thoughts on your questions on vets.

America should be slow to go to war and fast to take care of our soldiers when they come home–exactly the opposite of the Bush Administration. Here are some key actions:

* End the war in Iraq
* Greatly increase VA health care funding
* Improve mental illness treatment and support
* Provide extensive screening and support for PTSD
* Give soldiers as much time at home as they had on deployment before they are sent back
* Support the new GI bill for the 21st Century, strengthening education and home ownership benefits.
* Make nationwide a policy based on a bill passed under my leadership in Oregon, which is to provide free tuition for the family members of soldiers who are killed in the line of duty.

Jeff, many Democrats had high hopes that the majorities we elected to the House and Senate in 2006 would put an end to the immoral and fiscally disasterous war in Iraq. That has not happened, and some members of Congress seem to feel they lack the power to make it happen.

What do you say?

My time is up here at Firedoglake.

It’s been great–the questions are really good. I’m sorry I can’t answer all of them, there’s just not enough time.

Never has our nation been so far off-track. We absolutely have to end the paralysis in the U.S. Senate. I will work day and night to retire Gordon Smith but I can’t do it without all of your help. If you want to get involved please contact us through JeffMerkley.com.

Let’s take our nation back!

Thanks for coming Jeff!

And come again when you have time!

Congratulations Mr. Merkley. And welcome.
My most personal issue has become the relative ease with which the Bush administration has prevented oversight.

From the beginning, they closed the doors of the Executive Branch and refused to let anyone see what they were doing, and with the cooperation of the Supreme Court, were able to fight off inquiry into matters like Vice-President Cheney’s conduct of energy strategies.

More recently, they have intruded in an unprecedented way into the conduct of the Department of Justice. The President has ordered the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia not to investigate the administrations use of executive privilege with regard to subpoenas issued to former White House employees Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten.

And just today, the White House has again exerted executive privilege in the matter of former White House staffer Karl Rove, and the subpoena he received, compelling his testimony in the Siegelman matter.

I think Congress is partly to blame for this, having decided to wait out the administration until 2009, and lacking the stern stuff needed to do much more than ask politely.

Please describe your understanding of the limits of oversight, and the President’s ability to wall off inquiry of virtually any matter in discussion within the Executive Branch.

Jeff, I would really like to have an answer to my question 56 about the war. I hope that you or one of your staffers sees this and comes back to answer it. I believe comments are open for 24 hours after the session ends.

Jeff we are grateful you have taken time from your campaign to come share your views and your plans.

Best of luck and please do keep us posted.

I was impressed with your on-the-ground experience in living and travelling abroad (Central America, Ghana) and your work with Habitat For Humanity.

Regarding your experience in the nuances of Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Policy: the Intelligence Community has recently presented a National Intelligence Estimate that completely undercuts the view that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, yet it seems as if none of the Presidential candidates of either party have made this an explicit issue in regards to our negotiating policy with Iran. Do you believe that your background gives you experience in understanding the processes that go into making these evaluations that could be a benefit to the Senate? Is there anyone else in the Senate with a similar employment history to your knowledge.

Jeff….

Thank you for your answers…. On the phone with the Parental units right now and will be sending your answers to them….. so it looks like Florence will be tipping your way

Speaker Merkley, I know Vets sometimes have special medical needs which might require separate facilities, but shouldn’t universal care for all take care of Vets and the rest of us? We need to unite and quit dividing wherever possible.

Any thoughts on this?

I was rooting hard for Novick, but congratulations Jeff, and go give’em hell.

Thanks, Jeff Merkley — come back again soon!

Thanks, Howie, for the introduction and for all your hard work.

Jeff, thanks for stopping by and sharing your time with us. We hope you’ll come back soon and we know Carla’s going to keep us informed about everything that goes on between you and Senator Smith-Myth.

Hey Populista:

This is Carla, Netroots Outreach for the Merkley campaign. I’m going to try to answer a few more questions here. Sorry Jeff can’t finish all these up. Such is the schedule of a U.S. Senate candidate.

I’ve often heard Jeff answer the question of the Senator he most admires. He says Sherrod Brown.

neurophius:

Jeff Merkley has made ending the war in Iraq one of the main issues of his campaign. He is the first U.S. Senate candidate to sign on to “A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq”. Jeff’s ability to deal with tough issues is what made him such an incredibly effective leader in the Oregon legislature. When he gets to the U.S. Senate, he will be a constant and tireless leader on this issue.

Carla, what prompted YOU to get on board with Jeff?

Howie:

Thank you so much for hosting Jeff here! Jeff really, really appreciates the opportunity to answer questions for the netroots community. This is such an important part of any progressive campaign and we’re grateful to Firedoglake for giving us the space and the time.

Fantastic!

Your the best Carla. Keep up the good work.

Sherrod Brown…another VP contenda…Just sayin’

Peterr:

This is kind of a story…so I hope you’ll bear with me.

In 2006, I co-founded a blog in Oregon that focused on Oregon politics, news and culture. I wrote a lot about state races and issues, and it had a decent amount of success.

As a part of that process, I followed Jeff’s leadership. In 2006, I watched as Jeff recruited amazing progressives from around Oregon to run for the Oregon House. He pulled (from my observation) from Howard Dean’s 50 State strategy, only at the district by district level in our state. Using the notion of contesting every seat, Jeff was able to help secure a Democratic majority in the Oregon House for the first time in 16 years. It was awesome!

Then, with a ONE VOTE MAJORITY in 2007, Jeff led the most progressive and productive legislative session in 30 years. As an online activist, it was pretty incredible to watch that happen. Oregon has been stifled by the Republican Party for years. Jeff managed to break through their gridlock, securing votes from their side while managing to hold together his caucus, passing piece after piece of the progressive agenda they’d laid out for Oregon.

Its an honor to be a part of Jeff’s run for the U.S. Senate. I believe that he’ll be an incredibly effective, progressive legislator.

Congratulations Jeff! Now go get ‘em!

Cat In Seattle

Don’t apologize for telling that story. It’s a very powerful statement of support. We could use more folks around with stories who have stories like that to tell.

[And if I didn’t want to hear about it, I wouldn’t have asked. *grin*]

Hi Jeff

Are you a Duck? Please don’t say that you are a Beaver.

I support robust investigations of the Bush Administration’s conduct.

music to these ears.

Ah- Stanford University is it? Well at least you are a real Oregonian.

Gas is out of control..that makes food out of control..that makes bills out of control….which makes life out of control…Geez..take control America!!!

Somebody take control!!

I’m tellin’ ya…the economy is going to come to a grinding halt. Soon!

Stanford and Princeton.

Merkley was born in Myrtle Creek, Oregon and attended first grade in Roseburg before moving to Portland with his family. He graduated from David Douglas High School, obtained a bachelor of arts degree in International Relations from Stanford University in 1979, and earned a Master of Public Policy degree from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1982.

Yeah I found that too.

David Douglas is good- east side kid—far burbs but still better than Beaverton .

FYI, new post up top.

A few ideas:

The money put down on futures contracts for example on crude oil should be increased from the current 5-7% to 30-50%. This would squeeze out the current hedge fund driven speculation in the market which has driven up the price of a barrel of oil by $55-60 dollars.

Increasing capital gains taxes so that investment income is not favored over work income makes economic sense and is also a question of social justice.

Rescinding the Bush tax cuts which favored the rich is another aspect of this. The Administration has admitted that they don’t pay for themselves and it increases the size of federal deficits to no good purpose.

Late Nite up upstairs

Do you know how great that would be? Merkley has pushed through so many progressive bills here in Oregon. We need more lefty legislators like Merkley in the Senate who can build strong coalitions to get legislation through Congress.

I’ve been waiting for the time when Merkley can debate Smith on foreign policy issues. Merkley quite knowledgable on foreign policy matters and was against the Iraq War from the start.

After Merkley worked for Congress and at the Pentagon, he could have had any job he wanted. He returned to Oregon and became director of Habitat for Humanity where he created affordable housing programs. One thing I’ve come to believe during the Bush years is that the most important personality trait a legislator must have is compassion.

I’m late here again. Finally someone I voted for won. Taking some Senate seats is absolutely crucial, no matter who the Pres is. Smith has had a cozy relationship with Wyden, at least on the surface. They come home and have joint Q & A sessions with constituents. Some people like that, and they do treat each other respectfully, but I think it masks Smith’s Bush loyalty. Smith did get in in Congress and criticize the war, but it was too little too late. He has to go, and it will take some financing from out of State to do it. Thanks to FDL for having him here.

I too am late to the party Dean. I rejoined the D party about 1 month ago so I could vote for Obama, and in this Senate primary. I was undecided almost to the end as Novick was also an excellent candidate. In the end, I voted for Jeff, the deciding factor being electability. Jeff’s experience and political record is deeper making him a very strong candidate. I think he has a real chance this year to send Smith packing. You guys asked some good questions and Jeff gave some great answers! Thanks for hosting, FDL and Howie.

I’m one of those people who was a huge Novick supporter. I’d worked with Merkley in the past and really liked him, I just liked Novick better for this position.

Now that Merkley has won the primary, I’m 110% behind him. I’ve already volunteered with the campaign and asked Carla what it is I can do to help out. Money’s pretty tight, but time is something I have to give.

Some Novick supporters are doing the same - doing whatever they can for the campaign. Others are having a hard time coming on board. They’ll vote for Merkley, but aren’t ready to give all their time and such to the campaign. We’ll work on them, it’s just going to take some time after some of the nastiness between supporters on each side. Sometimes it just takes some time for things to calm down.

But we’ll definitely be out there working to ensure we send Smith home to Pendleton and not back to DC.

My perception is that genuinely progressive and liberal Oregonians will now be giving a hard look at John Frohnmayer who was a Democrat and now is running as an Independent. He’s not quite in the Sander’s mold, but he has said he will caucus with Democrats and some of his policies (but not all), are more genuinely progressive than Merkley’s.

Those of you who don’t understand the Oregon or NW political landscape probably don’t know that the Democratic party here is very much the stereotype of the privileged (read elitist) white liberal, so much so that before Obama fully 1/3 of Oregonians were non-affiliated voters, and a large percentage of those are working people who would be Democrats elsewhere. (Washington doesn’t even have party registration so the situation is even more mixed up there.) Despite what Merkley says, his legislative record in Oregon is one of quite comfortably playing ball with the corporate interests that have real power. This specifically includes his positions to date in support of the the private health insurance industry to the detriment of working people.

Merkley’s position at this time is that he supports the DSCC/DLC consensus position, along with Hillary and Wyden’s proposed plan, that we should reform our health care system by abolishing most of Federal public health plans and by law force everyone to buy private health insurance. Hillary at least gives lip service to a public plan option, Wyden and Merkley to date haven’t. In fact, both actually explicitly espouse McCain’s position that if we eliminate employer sponsored health insurance, employers will give their employees raises to buy private health insurance from private health insurance companies. When pushed into a corner or asked to take a stand when it actually counts, such as in a state level reform process going on right now in Oregon under SB-329, Merkley has gone past refusing to endorse single-payer style plans and spoke out forcefully against such reforms — the SEIU endorsement here reflects that.

I have nothing to do with John Frohnmeyer or his campaign. I do know that John Frohnmayer came out for single-payer reform the day he announced. Nor do I know Novick or his campaign, but heard him late in the campaign also come out for single-payer (I believe it was after SEIU poured on the support for Merkley because of their negative but politically cagey position on single-payer.)

I just know that progressives here know Merkley has done nothing that wasn’t first selfishly calculated to help his own career and that he won by running a childishly negative campaign funded by the pro-corporate wing of the Democratic Party. Which specifically includes the private health insurance and health care industry. Wednesday AM progressives started looking hard at Frohnmayer to see if he actually is the progressive/liberal in this race that represents working people. That remains to be seen, but FDL owes it to your readership to get the real story on Merkley, Frohnmayer, and how interests actually line up in Oregon for the fall.

One other note: What you also have here in Oregon are a lot of people who have very superficial knowledge of Merkley’s positions, and who propagandistically use terms like “progressive” to describe Merkley simply as a way to sway emotions of equally uniformed people.

A prime example is Merkley’s position on capital gains in the primary: In fact, Merkley is a Bush Republican on this one. He repeatedly stated in the campaign without hesitancy that he agreed with the Republican and pro-corporate Democratic position that taxes on capital gains shouldn’t be raised so they are taxed like the earned income of working people. You’ll find a lot of people here spun themselves into dizziness during the campaign to distract attention from this whenever it came up, mainly by attacking anyone who brought it up as being uncivil, negative, and a Novick hack. Of course, for many of us who judge candidates by their deeds and depth of their positions, this was simply evidence of the self-centered, navel-gazing, immaturity of Merkley’s activist base, but those are the facts.

The issue with Merkley for thoughtful, informed, progressives and liberals is not what Merkley’s superficially informed supporters claim he believes. Smith is bad, but that is not moral sound to argue that simply because “he is not Smith” justifies a vote for Merkley, particularly when Merkley’s track record is not what people here represent it to be and we have a third choice in Frohnmayer that we need to find out more about.

It’s not like Merkley is just an average guy doing the best he can shaping his equivocal political positions. He graduated from Princeton’s graduate schoo in Public Policy, after all, so it’s not like he doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing to advance his own political career. The products of the 2007 regular legislative session and the 2008 experimental legislative session were only progressive in the spin of many partisans such as those who spoke here.

Merkley has gone past refusing to endorse single-payer style plans and spoke out forcefully against such reforms — the SEIU endorsement here reflects that.

That’s just flatly untrue.

In a radio interview before the primary election, Jeff Merkley was explicitly asked if he’d support single-payer health care. Here’s what he said:

I would love to vote for single-payer on the floor of the Senate. I think that we all recognize significant inefficiencies that occur from the paperwork system and insurance system we have.

But here’s the thing: We need a bridge from where we are. One of the things I’ve said is that I would support Senator Wyden’s Healthy Americans Act. It creates an affordable, portable, comprehensive, high-quality, equal-to-what-members-of-Congress-have, health plan for every single American.

The challenge is that once we do that, and fill in all these cracks, between our various health care programs then we have to focus on making a much more affordable, cost-effective system. And that means we need to strengthen clinics, which are the front door to the health care system; a very cost-effective front door.

It means we have to take on Medicare Part D, in which we are completely ripped off - by being the only country in the [world] that has to pay any price that a pharmaceutical company asks. It’s a big irony that these drugs were invented largely with our tax research dollars and then we’re paying more than any other country - and that’s simply outrageous.

[Full disclosure: My firm built Jeff Merkley’s website, but I speak only for myself.]

p.s. Here’s the link. The clip is about halfway through the audio.