Washington Post: Oregon race for Senate is a "test" for Republicans

Kari Chisholm

In an item in the Washington Post, GOP operative Alex Castellanos -- who produced independent ads that propped up Monica Wehby's campaign in the closing days of the primary election -- had this to say:

“If we remain what we are now — the party of ‘No,’ the party more interested in telling you what you can’t do and what you can’t be — and we can’t win in a place like Oregon, we’ll be a party that’s left behind,” he said. “Unless we expand our playing field and offer an optimistic vision of how we take people to a better place, there isn’t enough map for us.”

I'd tend to agree with him. But the Republicans have a very tough road ahead. Especially when the contrast between Jeff Merkley and Monica Wehby looks like this:

“She has said she couldn’t think of one thing she differed from the national Republican agenda on,” Merkley said. “It’s not okay. [The] national Republican agenda is all about helping the best off get better off, and it’s the opposite of my fight for working families.”

He added: “I don’t suppose there are a lot of senators who live in a working-class community, but I do. . . . There are two foreclosed homes on my street.”

Merkley lives in a multi-ethnic neighborhood on the eastern edge of Portland. Wehby lives in a well-to-do Portland suburb and, according to a police report, drives a Mercedes.

And it's definitely not going to get better for Wehby as long as this keeps happening:

In an interview with The Washington Post at his Portland campaign headquarters, Merkley listed pocketbook issues such as pay equity, raising the minimum wage and expanding unemployment insurance as areas where he and Wehby disagree. ...

Wehby declined The Post’s request for an interview. ... Last week, Wehby held a few small public events, but they were in rural parts of the state and her campaign did not announce them until an hour beforehand, making it logistically impossible for Portland-based reporters to cover her appearances.

Read the rest.

By Kari Chisholm June 02, 2014