Right-wing pigpile on Jeff Merkley gets underway

Kari Chisholm

For a while there, we wondered if Karl Rove's efforts to "make Oregon next" were falling short in the 2014 U.S. Senate race.

But in the space of just a few days this week, we've gone from wondering if anybody was really serious about running - to a possible three-way Republican primary.

Here's the latest:

• Rep. Conger will be launching his campaign on Tuesday in Oregon City and Bend.

• A fellow named Sam Carpenter announced his own challenge to Merkley. He's a business owner and motivational speaker based in Bend. He doesn't appear to have been involved with politics much before. Normally, he'd look like a Some Dude, but he's already loaned his campaign $100,000 and hired Libertarian flack Richard Burke as his spokesman.

• Monica Wehby, an Legacy Emanuel surgeon and anti-ObamaCare activist, is also considering a run - according to the O's Christian Gaston.

And, of course, there's a number of random right-wing activists to make it a full-on clown car.

This is going to a lot of fun to watch. Bring on the cat fud!

By Kari Chisholm Oct. 11, 2013