Jeff Merkley

Jeff Merkley is the star of an ad released Wednesday by the Oregon Democratic Party.

"Something is seriously wrong in Washington D.C," Merkley says in a voice-over at the beginning of the ad, though he may have meant to say something was seriously wrong in Washington D.C, because the issues he refers to happened on Capitol Hill as long as five years go.

The Oregon Farm Bureau, the largest general farm organization in the state, will be backing U.S Senator Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) in his bid for re-election.

Using Karl Rove like tactics backfired for Senate candidate Jeff Merkley. Maybe he should just stick to the issues from now on.

Back for your viewing pleasure we are giving you our weekly winners and losers.  Not much going on this week, but Vicki Walker managed to garner more press and there is one more Democrat in the city of Portland.  Keep checking the Inside Edge for our weekly cast of characters.

The Oregon Farm Bureau, the largest general farm organization in the state, will be backing U.S Senator Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) in his bid for re-election.

After a string of stinging controversies about his television re-election ads, U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) finally came out with one on Friday that should have been the least controversial of all. But it's led to a great debate among Oregon's U.S. Senate candidates over who's a better representative for rural Oregon.

In the ad, Smith praises the rural Oregonian way of life, talking about his rural roots in Pendleton, a small town in the eastern part of the state.

"No one loves the land more than the farmers, loggers and ranchers who care for it," he says in the ad.

The mood at House Speaker and current U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley's (D-Portland) headquarters on Monday was enthusiastic in the midst of its final fund raising push to close out the second fundraising quarter of the year.

"We expect to have our best quarter ever," campaign spokesman Matt Canter said. "People around Oregon and around the country are seeing how vulnerable Gordon Smith is, and we are gaining tremendous momentum."

The clock is ticking for campaign fundraisers: Monday at midnight marks the close of financial reporting for the second quarter.

The reporting period, which spanned from April 1, 2008 to June 30, 2008, will be a marker of which candidates have added to their war chest, which candidates have enough money to maintain their run and which candidates may be falling behind in the money game.

The reports will help bring to light two of the state's most hotly contested races, the U.S. Senate race and the 5th Congressional District race.

The Oregon GOP Friday spotlighted out-of-state contributions to Oregon House Speaker and U.S Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland), while in-state more Democrats rallied behind Merkley as his campaign against incumbent Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) heats up.

According to Federal Elections Commission data provided by Republicans, Merkley has received a total of $1,067,556 in non-Oregon contributions, including $832,551 from the Democratic Senatorial Congressional Committee and $235,005 from the Majority Action Fund.

"Out-of-state special interest groups are holding the puppet strings to Jeff Merkley's campaign," said Brianne Hyder, spokesperson for the Oregon Republican Party.

In his first post to his Daily Kos diary in almost three months, U.S Senate candidate and Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) urged the U.S Congress to oppose the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 on Tuesday.

Merkley sees controversy in the part of the bill which gives immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in surveillance on domestic citizens.

"The bill will force federal district courts to immediately dismiss any cases against telecommunications companies that participated in illegal surveillance," Merkley wrote. "This is unacceptable. The Constitution of the United States was violated.  Over several years telecommunications companies turned over the records of millions of innocent Americans to the federal government without proper oversight and without a warrant."