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Posts published in “Day: October 10, 2007”

Smith at $6.1 million

October 10, 2007

We were hazarding a guess that Oregon Senator Gordon Smith's fundraising for this cycle would run to about $5 million, or a little more; his actual reporting of $6.1 million probably exceeds most expectations.

The Oregonian's Jeff Mapes quotes on his blog from a Smith press release (why aren't they putting these things on their web site?): "The campaign has raised approximately $6.1 million during the current election cycle and has $4.035 million cash on hand."

With a year of fundraising yet to go. Any guesses how high this number will go by then? $12 million? $16 million?

McIver’s case

October 10, 2007
Richard McIver

Richard McIver

No immediate guesses on what the fallout may be for Seattle Council member Richard McIver, arrested early this morning, jailed for invesitgation of misdemeanor domestic violence assault.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported, "McIver's wife, Marlaina Kiner-McIver, had called 911. She told responding officers he was drunk and grabbed her throat and arm during an argument. She says that's the first time that's happened in their 33-year marriage."

McIver has been on the council for a decade, often one of the less-controversial members. The council member he replaced, John Manning, a former police officer, resigned in 1997 following his guilty plea to fourth-degree misdemeanor domestic-violence; attempts at a council comeback in 2003 and this year failed. Too soon to be say, especially since the case is in early stages, but will bear watching.

Does that presage what may happen in McIver's case?

Division point?

October 10, 2007
Jeff Merkley

Jeff Merkley

 Steve Novick

Steve Novick

The back to back talks by Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley and Portland activist Steve Novick, both running for the U.S. Senate, at this week's labor conference at Seaside, may have shown off the coming state of the Oregon Democratic Party in microcosm. They certainly ought to have given the party's leaders something to think about.

Merkley and Novick were cordial and focused their fire on Republican Gordon Smith; and their line of argument against him, and their descriptions of their own philosophies of governing, were similar in content. Theirs was not a "left vs. moderate" sort of thing: Wherever they are on such a scale, they're not far apart ideologically.

But there was a difference, and it wasn't subtle.

Merkley made only one quick, glancing reference to Novick, simply acknowleding their joint appearances, nothing substantive. (His speaking, by the ways, seems to have gained in smoothness and strength since last we saw him.) He seemed to take little notice of him.

Novick, while focused on Smith (coupled, of course, with the Bush Administration) and his own views, did carve out a couple of minutes to discuss Merkley, planting one substantial barb along the way.

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