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Posts published in “Day: April 4, 2007”

Smith bucks

Never hurts to be able to wave a pile of money in the face of people who are considering opposing you in a political campaign. And Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, by announcing that in the first three months of this year he has added $700,000 to his $2 million campaign fund - and doing it days before he had to, thereby guaranteeing media coverage - is doing just that.

It could even be aimed directly at Democratic Representative Peter DeFazio, who this week seems to have turned into a possible contender for the Senate seat (after earlier declaring his non-interest), but whose reluctance to enter the race has a lot to do with the daunting rounds of fundraising required. DeFazio could raise the money to be competitive with Smith. The catch is that he'd have to put in a lot of time and effort, away from his newly beloved committee chairmanship, to do it.

Which may give emphasis to what we suspect DeFazio is privately telling those Democrats who want him to run: "Before we can even get serious: Show me the money, and prove to me that raising it isn't going to be preoccupying for the next year and a half." Sounds now as if whether he runs may hinge in large part on whether they can.

Chat on

Tonight once again, our regular Wednesday chat is on for 6 pm Pacific, 7 pm Mountain, accessible off this page. (Scroll down to the right to the “nickname” box, enter your name, click the button, and you’re in.) It lasts about an hour; feel free to jump in or out any time.

So far we’ve had enjoyable discussions with an eclectic group of people. Greg Smith, a co-founder, should be back on board this evening. Along with, well, who knows who.

LaRocco’s apparently in

Larry LaRocco
Larry LaRocco

Democrat Larry LaRocco's statement (not yet formal announcement) from various places (apparently originating from an interview with The Hill yesterday) that he plans to announce for the U.S. Senate next week has been prepared for; LaRocco has mentioned the possibility more than once, and even during his race last year for lieutenant governor. Assuming that materializes as expected, the former U.S. representative instantly will be the presumed Democratic nominee, likely drawing little or no serious challenge in-party.

What he faces on the Republican side, of course, is another matter.

Though there's ample question about who that will be. Our presumption for the moment is that incumbent Republican Senator Larry Craig will be back for another run; we hear from people who've known him well that Congress is too much his life to simply step away from it. Until a stronger argument comes up, we'll go with that.

But it's not a done deal.

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