Incumbent Democratic Senator Jeff Merkly is running against neurosurgeon Monica Wehby. Now Oregon has not elected a Republican to statewide office in over 12 years. In spite of that the Republicans are channeling Don Quixote and tipping there hats at windmills. The reality is that in spite of the fact that Merkly has a 14 point lead in the polls the Republicans still think they can win this one. The Koch brothers are pumping millions int her campaign not realizing that in a state like Oregon this will simply alienate a majority of the voters. She could probably win Eastern Oregon but hardly anyone lives east of the Cascades – state wide elections are decided in the Portland metro area and the rest of the Willamette Valley. Simon Maloy at Salon sums it up.
One contest that has remained constant, however, is the Senate race in Oregon between incumbent Democrat Jeff Merkley and his Republican challenger, neurosurgeon Monica Wehby. Merkley remains the heavy favorite, despite a gargantuan amount of hype surrounding Wehby’s candidacy. The strange thing is that Wehby-mentum soldiers on despite any real indicators that she’s fielding a credible challenge to Merkley.
Part of this is due to the largess of outside conservative and libertarian groups, who are still pouring money into the race. The Koch brothers just recently opted to boost their overall spending in support of Wehby, partly because her policy positions are simpatico with those of the broader Koch empire, but also because the Koch brothers don’t really have to worry about prioritizing when it comes to political spending. But Wehby-mentum refuses to die also because conservative pundits have convinced themselves that Obamacare’s unpopularity is so potent a force that it will take down an incumbent Democrat in a solidly blue state.
As Maloy points out Wehby also has some personal problems -some skeletons in her closet which are sure to come up in the campaign.
… a series of reports surfaced showing “that an ex-husband and ex-boyfriend had separately called the police to complain about [Wehby’s] behavior.”
She is also being described as a moderate Republican but as Maloy points out not so much.
But when the Oregonian asked how she’d vote on key issues ranging from taxes to the environment to jobs, Wehby took hard-line Republican positions on all of them. On taxes, she would have voted to make the Bush tax cuts permanent and repeal the estate tax. The 2014 farm bill? She would have taken the Tea Party stance and voted against it. She’s pro-Keystone XL, against the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon rules, and would have voted against equal pay legislation. If there’s “moderation” to be found in her policy platform, it’s well concealed. She also supports a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, a conservative hobbyhorse that is opposed by liberals (and some conservatives) because it’s a terrible idea that would destroy the economy.
So let the conservatives toss money down this sinkhole – Wehby doesn’t have a chance.