A candidate facing a tough re-election fight is making clear his ties to Barack Obama on a bill the two worked on together to promote better gas mileage and a healthier environment. In and of itself, that's not news. But it certainly becomes news when that candidate is Oregon Senator Gordon Smith, a Republican facing a tough re-election bid against State House Speaker Jeff Merkley. Smith, who has a big financial advantage over his Democratic opponent, is tying himself not to his party's presidential nominee but to Obama, who won the state's Democratic presidential primary by a wide margin. Smith is seen as a top target for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and he has made his own breaks from Republicans a major theme of his re-election bid. "I approve working together across party lines and this ad," says Smith at the end of the thirty-second ad. To run such an advertisement in a state John McCain has mentioned should be fiercely competitive is both telling and disheartening for Republicans. The party is struggling all along the West Coast -- Smith is the only GOP senator outside Alaska whose state touches the Pacific Ocean -- and though McCain had hoped to make Washington and Oregon swing states, the fact that a Republican would associate himself with McCain's rival has to call that decision into question. It isn't the first time Smith has so publicly broken with his party, either. After the 2006 midterm elections, Sm ...
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