Democrats put GOP Sen. Gordon Smith high on their target list when he ran for a second term in 2002, only to see him win re-election comfortably. But, thanks to the political climate that is so hostile for Republicans, 2008 may be the year they succeed in defeating him.
Part of the reason the moderate Republican ends up on the target list is that he ran and lost a Senate special election in early 1996, leaving party operatives to write off his victory just 10 months later as a fluke. They also operate under the premise that Oregon is fundamentally a Democratic-leaning state that will turn out even a moderate Republican in an election that is about change. And, while Democrats hold the Governor’s office, control both chambers of the state legislature and have four of the five congressional seats, the state has been more competitive in the last two presidential contests than its blue hue suggests. Democrat Al Gore carried the state by less than 10,000 votes in 2000 while Green Party nominee Ralph Nader and other third-party candidates
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