Dems Gain in Oregon Senate Race, Three Other Races Unresolved

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Yahoo

By the end of election night, it was clear that the Democratic Party had gained at least five seats in the Senate.

And, 24 hours later, the Democrats appeared to have increased their take to a full half-dozen, as Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley pulled ahead of two-term Republican Sen. Gordon Smith with most of the yet-to-be counted votes in strongly Democratic-voting areas. The Oregonian newspaper in Portland projected a victory for Merkley, the Speaker of the Oregon House, and CQ Politics' independent analysis of the outstanding votes concurs with that conclusion.

The main reason it seems likely that Merkley will end up ahead is that only 62 percent of the vote had been counted in Multnomah County -- site of Portland, Oregon's most populous city -- and Merkley had already run up 67 percent of the vote and a margin of about 85,000 votes in this Democratic stronghold. This suggests it is likely that the county will add many thousands of votes to Merkley's statewide edge. In addition, Merkley was running 20 percentage points ahead of Smith in Lane County, which includes the city of Eugene and the University of Oregon, with about a quarter of the votes yet to be counted. There are no comparably large fonts of votes remaining to be tallied in more conservative areas that are favorable to Smith.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20081106/pl_cq_politics/politics2983043

[Hulk]

1. God riddance to ass kissing gordon.

Hurray for the Senate!! One less wolf in sheeps clothing in the halls. Go back to the cannery where you belong. You have embarrassed Oregon long enough.