The Oregonian calls race for Merkley – NorthCoastBlog.com https://www.northcoastblog.com Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:21:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.8 The Oregonian calls Senate race for Merkley https://www.northcoastblog.com/2008/11/05/the-oregonian-calls-senate-race-for-merkley/ Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:21:47 +0000 https://www.northcoastblog.com/?p=1073 It looks like the Democrats will pick up another seat in te Senate.

Democrat Jeff Merkley has ousted Republican Gordon Smith from his U.S. Senate seat, The Oregonian projects.

Merkley, a five-term state lawmaker and former Habitat for Humanity director, took advantage of a surge of Democratic support to win a close, bitterly fought battle with Smith, who has served 12 years in Washington.

Neither candidate, however was willing to rule the race over until more votes are tallied.

“More good news,” said Matt Canter, spokesman for Merkley, “but we’ll just continue to watch the ballots come in and wait to claim victory.”

If this holds up it brings the Democrats up to 57.

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