Democrat Merkley takes Oregon Senate seat

Spencer Collins · #1 (**permalink**) 11-06-2008, 01:59 PM

Quote:

(CNN) -- Democrat Jeff Merkley is declaring victory over Republican incumbent Sen. Gordon Smith in the Oregon Senate race, moving Democrats one seat closer to a filibuster-proof majority in the body.

"This is the beginning of a transformational change for America," Merkley said at a news conference at Portland State University.

He said he would be working with President-elect Barack Obama "to put this nation back on track."

Merkley said Smith called him to concede Thursday morning.

"I thanked him for his 12 years of service to our beautiful state," Merkley said.

With 100 percent of the counties reporting, Merkley received 48.4 percent of the vote to Smith's 46 percent, according to unofficial results from the Oregon Secretary of State's office.

Merkley, the current speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, joins Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden, who introduced Merkley on Thursday, in Oregon's delegation in the nation's capital.

But even with Merkley's victory, Democrats' hopes are fading for a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate.

Three hotly contested Senate races hang in the balance: Alaska, Georgia and Minnesota.

Democrats needed to add nine seats to their current caucus of 51 (49 Democrats and two independents allied with them) to gain enough of a majority to push legislation through the Senate unimpeded.

It takes 60 votes to invoke cloture, a device to end filibusters, the unlimited floor speeches by an opponent that can prevent legislation from coming up for a vote.

With Merkley's victory, and having added five seats Tuesday, Democrats would need to sweep the three remaining undecided races to reach 60

Democrat Merkley takes Oregon Senate seat - CNN.com

The D's may get up to 57 but I doubt it..they will have to get by "somehow" with only 56...

saltwn · #2 (**permalink**) 11-06-2008, 02:42 PM

And here in Idaho (conservativ ville)

Quote:

Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Sali conceded his 1st Congressional District race Wednesday evening to Democratic victor Walt Minnick.

Sali called and left a message for Minnick, said Wayne Hoffman, Sali's spokesman.

Minnick, a 66-year-old Boise businessman, won with 50.6 percent of the vote.

Earlier Wednesday at a GOP event, Sali declined to concede, saying he wanted to make sure every vote had been recorded properly first.

The race was close, with a 4,243-vote margin, but it wasn't within the one-tenth of 1 percent needed to trigger an automatic recount.

Hoffman didn't detail the one-term congressman's future plans.

Hoffman said, "Stay tuned. Bill has a lot of support out there. That's clear by the election results."

I did vote for Sali and a few local Republicans, but the people have spoken.
This is strange for Idaho, a bastion of conservatism But Sali had some kind of
black mark on his record lately. I don't know what it was and with all the smears on a national scale, I wasn't in to finding out.
He voted the way I liked and that was my concern. Hope this new guy does a good job.
And as for Oregon, they aren't as Liberal as they used to be, but then they aren't conservative either. When they have funds made available by the liberals, I find that often the conservatives don't like to release them.

So if Smith was a token Republican anyway, they might as well go Dem all the way. My son (who lives in Oregon) wouldn't mind my telling he voted straight Dem and if no one ran against even a local incumbent, he left it blank.

Spencer Collins · #3 (**permalink**) 11-06-2008, 02:56 PM

I split my ticket as well...

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