Sorry for the short entry but I went number crunching.  Gordon Smith can't pull this thing out.  Merkley is running ahead of John Kerry in every single county in the state, convincingly.  

With 71% reporting, it's 47/47%.  

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results state#OR

Where are the outstanding votes?

The most underreported counties are Multnomah and Lane, home to Portland and Eugene.  

The pattern is overwhelmingly obvious; Gordon Smith is running about 5 points statewide behind George Bush, who himself lost Oregon by 4% in 2004.  

We have this seat in the bag.  Looking at the map and pretending otherwise is like calling Ohio for Obama and pretending McCain can somehow win.  

There's more...

Jeff Merkley, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Oregon, is calling on Republican Senator Gordon Smith to give up $39,000 in campaign contributions he received from Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, who was indicted today. Merkley is calling for Smith to donate the money to charities to help provide health insurance to Oregon children.

Ted Stevens was indicted today on federal corruption charges. Stevens has contributed $39,000 to Smith's campaign.

"Senator Smith should donate these contributions to charities to help provide health insurance to Oregon children," said Speaker Jeff Merkley. "Ted Stevens has been indicted on very serious ethical charges. These charges cast an ethical cloud on money he raised from oil companies and others, some of which he passed on to Gordon Smith."

There's more...