6/26/2008

Examiner.com

The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A new disclosure report shows just how much Democratic officials in Washington, D.C. wanted Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley to beat Steve Novick in last month’s Senate primary.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee covered almost all of Merkley’s nonadvertising expenses in the final weeks of the campaign, spending more than $250,000 to pay for everything from Merkley’s payroll to his garbage bill.

All told, the committee spent $386,000 helping finance Merkley’s campaign, and that doesn’t include television commercials the committee produced and paid for on its own.

The committee, chaired by Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, recruited Merkley to unseat Republican Sen. Gordon Smith after two Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation declined to run.