News and Culture

U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) has told the City Club of Portland he won’t debate Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley at the club’s Oct. 17 forum.

“City Club believes that the race between Sen. Smith and Rep. Merkley deserves full exposure to as many Oregon voters as possible,” a press release from the City Club states. “The City Club’s Friday Forum live audience usually exceeds 400 for political debates, reaches more than 15,000 public radio listeners statewide, and is distributed on cable television. As such, City Club finds Sen. Smith’s decision to be disappointing and regrettable. Over the many decades that City Club has hosted political debates, it has been highly unusual for a candidate to refuse a Club debate invitation.”

Smith’s refusal came the day before WW published Señor Smith providing new evidence his family business employs undocumented workers at its Eastern Oregon plant.

This is not the first invitation Smith has declined.

Earlier this week, after a month’s worth of calls from WW to three different representatives of the Smith campaign, the two-term incumbent declined an invitation to attend WW’s endorsement interview. [Instant bet: Guess where he's probably going instead?]

Earlier this month, Smith declined to attend the Republican National Convention, saying through a spokeswoman that his time was better spent campaigning in Oregon.

Also in August, Smith agreed to participate in only three public debates with Merkley, who had proposed at least five.

1. Gordon Smith and Jeff Merkley Go Head-to-Head in Medford The secon
2. It’s on: Merkley Wants to Take on Gordon Smith Three hig
3. Death of the Oregon Republican Party? Politicos give post-election analysis at City Club If Oregon
4. Former Sen. Gordon Smith Gets A New Job Former U.
5. BREAKING: Talk the Walk—Merkley, Not Smith, to Address CAP crowd Despite

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 12:34 pm and is filed under News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.