Senator-Elect Jeff Merkley

Party: Democrat
State: Oregon
Race Results: In one of the most watched races in the country, It looks as though nuclear-weapons expert Jeff Merkley (D) will beat Sen. Gordon Smith (R).

Democrat - Challenger
Endorsed for U.S. Senate by Council for a Livable World

The Oregon Senate race is becoming closer every day. Jeff Merkley is a rare Senate candidate, an expert on nuclear weapons and national security issues. He is mounting a challenge to incumbent Republican two-term Senator Gordon Smith in Oregon that is receiving national attention.

Council for a Livable World has endorsed Jeff Merkley because he is an electoral winner who is also an expert on nuclear weapons and acutely aware of the dangers. In 1982, Merkley was selected as a Presidential Fellow and served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. There he worked on verification for theater nuclear arms agreements, assisting the U.S. delegation to NATO and coordinating a committee on technology transfer to other countries. His next assignment was at the Congressional Budget Office, where he prepared reports on the Trident II missiles installed on our nuclear-powered submarines and the B-1B bomber program.

For the past decade he has been immersed in Oregon politics but remained involved in national security issues by serving as president and then a board member of the World Affairs Council of Oregon. In the United States Senate, Jeff Merkley will have the knowledge and capability to be a leader on nuclear and national security matters.

Jeff Merkley was born in 1956 in Myrtle Creek, Oregon and now lives in Portland. He was the first member of his family to attend college. He received a BA in international relations from Stanford University and a Master's in public policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. He interned for former Republican Senator Mark Hatfield, a patron saint of arms control. He returned to Oregon in 1991 to become executive director of the local Habitat for Humanity, building low cost homes for the struggling families of Oregon. He then became Director of Housing Development at Human Solutions, where he again focused on affordable housing.

In 1998, he entered politics with a successful campaign for the state House of Representatives. Elected House Democratic Leader in 2003, he became Speaker when the Democrats took control of that body.

Jeff Merkley opposes building a new generation of nuclear weapons and says that he "strongly supports the idea of the United States leading an international effort to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles." He has endorsed the Kissinger-Shultz-Nunn-Perry vision of moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

He rejects deployment of National Missile Defense, pointing out that missile defenses "cannot stop either low-tech enemies who have other delivery mechanisms such as suitcase bombs or sophisticated enemies who can overcome expensive and complex sensor and intercept technologies with much simpler countermeasures." He opposes proposals to place weapons in space and instead endorses an international ban on space weapons. Merkley urges the Senate to approve the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and to greatly expand nuclear non-proliferation programs.

Merkley opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2002. Just two days after the invasion of Iraq, when public fervor was high, Merkley took a bold stand on the floor of the Oregon House of Representatives in opposition, saying, "I have not been and am not today persuaded that Iraq was a significant threat to the United States or that the war we fight today is the best strategy to fight terrorism or the wisest application of our superpower resources."

Merkley has laid out a five-point path for stability in the region: • Removing all combat troops starting right away and completing the redeployment in six to 12 months • Eliminating permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq • Engaging Iraq's neighbors in a diplomatic effort to secure the peace - particularly Turkey, Iran and Syria • Removing all American contractors from the country and replacing them with Iraqi contractors, and • Directing our attention toward stronger engagement with the Iraqi Parliament and Courts.

Merkley's path to the Senate will not be easy. He is running against a resourceful and well-funded incumbent. While Gordon Smith voted to authorize the use of force against Iraq in 2002 and has supported the President's war policies for years, he drew attention last December when he broke with the President by calling for a new strategy in the Iraq war. However, since that time, Smith's votes haven't consistently matched his rhetoric: sometimes he votes with Bush, sometimes he does not.

Despite this occasional show of independence, his national security record is largely hawkish. He earned only a 25% on Council for a Livable World's 2005-2006 voting scorecard and a 0% from 2001-2004. While he has supported increased funding for nuclear non-proliferation programs, he has also supported two Bush administration attempts to build a new generation of nuclear weapons, the low-yield nuclear weapon and the nuclear bunker buster. He has also supported missile defense, the nomination of John Bolton to be American Ambassador to the United Nations and the problematic U.S.-India nuclear deal.

Merkley is running in a state where the tide is moving strongly toward the Democrats. In the 2006 mid-term election, Oregon Democrats took control of the state House of Representatives 31 - 29 and control of the state Senate as well. Four of the five U.S. Representatives are Democrats as is the current Governor Ted Kulongoski. Senator Smith is the only Republican Senator from the entire West Coast where President Bush and his policies are very unpopular.

Merkley will be an important progressive leader in the Senate. His background on nuclear weapons, his knowledge of national security issues and his political experience clearly indicate that we need him in the U.S. Senate.

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