Free Republic

PORTLAND, Ore. — To Republicans, the Senate race in this solidly Democratic state presents an alluring opportunity. Oregon’s health insurance exchange has been one of the country’s most troubled. President Obama’s approval rating has fallen below 50 percent. Sen. Jeff Merkley, a liberal Democrat first elected on Obama’s coattails in 2008, is not terribly well known. And in Monica Wehby, Republicans have a fresh-faced, female challenger who they believe matches the moment: a pediatric neurosurgeon and political outsider who rails against the Affordable Care Act but is relatively moderate on social issues. Republicans don’t need Oregon in order to win...

I think the NRSC would much prefer beating up conservatives in 2014 than win the Senate. The NRSC has spent so much time and money attacking conservatives and running smear and whisper campaigns about them, we now have another candidate they did not vet. We have lost Oregon with Monica Wehby. She seemed to be a good candidate with a great ad that neutralized her pro-choice positions. She was impressive. In fact, with a mail in election, Monica Wehby is going to be the GOP’s nominee in Oregon. But there is this 911 call from her husband back in 2007....

A mini-bombshell from the Daily Caller. The only poll of the race taken before this came at the start of April and had Monica Wehby trailing Jeff Merkley by 12 points. A month later, the Caller finds her up 40/39 among “active voters,” i.e. newly registered voters plus longtime registered voters who voted in one of the last two elections. What’s changed? Maybe nothing; with so few polls to go by, it could be that one of these is an outlier. Or, it could be that Wehby’s much-praised “Trust” ad that made the rounds a few weeks ago raised her...

Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley is running neck-and-neck with Republican challenger Monica Wehby, according to a new Daily Caller/Vox Populi Polling survey of registered voters in the state. Wehby, a Portland-based pediatric neurosurgeon, received the support of 40 percent of respondents, while an additional five percent say they are leaning towards supporting the first-time candidate. Merkley, who was elected to the Senate in 2008, garners the support of just 39 percent of respondents, with two percent saying they lean towards supporting him. Fourteen percent of voters said they do not know whom they would support. According to Vox Populi’s Brent...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Tuesday joined a growing list of out-of-state political figures who have endorsed Portland pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby in her race for the Republican Senate nomination. . . Wehby's chief rival in the Republican primary, state Rep. Jason Conger of Bend, has been promoting himself as the real conservative in the race and has been emphasizing his opposition to abortion rights. Wehby has said that she supports a woman's right to choose.

It's not often that a candidate for U.S. Senate takes the stage after performing brain surgery. So it wasn't surprising that pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby was greeted with awe at a recent GOP campaign event in King City. "Dr. Wehby did two cranials this morning," says moderator Billie Reynolds, beaming at the candidate running for the seat held by Democrat Jeff Merkley. "We're fortunate to have someone with her gifts willing to put herself on the line for politics." Wehby is used to such welcomes from Republicans in Oregon as well as Washington, D.C., who think she just might have...

Portland pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby, continuing to separate herself from the four other Republican Senate candidates on the abortion issue, told a GOP forum in Baker City that she was personally pro-life but did not want the government involved in a woman's decision on whether to have one.“I believe this is a personal decision between a women and her family, not a woman and the federal government,” said Wehby, according to the Baker City Herald. Wehby and the four other Republican candidates -- state Rep. Jason Conger of Bend, Portland attorney Tim Crawley, former Linn County Chair Jo Rae Perkins...

In an aggressive move, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) issued a memorandum highlighting the GOP's widening 2014 Senate battle map into blue state stronghold Oregon. The memo cited new polling that reveals first term Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley is "incredibly vulnerable, far more so than most suspected." The poll, conducted by Harper Polling, found that Merkley's favorables are just 39% and under 50% on the ballot. Oregon has not elected a Republican to statewide office in over a decade. Republicans, however, believe the GOP primary will produce a candidate who can beat Merkley in a state whose disastrous Obamacare...

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. (AP) — The GOP is making a bold play for a U.S. Senate seat in reliably Democratic Oregon, where a Republican hasn't been elected to a statewide office in more than a decade. Republicans back in Washington think they've found the right candidate in Monica Wehby, a children's brain surgeon who's raised more than $1 million and put her early opposition to President Barack Obama's health care law at the center of her campaign. The race is shaping up to be a strong test of the GOP strategy of relentlessly using the health law against Democrats in...

The GOP is making a bold play for a U.S. Senate seat in reliably Democratic Oregon, where a Republican hasn’t been elected to a statewide office in more than a decade. Republicans back in Washington think they’ve found the right candidate in Monica Wehby, a children’s brain surgeon who’s raised more than $1 million and put her early opposition to President Barack Obama’s health care law at the center of her campaign. […] Wehby faces four other Republicans, most notably state Rep. Jason Conger of Bend, a lawyer who’s promoting his conservative credentials and his experience representing a district that,...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the Beltway GOP Establishment has been pushing a liberal, pro-abortion candidate in the U.S. Senate Primary here in Oregon. I talked about how the tired narrative that somehow we have to be more liberal to win elections remains alive and well in DC circles and how the “experts” – including Karl Rove, Saxby Chambliss, Susan Collins, and Richard Burr — do not believe that a conservative pro-life candidate can win in Oregon. They think they know better than those of us fighting here in the trenches. Well, a new Harper poll just...

*Promoted from the diaries – Aaron* The national narrative today suggests that the chances of the Republican Party taking over the Senate in November are increasing as the map of competitive races expands. One of the states that the pundits are increasingly talking about is Oregon. If you are listening to the Beltway establishment, including Rove, you would think that there is only one Republican candidate running in Oregon — Dr. Monica Wehby. The problem with this is two-fold: 1) Monica Wehby is not the only candidate running for the Republican nomination 2) Monica Wehby is a liberal Republican and...