Gordon Smith Concedes

By Ron Beasley

Oregon Republican Senator Gordon Smith has conceded to Democrat Jeff Merkley.

Republican Gordon Smith, who has represented Oregon in the U.S. Senate for the last 12 years, this morning called Jeff Merkley, his Democratic challenger, to concede their race.

Jon Isaacs, an aide to Merkley, said that Smith called Merkley about 8:40 a.m. to concede the hard-fought race, which came down to a few thousand votes. Isaacs described the conversation between the two men as "very cordial."

It would appear that Merkley will receive 48% of the votes to Smith's 46% with Constitution Party candidate Brownlow receiving 5%, most of which was taken from Smith.  Brownlow said that Smith was not conservative enough and that he ran to make sure Smith would lose.