Old-guard Democratic establishment candidate Jeff Merkley raised $619,000 from October through December. That brings his campaign total to $913,000, with $528,000 cash on hand.
Underdog wunderkind Steve Novick raised $219,000 in the last quarter. His campaign has raised $541,000 since entering the race and has $292,000 cash on hand.
As per the usual, Register-Guard reporter David Steves chimes in on his blog with some of the best coverage, including reactions from all the campaigns.
Steves' report puts more focus on the Democrats in the contested primary fight, and he does a pretty good job of putting into proper perspective the Merkley camp's "record-breaking" claims:
Merkley’s campaign says its fourth-quarter figure, combined with its third-quarter numbers, push him to a record start in raising cash in an Oregon Senate challenger’s first two quarters. That’s a stat that even a baseball stat freak would struggle to love - from the mid-60s to the 1990s, Oregon’s two senators didn’t draw serious opposition. And since Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden entered the Senate in 1996, only once had either faced a full-fledged challenger. That was Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, who lost to Smith in 2002. Bradbury raised $562,000 in his first two quarters. Hence the claim of a record.Oregonian reporter Jeff Mapes also offers some interesting perspective:
It's just getting interesting, folks. Looks like it's gonna be a wild ride.
What will the winner do if Smith goes on the attack with a big-dollar advertising campaign just weeks after the primary? That's just what the senator did six years ago with a series of ads that dismembered Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, who didn't have the money to respond.
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