BY SARAH ROSS

PORTLAND- An internal poll released Wednesday brings into question the electoral safety of long time Senator Ron Wyden.

Portland based polling firm, Moore Information, made public their survey results paid for by the Huffman campaign which showed that 37% of Oregonians support a GOP candidate for Sen. Wyden’s seat while 36% favored the incumbent Democratic Party. Twenty-eight percent of respondents remained undecided, as of when the survey was performed on July 10^th.

The poll questioned a “representative sample of 500 likely voters in Oregon” and had a 4 percent sampling error with a 95 percent confidence level.

Moore also found that 44 percent of respondents believed Sen. Wyden deserves reelection today while 45 percent would prefer a new candidate and 11 percent are still unsure.

The survey also found that after mentioning a number of statements about Huffman’s background and views, he led over Wyden with 47 percent to 38 percent.

In addition to the questions regarding the Senatorial race, Moore also questioned respondents on a number of national issues.

The poll showed that 59 percent of Oregonians believe the country is on the wrong track while 29 percent think America’s headed in the right direction.

Republican senatorial candidate, Jim Huffman

Further, 45 percent of respondents approved of President Obama’s performance and 50 percent disapproved of the job he’s doing. This is compared to the daily Gallup poll which puts Obama’s approval at 44 percent and disapproval at 48 percent as of July 15th.

In the memo to the Huffman Campaign, Bob Moore, President of Moore Information, said Sen. Wyden is vulnerable because “he is an incumbent U.S. Senator in an election year where many voters are demanding a change in congressional leadership.”

Moore also said that Wyden’s voting history does not match the views of Oregonians on issues including Cap and Trade, federal spending and the deficit, health care reform, immigration, and terrorism.

“Huffman is in a position to retire Senator Wyden because his views on these issues are more in-line with the mainstream of the Oregon electorate,” said Moore.

Sen. Wyden has served in the U.S. Senate since 1996 and was reelected in 2004 with 63 percent of the vote. A Rasmussen poll released at the end of May found Wyden leading with support from 51 percent of respondents to Huffman’s 38 percent.

In a release sent to the press on Thursday, Jake Weigler, campaign manager for the Wyden campaign said the poll memo “failed to provide an unbiased head-to-head comparison between Wyden and Huffman,” pointing to the method of polling respondents only after providing information about the candidates.

“Huffman and Moore are releasing laughable poll numbers to distract reporters from their as-yet unreleased fundraising numbers due out today,” said Weigler in Thursday’s release. In the same release, Weigler noted that Wyden has thus far raised $977,000 for the quarter ending on June 30^th.

The Huffman campaign, however, saw the poll numbers as positive.

“I am confident in Bob Moore, who’s been polling for almost as long as Ron Wyden’s been in Washington, DC,” said Huffman’s campaign spokesman, John Vinson. “He’s one of the most well respected pollsters in the Northwest and in the country.”

Vinson noted that running against Sen. Wyden is not an easy task but that the “people of Oregon want a new voice in Washington to stand up for them and who really isn’t interested in a Washington, DC career, but is interested in bringing jobs back to Oregon.”

DISCLOSURE: Jim Huffman is an unpaid academic advisor for the Cascade Policy Institute, parent organization of the Oregon Politico.

BY SARAH ROSS

PORTLAND- The latest Rasmussen poll regarding Oregon’s race for U.S. Senate released Wednesday showed a large lead for Democratic incumbent Senator Ron Wyden.

Sen. Wyden showed strength with 51 percent of support among respondents, while Republican candidate Jim Huffman drew support from 38 percent of respondents.

This poll showed an increase of support for both Wyden and Huffman from the last poll on the race which came out in February. February’s poll numbers were 49 percent for Wyden and 35 percent for Huffman.

Wednesday’s poll had 4 percent of respondents favoring another candidate and 7 percent still undecided. Rasmussen polled 500 likely voters for this poll and had a 4.5 percent margin of error.

According to the article Rasmussen released with the poll, incumbent candidates with less that 50 percent of support at this time before the election are considered politically vulnerable, which is good news for Oregon’s senior Senator.

Sen. Wyden was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 and was reelected with 63 percent of the vote in 2004.

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BY SARAH ROSS

PORTLAND- In his official announcement to run for the United States Senate, Jim Huffman made clear Thursday that the focus of his campaign is job creation.

“What we need is more jobs for Oregonians,” Huffman said to his supporters gathered at Halton Trucking Company in Northeast Portland.

The campaign platform Huffman presented consists of economic freedom, lower government spending, and private-sector job creation.

In his campaign brochure, he stated, “The Washington DC power elites said their TARP bailout and their stimulus spending would save the economy. What they really sought was to save their own jobs with handouts to favored business and political supporters. We need government to work for ‘We the People’ again.”

Huffman emphasized reforming Washington by bringing in fewer career politicians and more “people with real world experience.” In his speech he cited statistics showing that only 18% of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing, and 80% believe the government is broken.

Huffman is running as a Republican against Oregon’s senior senator, Ron Wyden, who has served as a Democrat in Congress since 1981. Also running against Wyden is Libertarian candidate Marc Delphine, active in the state’s tea party movement and Bend businessman, Sam Carpenter.

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BY SARAH ROSS

PORTLAND- Lewis and Clark Law Professor, Jim Huffman, has scheduled his announcement to run for Ron Wyden’s US Senate seat for Thursday, March 4th.

Huffman has been rumored for weeks to be the GOP’s choice candidate to run against Wyden in this coming November’s senatorial election. A facebook event created by the Huffman for US Senate campaign confirms that the professor will be challenging Oregon’s Senior Senator.

“The Jim Huffman campaign will be about the PEOPLE OF OREGON who are struggling while an out of touch political class uses the economic crisis to grab power and enrich their special interest patrons. The grass roots will be a huge part of this campaign, and so it is vital that we show up in force to support Jim in his kickoff,” said the campaign in its event notice.

Born and raised in Montana, Huffman earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Science from Montana State University after which he earned degrees from Tufts University and the University Of Chicago School Of Law. He joined Lewis and Clark Law School’s faculty in 1973 and has been a visiting professor at numerous universities in Oregon and abroad.

The polling firm, Rasmussen Reports released polling numbers last week comparing the support amongst voters for Wyden and Huffman. In the poll, Wyden lead over Huffman by 14% with 9% of voters undecided.

Wyden has represented Oregonians in the US Senate since 1996 and currently serves as the Chairman over two Senate Subcommittees.