U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) leads Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) among Oregon voters 47 percent to 39 percent, a new poll conducted by Rasmussen finds.

That is a stark turnaround from what the poll found in July, when Rasmussen reported that Merkley had a slight lead over Smith. While those numbers prompted the Merkley campaign to call the poll historic, the revelation of these numbers brought on a little more of a subdued mood from the Smith campaign.

"There will be many polls between now and Election Day,” Smith spokeswoman Lindsay Gilbride said. “This is a competitive race. Senator Smith is campaigning hard and we expect a victory in November."

Calls to the Merkley campaign were not immediately returned.

The poll was conducted by telephone to 500 likely voters on August 7, and has a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percentage points.