When incumbent U.S. Senator Gordon Smith dropped the ball on Oregon rural county timber payments earlier this year, he opened a door to rural voter support normally closed to his Democratic challengers.  It's not as if Smith angered rural voters by voting against a bill providing timber payments like his Republican colleague U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, but it was his lack of leadership many found alarming. 

Beating Smith to the punch, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden drafted a timber payment amendment to a military spending bill that ultimately failed, but it still gave Wyden the appearance of trying to help the budget strapped rural counties who depended on those payments.  At that moment, Smith's rural base seemed to have lost enough confidence to give Democrats a closer look this election season.

Fast forward to today and now we see Smith's challenger Democrat Jeff Merkley launching his "100 Towns Tour for Change" effort to garner support from rural county voters for the November election.  It appears those rural counties are paying attention to Merkley according to an East Oregonian editorial opinion, but they want a few more specifics on the Merkley plan before providing their full consideration.

The editorial compared Merkley's need to capture Oregon rural support to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's need to campaign "through the conservative heart of rural Missouri."  As campaign season gears up for the post-Labor Day rush, Merkley will have to put serious effort into rural areas if he wants to take out a 12-year incumbent Senator.  Watch closely for his "specifics" to be put down on paper.