PORTLAND -- Former Gov. Barbara Roberts spearheaded an effort on Monday to discredit U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith’s (R-Pendleton) attack ad against U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland), which accuses Merkley of being soft on crime by voting against a bill that increased the statute of limitations.

Roberts, Democratic legislators including Tina Kotek (D-Portland), and Maria Peyerwold, a child rape victim and Merkley campaign volunteer, gathered to condemn Smith for what they called vicious, untrue attacks against Merkley’s record.

“I’ve run for office and been the subject of negative ads,” Roberts said. “I know politics can be rough, but I have never seen anything like Gordon Smith’s attack on Jeff Merkley in Oregon.”

Roberts told the crowd of about 30 gathered outside of Merkley’s campaign headquarters in Portland that the Oregon House Speaker had repeatedly voted to extend the statute of limitations, and that the one
vote the Smith campaign was singling out was not symbolic of Merkley’s record.

“The law that is in place today, Jeff Merkley voted for,” Roberts said.

Smith campaign spokeswoman Lindsay Gilbride said that Roberts was mistaken and that the bill Merkley was against, which increased the statute of limitations in place for a minor from six to 12 years, is the one that is in place today.

Roberts also read a statement from Congresswoman Darlene Hooley, (D-West Linn), who said Smith’s campaign tactics were “desperate,” and would only cause more Oregonians to look toward Merkley to bring the state forward.

A half-dozen other community leaders, including Democratic and Republican Attorney General candidate John Kroger, President of the Oregon State Police Officer’s Association Jeff Leighty, International Organizers for Victim Assistance Marlene Young and John Stein, made statements on Merkley’s behalf.

Merkley campaign spokesman Matt Canter stressed that if elected, Merkley had already put together policy that would add 50,000 police officers to the streets, crack down on online sex offenders, and fully fund the Victims of Crime Act, which Canter said the Bush administration had failed to do.

Peyerwold, whose attacker has yet to be caught, said she chose to help the Merkley campaign because she believed he would address issues that were important to her and others.

“Jeff Merkley has been talking about the real issues that face Oregon families like mine,” Peyerwold said. “I know he will continue to do so despite Gordon Smith’s best efforts to smear him.”