Oregon News by Alex Isenstadt

To say Monday has been a rough day for 5th Congressional District candidate Mike Erickson’s campaign is probably something of an understatement.

[img_assist|nid=2201|title=Former U.S. Senate. candidate Steve Novick|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=200|height=228]WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick was the recipient of kind words today from an unlikely source: U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

A nonpartisan analyst said today that Republican U.S. House candidate Kevin Mannix’s distribution of a woman’s allegations that primary rival Mike Erickson provided funds for her to get an abortion did not change the fundamental contours of the race.

“Most people in the mainstream press will treat the allegations as unsubstantiated and they won’t get that much play,” said David Wasserman, who monitors House races for the Cook Political Report.

WASHINGTON – Democratic leaders today said they were optimistic about their prospects for holding the U.S. House seat of retiring Congresswoman Darlene Hooley and of winning Republican Gordon Smith’s U.S. Senate seat.

Chuck Schumer, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, suggested that Smith, who is expected to face off in the November general election against House Speaker Jeff Merkley or activist Steve Novick, was failing to distance himself from President Bush.