OR-Sen: Jeff Merkley Shares Our Values

Just finished up a blogger conference call with Jeff Merkley, Oregon's next US Senator. I met Merkley during the campaign and found him to be a solid progressive advocate with a background in international relations and diplomacy, so I think he'll be a good voice for our views in the Senate. Matt Stoller has a write-up, but I should mention that the very first thing Merkley said was that he wanted to do something about renewing our moral standing in the world, by dealing with illegal wiretapping, Guantanamo, torture and secret prisons. You just don't see many politicians willing to foreground that in such a way, and it impressed me.

Specifically, I asked Merkley about what he'd want to see in a second stimulus package if it's not finished during a lame-duck session, and he immediately said "I don't want to mail people $300 checks." He discussed the need for infrastructure and green energy projects immediately, which would create millions of jobs and stimulate the manufacturing side of the economy. He also would like to fold President-Elect Obama's proposals for middle class tax relief and eliminating tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas into whatever immediate stimulus emerges. And he said, "ending the war in Iraq will enable us to free up some money for these programs at home." That was very solid as well. In addition, when I saw him in LA during the campaign, he remarked that he would lose his health insurance provided by the state of Oregon (he was House speaker) if he lost the election - so I congratulated him on staying out of the ranks of the uninsured. Chris Rock said that it's good to elect leaders who can "see broke... they don't have to be broke, but they should be able to see broke." Merkley hasn't lost touch with where he's come from. And health care reform is definitely on his agenda.

I don't think we'll have much trouble holding Merkley to these promises. He wants to remain engaged with the netroots, and I think he'll be very approachable in the future.