Then Smith released a TV spot pointing out how moderate he is by featuring endorsements from former U.S. Representative Elizabeth Furse, and State Senator Avel Gordly, who are both Democrats. The goal of this ad is to point out how well Senator Smith works with Democrats.

But there are a couple problems with it. The first being that Elizabeth Furse mentions that Senator Smith was "one of the first to stand up to George Bush and other Republicans to end this war." However, Senator Smith's voting record shows that he has voted for every war bill that was brought before the Senate. Furse's support comes from a vote that Gordon Smith made in December 2007 after the Democrats took the majority in Congress. The vote was for an appropriations bill that included a timetable to withdrawal. The bill that ended up being passed did not include the timetable.

State Senator Avel Gordly renounced her Democratic party affiliation in 2006. In April of this year, she announced that she was re-registering as a Democrat to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama. But will she stay in the party after the general election? She's not ready to commit, she told The Oregonian in April: "I'll assess where the party is, where the Oregon Party is in terms of leadership."

The point of including her in the TV spot is lost when you see that she isn't a big supporter of Democrats. Other factors to consider is that she endorsed Republican John Lim over Ron Wyden in 1998, and endorsed Gordon Smith in 2002 after he voted for the war.

US Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, Darlene Hooley and David Wu came out against this ad, releasing a joint statement: "After watching Gordon Smith's new television ad featuring Elizabeth Furse and Avel Gordly we feel compelled to respond and to help set the record straight: Gordon Smith was not one of the first to speak out against the war. It was only after the resounding rejection of the failed Bush agenda at the ballot box in 2006 that Gordon Smith revealed that he harbored second thoughts about the war. Any previous consternation, on his part, was concealed from his constituents and those of us that were fighting to change this disastrous policy." Read the full statement

A recent KATU report has audio on Senator Smith's response. Smith says that the 2006 elections did not change his mind on the war. He also told KATU that he was "against the war during the 2006 campaign season, but he chose not to speak out about it for fear that his position would be used for partisan benefits." The full video of the KATU report is below:

Smith faces off against Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley in November. In Rasmussen Reports polls released on June 11, Smith leads challenger Merkley 47 to 38 percent.