The Senate seat for the western state of Oregon is currently held by a former Mormon bishop who became a self-made millionaire by turning his family's unprofitable frozen vegetable processing company into one of the largest frozen food companies in the country. He is a Republican in a state in which the Governor; Senior Senator and four of the five congressmen are Democrats. Gordon Smith is fighting to gain a third term. He is a closely related to the Udall family. Smith is one of the few Senate Republicans to vocally oppose the Iraq war - and has been Senator Kennedy's chief co-sponsor of the hate crimes bill. His website is http://www.gordonsmith.com/ Challenging him is Jeff Merkley, the Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. In the 1980s he worked in Washington, first in the Office of the Secretary of Defense; then in the Congressional Budget Office. His official campaign website is http://www.jeffmerkley.com/
