Oregon Live reports

Smith spokeswoman Lindsay Gilbride, who last week said that “we do not think Brownlow will impact the race,” said in an e-mail message Friday that “Dave Brownlow is a candidate in this race and voters deserve to know his positions – which are actually quite liberal.”

“I think it is great,” Brownlow said of Smith’s attack on him. “They are scared…He mathematically can’t win this race until he grabs every conservative vote from me.”

The TV ad portrays Brownlow as “just too liberal,” saying he wants to try President Bush for war crimes and abolish prisons. An accompanying radio ad also charges that Brownlow supports gay marriage. Brownlow says he does believe America’s incarceration rate is too high and that he thinks marriage should be turned over to religious authorities. But he says he believes in traditional marriage.

Brownlow is a little-known industrial automation salesman who has spent virtually nothing on his campaign. But polls suggest he could be getting as much as 8 percent of the vote, and there is apparently fear in the Smith camp that many of those votes may be coming from conservatives who would otherwise support the Republican senator.

In a press release emailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com, the Brownlow campaign responds:

Clackamas, OR – Gordon Smith, desperate to flee from a miserable record of failure rung up during his twelve years in the senate, has launched a media blitz

calling DAVE BROWNLOW, Candidate for U.S. Senate, a “liberal.” The BROWNLOW campaign, which has refused to pay for any radio or TV spots, offers our heartfelt thanks to the Smith folks for the free airtime.

BROWNLOW said, “To be called a ‘liberal’ by one of the biggest spending oath-breakers in the U.S Senate is a rare gift. During Gordon Smith’s failed tenure, the federal budget and debt nearly doubled. The banker buddy/auto maker/Wall Street bailouts were the equivalent of economic terrorism launched against the American people. In just the last six months, Gordon has voted to approve dozens of unconstitutional spending bills that disqualify him from ever serving again in the U.S. Senate. By every indication, Gordon Smith has never even read the Constitution he swore an oath to defend.”

“To the point of the ads; Bush’s two unconstitutional wars (which Smith supported and funded) have led to the deaths of over 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians, and who knows how many dead Afghanis. Are war crimes tribunals in order for those responsible for unleashing this carnage? Absolutely!”

“On prisons, should we be proud that we incarcerate our fellow Americans at a per capita rate over six times greater than the rest of the world? Or, that many of those rotting away in jail are there for non-violent drug and political ‘crimes’? The phony ‘war on drugs’, and the equally phony ‘war on terror’ have taken a terrible toll on our liberties. Ignoring this reality will not make the problem go away.”

“I can certainly understand his desperation. Smith tried to steal Senator Wyden’s endorsement and got slapped down hard. He tried to hang on to the coattails of his old buddy, Barrack Obama, who proceeded to throw him under the bus. Smith blew over $20 million on a juvenile media assault against Jeff Merkley, the other big spending liberal in this race, and he came up looking petty. Smith fought for, and won, an endorsement from a homosexual organization called the Log Cabin Republicans, but now wants to run away from them. Smith’s handlers have discovered the mathematical impossibility of him winning this election unless he takes every conservative vote from me. It looks like he may have waited too long to attempt his extreme makeover.”

“I have been called a lot of names, but ‘liberal’ isn’t one of them. I have called for the complete dismantling of the welfare/warfare state. I have called for a constitutional budget, which would cut federal spending by 85%. I propose that we move Social Security and Medicare back [to] the states and the people. I have called for shutting down the private banking cartel called the Federal Reserve. I have called for abolishing the IRS. I started a pro-life group called Life Support, my motto is “No Abortions, No Excuses”, and I have a couple of trips through our kangaroo court system as proof. My second amendment motto (I received an ‘A’ grade from Gun Owners of America) is ‘the only guns we can ban are the ones that require towing.’ If that is the new definition of liberal, mark me down as one – please!”

“In one of the recent debates, Gordon Smith touted his 50% rating against the other senators. Where I come from, 50% is an F – which is exactly the failing grade Oregonians are going to give Gordon Smith on November 4th. It is time to send this big spending, oath-breaking, conservative imposter back to Pendleton. Our economy, our country, and frankly, the world, will be much safer without Gordon Smith in the U.S Senate.”