It's interesting that Oregon state Senator Jeff Merkley is ranked as the 2nd most progressive member of the senate by their measure but faced very few effective attacks for being a bleeding heart liberal in his last election.

He certainly isn't viewed as extreme by your average Oregonian and you would think that Republicans would have slandered his as much as they could to encourage turnout.

His opponent did run an absolutely terrible campaign, just epically off the rails and the Oregon Republican party is in shambles, fielding only comically implausible candidates. All the same you'd think I'd know what kind of damn liberal scum I was voting for.