when the first round of news about stalking allegations dropped on friday, may 16th, that was four days before the primary and by four days before the primary in the past three primary elections. by that point half of the ballots cast in those elections had been filled out and returned. well, that same day, friday may 16th, was the last day that voters could mail in their ballots but had until 8 p.m. to drop them off in those cute drop boxes across the state. all the results are in and monica wehby has won with 54% of the vote against jason conger. that means monica will be the republican nominee for u.s. senate in oregon and will face jeff merkley in the fall. in terms of the overall contest, now she has the nomination, there s question as to whether the news that broke in the primary process may affect her in the general election and republicans feel confident about that race.
by russ fulcher. bill schuster only got 52% of the vote. i wonder if some tea party groups wonder if they picked the wrong guys to target. and physician monica wehby easily defeated jason conger. the race will likely center on oregon s unpopular health care exchange. in her victory speech last night, she took the time to take on charges. over the last several days there have been a lot of vicious, ugly, hurtful attacks. the lord knows that i am not
to answer the second question first. the first question did we play any role in bringing it to the attention of the press. the answer is absolutely not. in fact, i can tell you that we did not invest in, in opposition research of my opponent. because as naive as this might sound i set out to make this a clean campaign abouter use. i think that was a huge mistake in hindsight. well that was by far the most honest thing said on this election night so far, or gun state representative, jason conger. thank you for your time. appreciate it. thank you, chris. joining me, the communications director for progressive pac, emily any list, and a senior political writer for buzz feed. all right, how do you follow that? how do you follow that? a very honest thing to say. you are a political operative. do you think the wehby stuff has been fair game, coming from emily slist if that was a candidate.
jeff merkley. last week the first in a pair of stunning revelations, the two men, ex-husband and boyfriend, accused webhy of stalking. and the tea party line state senator won the support of social conservatives now watching election results come in from oregon. and jason conger joins me on phone. what role did social issues and your opposition to abortion and wehby s support for abortion play in the primary do you think? well i think it was probably one key factor in in the, the d.c. establishment decision to support monica. and i think it was a significant factor in in my grassroots support here in oregon. you know, there is our, our polling, which i think is pretty indisputable on this. shows most oregonian voters, are
the vote against jason conger. that means monica will be the republican nominee for u.s. senate in oregon and will face jeff merkley in the fall. in terms of the overall contest, now she has the nomination, there s question as to whether the news that broke in the primary process may affect her in the general election and republicans feel confident about that race. if the republican party has a particularly big year nationwide, if 2014 is a republican wave year, they think jeff merkley might be vulnerable. i have to say it would be a huge upset if the republicans are right about this since a republican has not won statewide office of any kind in oregon since the year 2002. joining us now is len bergstein. thank you for being with us tochblt appreciate your time. nice to be with you. thank you very much. let me ask you about the late-breaking revelations that