Tonight, Jeff Merkley Stood Up For Oregon's Middle Class While Monica Wehby Embraced Koch Brothers' Agenda

Press Release

While Jeff Merkley was clear about his fight for Oregon's middle class during tonight's debate on KOBI TV, Oregonians saw Monica Wehby try, but fail to brand herself as a different kind of Republican and refuse to answer basic questions about the deepening plagiarism scandal that has consumed her whole campaign.

Monica Wehby tried to distance herself from the big oil billionaire Koch brothers who propped up her campaign and the national Republicans whose policy positions she copied word-for-word, but in then end, Wehby did nothing to distract voters from the fact that she has fully embraced the national Republicans' pro-billionaire, anti-middle class agenda. Instead, she even doubled down on issues like her opposition to a federal minimum wage.

Here is how Jeff Merkley put it tonight during the debate's most memorable exchange:

"Dr. Wehby says she's independent minded but we've seen over the course of this campaign that she's turning to a right wing kitchen cabinet. She lifted her health care plan from Karl Rove, virtually word for word. She proceeded to take her tax plan from Mitt Romney that makes it cheaper and easier to ship our jobs overseas. She took the rest of her economic plan, her environmental plan from the Koch brothers. The Koch brothers, the Koch brothers are one of the biggest polluters in the country and want to have a setup where the Clean Air Act is gutted so you can't control pollution from coal-fired power plants. Certainly these are extreme advisors, these are extreme sets of policies and it is not the Oregon values."

On issue after issue, Monica Wehby's agenda is identical to national Republicans and the Koch brothers, who have single-handedly kept Wehby's campaign afloat with millions of dollars in false attack ads.

"Tonight, Oregonians witnessed Monica Wehby try, but fail to distract voters from the anti-middle class agenda she plagiarized from national Republicans and copied from the oil billionaire Koch brothers," said Merkley campaign spokeswoman Lindsey O'Brien. "Wehby continued her month-long refusal to answer basic questions about the plagiarism scandal that has blown up her campaign, and it was clear to viewers tonight where Wehby really stands -- with national Republicans, her billionaire special-interest backers, and against the minimum wage. Jeff Merkley's fight for Oregon's priorities and our middle class have made him the clear choice in this election, and tonight's debate thoroughly confirmed that."

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