In the DailyKos post, she says,  "As of right now, the race is neck-and-neck.  But, there are 150,000 ballots left to be counted in Multnomah County and 90,000 left to be counted in Lane county. In case anyone isn't familiar with Oregon, Multnomah County is the Portland Metro area and Lane County is the Eugene area where University of Oregon is located."

Current results (last updated at 4:34 p.m.) from the Secretary of State office show that Smith is leading by a very small margin:

Gordon H Smith (Republican) - 686,681 - 47.21% Jeff Merkley (Democrat) - 685,408 - 47.12%

The latest Summary Report from Multnomah County shows that they are still counting. The Summary Report, which was last updated at 6:10 p.m., shows 240,498 ballots counted. Their turnout was reported last night at 360,551. Merkley is winning that county, 66 percent, compared to Smith's 29 percent.

The Oregonian has joined KPTV in projecting Jeff Merkley as the winner. UPDATE: Merkley plans to claim victory tomorrow, November 6th. His campaign manager, Jon Issacs, sent out an email to campaign staff announcing the event: "Tomorrow, the Merkley campaign will be holding an event to celebrate this occasion. I invite you to join Jeff Merkley at the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State at 9:30 a.m. to mark this historic moment."

This race is one of four Senate seats that are still up for grabs. In Minnesota, incumbent Norm Coleman is embattled with SNL writer and political activist Al Franken for his seat. Reports say that a recount will automatically be initiated in that race. In Georgia, a run-off election will take place between Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democratic contender Jim Martin. In Alaska, Republican Senator Ted Stevens is in a close race to retain his seat with Democrat Mark Begich.

Election Night projections

KPTV FOX 12 has called the election relatively for Jeff Merkley. Neither KATU nor CNN are calling the race. KPTV's political analyst, Tim Hibbitts says that yet-uncounted ballots in Multnomah County will put Merkley over the top.

However, Gordon Smith did not concede. In a speech given at 11 p.m., he made it clear he believed a winner would not be clear that night.

Shortly after Smith's speech, Jeff Merkley took the stage. During his "thank you" speech, he agreed that the winner would not be chosen that night.

About the Race

The race between Speaker of the Oregon House Jeff Merkley and incumbent Republican Senator Gordon Smith was nothing if not interesting. After Merkley screeched ahead of political activist Steve Novick in the primary, and the two teamed up to begin an assault on Smith that continued until the last possible moment. Merkley used his national party's talking points to combine Smith with the unpopular Bush administration policies.

Smith also chose to follow in the footsteps of his party's nominee by running ads about his independence. Stopping short of declaring himself a maverick, Smith ran multiple ads with prominent Democrats, like Senator Ted Kennedy and even Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. The Democrats focused on rebutting the claims of independence from the beginning.

Former Vice President Al Gore, Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Ron Wyden, and even Obama stepped into the campaign to help unseat Smith. Smith's attempt to be perceived independent from his national party prevented much help from the leadership. Instead, Smith used RNC financing to produce a number of his television spots.

The public backlash of the overly negative campaigning may have hurt both parties, but Smith has suffered the most from it. Smith and the Republican party recently released a mailer about Constitution Party candidate Dave Brownlow, calling him "too liberal." Unfortunately for Smith, that mailer also backfired, leaving him facing two opponents claiming "untruths" in his ads.

In a press release response,  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 he supported 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 totaling over $2 trillion 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."

The goal for Jeff Merkley was to convince voters that Gordon Smith was not a good partner for Senator Ron Wyden in Washington.