It was a harrowing night. I barely made it to industrial NW Portland—where state Rep. Jeff Merkley was holding a fundraiser at MacTarnahan’s Tap Room for his US Senate bid—thanks to drama on the bus. Halfway between the Rose Garden and the tap room, cops boarded the #77 to bust a guy and gal in the back, who were apparently dealing drugs. Wheee!

Half an hour late to the fundraiser, I walked in as Senator Jon Tester, the former state senator from Montana who unseated the incumbent Republican Senator last year, was speaking on Merkley’s behalf. Merkley—who also wants to unseat an incumbent Republican—had already given his stump speech, which one attendee described as particularly fiery for the usually subdued Merkley.

Tester urged those in attendance to do whatever Merkley needed them to do for his campaign. “If you do your job, we get one hell of a guy” in the Senate next year, Tester said. “Who’s our next Senator? Jeff Merkley!”

The funny thing is, I bet Merkley’s primary opponent, Steve Novick, sees a lot of himself in Tester, the grassroots candidate in Montana who went on to win. Tester’s primary opponent in Montana last year had better statewide name recognition, and the backing of the national Democratic party (sorta like Merkley). Tester and his opponent were close in the polls (so are Merkley and Novick, at least when polled against incumbent Gordon Smith). Tester, however, didn’t raise as much money as his opponent—here in Oregon, Novick and Merkley were close in fundraising at the end of last quarter. We’ll see how they’ve done this quarter in a few weeks.

But, Tester’s backing Merkley, and flew out here to help launch the Farmers for Merkley group, and to stump for him at the crowded $50-per-person fundraiser. After urging supporters to help out with the campaign, he split the crowd down the middle, and got one half of the room to yell “Jeff!” and the other to yell “Merkley!” a few times.

Then former governor Barbara Roberts took the microphone: “I want you to think about election night 2008. I want you to think about a new president!” The crowd cheered. “I want you to think about sending Gordon Smith back to Pendleton!”

She, too, urged everyone there to pull out all the stops—and their checkbooks—for Merkley. “This is the most important race in Oregon. What they did in Montana, we can do in Oregon.”