IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Greg Eddleston – geddleston@dwd.org / (503) 228.6079

ELI STUTSMAN AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT TO MEDIA 2:30-3:15 PM

Law Offices, 621 SW Morrison, 13^th Floor

Portland, OR --- In today’s Oregonian, Senator Gordon Smith said he was “not a poll-taking politician” when the issue of his opposition to Oregon’s Death with Dignity law was questioned.

But that doesn’t ring true for one person polled this summer by Gordon Smith’s campaign measuring public opinion on death with dignity to determine how the Senator should characterize his opposition.

Portland Attorney Eli Stutsman, political strategist in the 1994 and 1997 death with dignity campaigns and the attorney who defended Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law in Lee v. Oregon, and is currently working on appeal in Oregon v. Ashcroft, received a call from Smith’s pollster this summer.

“Polls are done with sample sizes of a few hundred people. Gordon Smith has the amazing misfortune of polling me on how he should respond to his opposition to death with dignity,” as Board President for Oregon Death with Dignity, the advocacy organization that passed the law, Stutsman has done more polling on this issue than perhaps any other person in Oregon.

“As someone who knows how to craft polls, I’m always intrigued to be called on one.  The poll was obviously testing Smith’s opposition to death with dignity and what the best response would be.  We’ve always anticipated he would say his opposition was “principled” and that he would expect voters to give him a pass on it, despite their overwhelming support for the issue. But how principled is a poll-tested response from a politician claiming not to be a poll-taker?” Stutsman asked.

“Smith’s personal opposition to the issue should not be the issue – we always respect a person’s personal views – but the fact he actively works against the citizens of his state in Congress and supports John Ashcroft’s effort to overturn the law, that should be a problem for Oregon voters,” Stutsman added.

FOR MORE ON SMITH’S OPPOSITION go to www.3peasinapod.org

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