OR-1 Special Election: Oregon Votes To Replace David Wu

Bitterly Fought Congressional Race Nears Conclusion

Both parties have flooded airwaves in Oregon's first congressional district with attack ads ahead of Tuesday's special election to replace disgraced Rep. David Wu (D) who resigned last year because of a sex scandal.

Democrat and former state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici is running against Rob Cornilles, a sports business consultant, in the nation's first congressional election of 2012.

According to Yahoo News, the Democratic Party and its supporters have worked hard to make sure the district stays in friendly hands by pumping more than $1 million dollars into campaign ads -- a spending level that far outpaces either candidate's campaign.

The party seems worried about losing another safely Democratic seat due to scandal. Republican Bob Turner defeated the Democrats in a special election last September for New York Rep. Anthony Weiner's seat after the congressman was caught sending lewd photos of himself to women.

Corinilles' campaign fired back against the DNC ads last week with his own negative ad that attempted to tie Bonamici to Wu by claiming her husband worked in 2004 to cover up another sex scandal from Wu's past.

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According to the Oregonian, early voter returns Monday favor Bonamici. They showed that significantly more Democrats had returned ballots.

In four counties -- which account for 94 percent of the ballots returned -- Democrats have returned approximately 67,000 ballots, Republicans about 50,000 and independents and minor-party voters have brought in around 25,000 ballots.

The early results are good news for Bonamici, whose Democratic Party holds a 12-percentage-point lead on registered voters in the district. If Cornilles hopes to win, he will need to capture a large number of those independent and Democratic ballots.

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