Thanks for the memories, George and Dick, John and John.

We'll miss you, Laura and Teresa. And all of you movie stars, rock singers and other surrogates who spent months traveling to Oregon trying to get us to vote for either George Bush or John Kerry, along with their running mates, Dick Cheney and John Edwards.

Those visits have come to a halt, along with a drop in the volume of television ads trying to influence Oregonians' vote in the presidential election.

With less than a week to go in the race, the candidates' and the political world's attention are focused on the tossup states with the richest caches of Electoral College votes: Florida, Pennsylvania, along with a handful of upper Midwest and East Coast states, and Hawaii.

Oregon has fallen off the map of battleground states, as several polls have shown the Democratic ticket of Kerry-Edwards likely to prevail when voting ends and counting begins on Tuesday.

"It seems pretty clear to me that Oregon is going to Kerry," said Bill Lunch, chairman of Oregon State University's political science department.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 12:24 PM | Basie! Home