Chad Southworth was standing in line to get Ducks tickets yesterday morning when a small man with a hook on his left arm approached him.
“I’m Steve Novick, I’m running for Senate,” the man said. “I’m here to apologize for everything that my generation has done to your generation.”
Novick, who graduated from the University in 1981, is running an insurgent campaign that he hopes will get him the Democratic nomination and a shot at Gordon Smith’s Senate seat next November.
Among the things he said his generation needs to apologize for are global warming, trillions of dollars of national debt, and a failing health care system.
Southworth said he thought it was great that Novick was running, but he hasn’t yet looked at all of the candidates in the race.
“It’s a little early,” he said.
Novick had wanted to speak in front of the EMU, but could only get a 9:30 a.m. time slot when few students were around. So instead he worked the ticket line, telling students about his campaign and listening to their concerns.
Student Jacob Phillips is a Republican. He’s upset about the cost of higher education. When asked if he would vote for Gordon Smith, he said, “I probably will at this point but I’m not a huge fan of Gordon Smith. Recently he’s done a few things I don’t like.”
Primary among those things is Smith’s changed stance on the war in Iraq, Phillips said. But Novick’s opposition to the war is even stronger.
“Obviously, the war is hideous and if it’s still going on when I get there I’ll do everything I can to stop it,” Novick told the Emerald. And he had strong words for the Democratic majority in Congress, which hasn’t stopped funding the war.
“I think they’re making a huge moral and political mistake,” he said. “They have the power to stop the war. And John Edwards, I think, had it right. He said you vote for funding only with a timetable, and if the president vetoes it, you send it back again. Eventually he has to either accept the timetable or the funding runs out.”
“The Democrats in Congress are acting like scaredy-cats instead of Democrats,” he said.
A couple of Democrats Novick met on campus knew who he was and were pleased to see him.
Holly Blackman said she read about Novick in the Oregonian and her mom wanted her to volunteer for his campaign. She said she liked that Novick was not hampered by being a little person and having a hook for a hand.
Novick has capitalized on his appearance with his campaign slogan, “Everyone knows a fighter needs a strong left hook.”
“The first job in politics is for people to remember who you are,” he said. “If you got it, flaunt it.”
Novick is the underdog in the race for the Democratic nomination. His main opponent, Jeff Merkley, is the speaker of the Oregon House. While the party officially stays neutral in primary campaigns, Merkley has been raking in endorsements from labor groups and elected Democrats. Gov. Ted Kulongoski and former governor Barbara Roberts are listed as co-chairs of the Merkley campaign on the campaign’s Web site.
“If you look at my Web site right now and look at Jeff Merkley’s Web site, I have an issues section and no endorsements section,” Novick said. “Jeff, as of right now, has an endorsements section, but no issues section.”
“Presumably at some point they’ll catch up, but they’re running a campaign of ‘A lot of big important people are supporting me, therefore you should too.’ And I’m running a campaign of ‘Here’s where I stand on the issues and I hope you agree with me,’” he said.
Carla Axtman, volunteer coordinator for the Merkley campaign, would only say that “Jeff Merkley is working to build the largest grassroots campaign in the history of Oregon.”
“Oregon can look forward to more wonderful progressive legislation from Jeff Merkley when he is a U.S. Senator,” she said.
Novick said, “The main reason we know we’re gonna win the primary is I’m a U of O guy up against a Stanford guy, and we saw Saturday what happens in that match-up.”