Tuesday Tune: A Request From Steve Novick

Former Oregon Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick had a special request in the post-primary letter below.

Thank you so much for making one hell of a campaign possible. We won well over 200,000 votes. We proved there is a constituency for courage, a constituency for truth, and a constituency for laughter. We ran a campaign based on the assumption that people are ready to do what it takes to make America America again—and we were right.

...We came within three percentage points of winning, even though our opponent had vastly more money, based on the support of the national power structure. Jeff Mapes of the Oregonian wrote Wednesday that "Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, hates to lose—and he went to great efforts to make sure his guy, House Speaker Jeff Merkley, made it across the finish line."

...I thought we could win despite our opponent’s establishment support. We knew what we were up against, but I thought that if we all worked our tails off, put our hearts and souls into this, we could make it happen in spite of the disparity in armaments. Based on that belief, I asked for your energy, your time and your money, and you gave generously of all three — and we lost.

But I hope, as I told our crowd on Election Night, that you won’t think investing in this campaign was a waste.

...I am looking forward to talking to and seeing you in the future without asking you for money. But since that has become such a habit, there are two causes I would like to draw to your attention. Jeff Merkley did a great job winning back the State House for us; he was a darned good Speaker, delivering solid victories on issues ranging from payday loan sharking to labor law reform; and he will be a heck of a United States Senator. But we need to help him get there. I encourage all of you to donate to Jeff’s campaign. Yes, the DSCC helped him a lot, and will continue to do so—but they can’t do it all!

Second, in the course of this campaign, since I had no time for anything else, I had to leave my post as a board member of the Oregon Environmental Council, dedicated to fighting global warming and toxic pollutants in the air, water and even consumer products. I feel guilty about that, so if you feel like helping a terrific environmental organization, please make it the OEC.

But again—I’m looking forward to keeping in touch without asking you for money. I am so grateful for all the friends, old and new, who have helped in this campaign. I started out with a lot of friends, and the number has grown dramatically. I truly feel, and said on Election Night, that in the immortal words of Sister Sledge (subsequently adopted as the theme song of the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates): "We are Fam-i-lee!"

Thanks again, so very, very much,

Steve Novick

So here ya go!