Of course, Kari. This should come as a surprise to no one. Steve is a classy guy. I look forward to the day when Senator Merkley introduces Candidate Novick in a future campaign.

I hope Steve gets elected to office down the road. He came into the Tualatin Valley Community TV studio and spoke eloquently about ballot measures 56-64 recently.

Steve should move to the west side. Oregon could use a competitive congressional primary in 2010.

Yes, Steve is a class act! Campaigning for the nominee after losing the nomination is a sign of excellent character.

It should be a lesson to all those bloggers who were so vehement in the primary that the old proverb is correct in saying "You catch more flies with vinegar than by hitting him over the head!".

Jack is right. Running for office in the Portland area would be a smart thing for Steve to do. But if he plans to run for office in 2010, Steve should start thinking of how to organize a ground operation in whatever district he tries to run in. Whatever some may believe, having enough money to run ads every hour on the hour wouldn't change the conversation between 2 neighbors when one says that a candidate's ad is stupid/not relevant to the office sought. Someone locally saying "yeah, that may not be the world's best ad, but let me tell you about the Steve I know" can be a lot more powerful than any broadcast ad.

A well organized ground operation which can say "vote for Steve because..." rather than a bunch of bloggers telling anyone who asks questions that they should be ashamed for not being true blue unquestioning Novickians.

Often in heated campaigns, the candidate is classier than some of the supporters. Glad to see Steve is in that classy category.

Boy, that's an awesome re-hashing of the primary. You're a profound thinker, LT.

Don't forget, Oregon's going to be needing a great governor soon! One who is really on the side of working folks.

Well, It would seem that LT is the commenter who decided to unecessarily dredge up all the all her old primary arguments with her usual delusional observations and strawmen.

Clearly candidates being classier than their supporters is not exclusive to Steve Novick, Steven, you giant douche-bag.

If it me was the worst she got, she got off lucky.

Thank you Steven M. "Mr. Novick has always been far far classier than many of his supporters"

I was not "dredging". Steve might very well make an excellent elected official if he engages the public with a well run campaign.

But as a friend of mine said last spring, the Senate campaign was not well run. Maybe he and I were both old fogies, but it seems to me (and I believe the Bus Project has proven this as well) that a campaign with a very healthy "ground game", aka grass roots activism from the community level on up, is likely to be more successful than a campaign which says "aren't our commercials great?!" or bloggers claiming anyone who doesn't think their candidate is the greatest thing since sliced bread deserves to be called names.

I believe Novick for Senate made a major mistake when they hid the excellent poverty video a couple mouse clicks into the website but put the "flaming pants" video on the front page for far too long. Yes, I thought he should have made a commercial out of that poverty video. It was excellent, showing Steve at his best. Attack me for that statement if you wish.

Steve should run for something less than statewide office and then he would be an elected office holder running for higher office. That is how Mike Kopetski got elected to legislature and then to Congress after losing a congressional primary.

But then, maybe there are some people here who care less about winning elections than browbeating everyone who disagrees with them.

No one is OWED a vote. I was impressed by Jeff Merkley before he was Speaker because of a speech I heard him give at a 2006 campaign event in a room where not everyone was a lifelong Democrat.

If Steve were able to win over voters by doing something similar, he would deserve to win an election. I'm one of those people who looks at how candidates conduct their campaigns. What a concept!

Folks, if you really want Steve elected to public office in the future, you need to have more of this sort of comment on blogs and in personal conversations:

Posted by: Bob Nisbet | Oct 7, 2008 6:38:13 AM

I hope Steve gets elected to office down the road. He came into the Tualatin Valley Community TV studio and spoke eloquently about ballot measures 56-64 recently. ~~~~~~~ and less of the sarcastic attacks against anyone who doesn't say Novick for Senate was a flawless campaign and no one should say otherwise.

Maybe you've never heard the term constructive criticism?

I've been to events where a candidate talked to a group of friends and then the friends gave a critique--everything from the substance of the speech to the tone of voice, to whether the speaker could be heard in the back of the room. The people I know consider that as doing a favor to the candidate.

Maybe some of you consider anything less than "Steve was the perfect candidate" as an insult. If so, we have a major disagreement.

First of all, thanks to Kari to acknowledging the contribution that Steve has made to the Merkley cause. I, too, have been pleased to see the extent of Steve's enthusiastic support to the man whom progressives all over the country would like to see represent Oregonians in the Senate, giving the Democrats a clean sweep of west coast Senators.

Second, as one of Steve's best friends, I can flatly say that nobody I know thinks that Steve ran a flawless campaign. But the words "human" and "flawless" never go together. Everyone makes mistakes. In Steve's case, he clearly did more things right than just about any of us would have expected of a first time candidate. And for him to come as close to beating Merkley as he did, given Merkley's tremendous support from the DSCC, is quite an accomplishment.

Third, reasonable people can surely disagree about precisely which seat Steve should run for in 2010. But I think all progressives in Oregon need to think about how they can support Steve in whatever office he does seek -- whether it is Governor, Congressman, or mayor of Oregon's version of Wasilla. During that campaign, Steve will surely "make mistakes," and some of his supporters may even defend him when he does ... but I bet that when all the dust is settled, we'll agree that he ran a generally excellent campaign. And if he's elected, he'll make us all proud.

As a strong opponent of Steve Novick in the primary, I am very pleased to see that he is not a sore loser. I thought his attacks on Merkley were over the top. I could easily support Steve Novick for Congress, and perhaps Blumenauer will become Obama's Transportation Secretary and Steve will run and win, and I could support him. I would not support Steve for Governor as Gourley suggests, and I have a long list of reasons why, starting with his lack of administrative or executive experience.

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