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Candidate with a Disability Running on His IdeasEditor’s note: Janine Bertram Kemp has been following the campaign of Oregonian Steve Novick. This is her first-person account of his candidacy. It is like David and Goliath out here on the Left Coast in Oregon. Candidate Steve Novick, who has a disability, is running in the Democratic Senate primary and hopes to eventually defeat Republican Senator Gordon Smith. Like the biblical David, Novick just might take down his Goliath. But it won't be easy. For one thing, the national Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) supports Novick’s primary opponent, Jeff Merkley. “I think they are underestimating me,” says Novick, an attorney. He foresees an electorate that is ready for a change to politicians who will work for policies that mean societal inclusion for everyone and not those who, as Sen. Smith has done, “voted for every tax cut for the rich and every Bush-Cheney war-raging measure." Pollster Lisa Grove of Portland agrees that Novick could win. “This is a very change-oriented electorate,” she was quoted as saying in The Portland Tribune. “And if he's not the face of change, I don't know what is.” Voters, she adds, “are sick of hair-sprayed candidates and bland platitudes.” Novick says he thinks the Democratic campaign committee backed Merkley in the primary because he's a traditional politician. A source close to Oregon politics who wished to remain anonymous disagreed. “Merkley has dollars and the DSCC support in the Oregon primary because of an unprecedented bias,” he says. “You and I know the party is ditching Steve because he’s not quite as attractive as a candidate with two legs and two arms. He needs to go after the Democratic Senate machine like they were the Mob trying to eradicate a grass-roots, non-professional candidate with a disability. He needs to force the Democrats to recognize their own bias.” Novick has played significant roles in prior campaigns, including that of Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, but he is far from a professional politician. He previously worked for the Justice Department and won a $129 million settlement for taxpayers in the Love Canal pollution case. I met Novick for lunch at a Thai restaurant in his home district of Sellwood, a working-class area of Portland that is rapidly becoming gentrified and trendy. Novick, who is 4-foot-9, smart and direct, has quite a left hook – literally. He was born without a left hand and without a fibula in each leg. When speaking to the non-disabled, he uses humor to increase the comfort level. He's been quoted calling himself “the only candidate that can take a rack out of the oven without a potholder.” Unlike FDR, Novick doesn't hide his disability, but until recently never focused on disability politics. An article in The Portland Tribune quoted him as saying, “He dismisses any notion that his physical differences have had any effect on how he's gone about life or in how people have treated him.” I asked how that could be true. “It's tricky,” Novick says. “One answer is that I’m sure that I have (faced discrimination) but wasn’t aware of it. I can't remember being teased. While I've never been aware of people reacting to my disability, I have learned later that they did. After some people got to know me, they said they were initially put off by my appearance. One guy said he thought, ‘Who is this gnome?’” Novick says he believes that as people get to know him, they see who he is and stop reacting to what he looks like. Novick says he believes that discrimination exists and is a strong supporter of both the Americans with Disabilities Act Restoration Act and the Community Choice Act (CCA). “This country has had a horrible history of discrimination, including sterilizing people with cognitive disabilities – it’s ghastly,” Novick says. During the recent Senate Finance Committee hearing on CCA (S.799), he featured a prominent section on his Web site urging Oregonians to contact Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith and push them to cosponsor the legislation. He says several of his supporters e-mailed to let him know they'd made calls on behalf of CCA. Smith is not a CCA supporter, but he did cosponsor its precursor, the Money Follows the Person initiative. Asked why Oregonians with disabilities or the national disability community should support his candidacy over Smith’s, Novick says: “While Gordon Smith may support an occasional individual piece of legislation that benefits people with disabilities, his votes for every tax cut for the rich will soon make implementing them impossible because there wont be money to do it. Smith poses as a moderate Republican, but make no mistake, he votes for everything Bush and Cheney want. He votes for every bill that lines the pockets of wealthy contractors like Halliburton.” Novick’s primary opponent, Merkley, is familiar with Oregon Project Independence (OPI), a program the disability community fought for. When Merkley was an Oregon state legislator, he tried to get $1 million for it. “I applaud Jeff’s efforts to partially restore OPI,” Novick says. “OPI is a state project. It should be supported and expanded to people with disabilities under 60. But it is not a federal program. What I can do as senator is work for universal health care and thereby free up state funds so OPI could be back in the budget. “ Novick is a strong backer of universal health care and says it should include funding for services and supports for people with disabilities, such as personal-care assistance. “No one should have to avoid employment or be limited in any life activity because they are afraid they will lose their medical benefits or services and supports,” he says. He also supports a Medicaid buy-in to health care plan for those who can afford it as one alternative to a single-payer system, although he would also support the single-payer plan. Asked what he would do as a senator about affordable, accessible, integrated housing, Novick says: “There should be affordable housing for everyone, and there could be direct housing subsidies. The federal government can require or provide incentives to developers doing multi-family or single-family homes and require that a certain percentage (be) accessible.” He also supports making transportation funds to states contingent on accessible housing, just as they are for accessible mass transit. He says he gets grass-roots inspiration from Thomas Jefferson. “One of the greatest things about the Declaration of Independence is the line borrowed from John Locke,” Novick says. “Locke wrote ‘Life Liberty and private property.’ Jefferson changed it to ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ Jefferson decided that property rights are important, but it was more important to build a country where everyone had a chance to achieve happiness than that a few people should pile up large amounts of property.” Novick spoke freely about coming late to the disability politics table. “In terms of public policy, over the last 10 years, I've focused on school funding, labor rights and tax issues and not issues specific to people with disabilities,” he says. “When I’m in the Senate, I realize that as a person with a disability, people will count on me to be sensitive to those issues, and I will shoulder that responsibility.”
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