Liz Kimmerly, Online Director for Steve Novick blogs about the Harper's interview of Steve Novick, a committed progressive Democrat taking on Gordon Smith for the U.S. Senate. You can find out more about the fighter with the hard left hook at his (newly upgraded!) website and help support his campaign at ActBlue.
Scott Horton of Harper's magazine interviewed Steve (see full article here) and started things off by telling it like it is:
I recently heard Novick give a talk in Manhattan and can’t recall having met a new political entrant in recent years who was quite as persuasive or quick on his feet. Novick may well figure as an underdog in the race, but if 2008 is a year for underdogs, and I expect it will be, Novick is likely to pull it off.
When asked about Gordon Smith's vulnerability, Steve gave this response:
He ‘s repeatedly voted with polluters—to subsidize the oil companies, to loosen pollution controls on coal companies, for drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. Until quite recently, he went around saying that scientists were evenly divided on whether human activity was causing global warming. The Daily Astorian newspaper said he had joined the Flat Earth Society.
When asked about our environmental crisis, he gave the answer that so many are afraid to give. This is why I believe in Steve Novick. He has been fighting for the environment for years, not just talking about it like many politicians from both sides:
I spent eight great years enforcing environmental laws at Justice. The major cause of the crisis is very simple: The people in charge, both at Justice and in the White House, have been people who don’t believe in the rule of law...
My eight years enforcing environmental laws, which included recovering $129 million in the Love Canal case, are a key feature of my biography. And I can’t not talk about global warming. Even if my pollster told me that nobody cares, I’d have to talk about perhaps the gravest threat human beings—not to mention lots of other species—have ever faced.
Steve is the change that Oregon needs and I'm thankful for Harper's getting his story out there on the national level.
Read full article here