2008 Woodie Awards
Senate hopeful Novick speaks in Forest Grove
Town Hall Series
Billy Gates
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: News
What's four feet nine inches tall, has a hook for a left hand and no fibulas? United States senate democratic candidate, Steve Novick.
Novick spoke to a sizeable contingent of Pacific students and Forest Grove community members during the March 12 installment of the Senate Town Hall Series, presented by the Politics and Law Forum and sponsored by the Pacific Undergraduate Community Council.
Not only does Novick's appearance differ from the average person, so does the course of his education. He was forced out of junior high when a budget levy failed in 1976 for the Cottage Grove schools, and enrolled full-time in classes at the University of Oregon at the age of 14 in 1977. Four years later, he attended Harvard Law School and graduated when he was 21.
After all the adversity he seemed to go through in his younger days, Novick doesn't identify himself as part of the disabled population, saying in the August 2007 issue of "Portland Monthly" that, "kids whose parents don't read to them have a lot more obstacles to overcome than I do."
As for his political platform, Novick is a self-described "progressive Democrat" who is extremely adamant about reforming the national health care system. "Forty-seven million Americans, including 600,000 Oregonians, are uninsured. That's a scandal," he said. "I would support a single payer system, but I also realize there are other ways to tackle the problem."
One of those ways, Novick said, is to adopt a plan similar to what John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Ron Wyden are pushing for by requiring everyone to have health insurance and require all employers to pay a fee toward health care. "Right now, the employers that provide health care are basically punished for it," he said, going on to explain that hospitals raise rates for the insured patients and their employers when uninsured patients go to the emergency room.
Novick's next set of questions from the audience steered him towards explaining why he thought he was a better candidate than fellow Democrat, Senator Jeff Merkley, who is set to speak at Pacific April 8. "Merkley claims to want the same goals I do, but there is no discussion on how to pay for them," he said. "Against Gordon Smith, that 'something for nothing' type of politics will not work."
Novick spoke to a sizeable contingent of Pacific students and Forest Grove community members during the March 12 installment of the Senate Town Hall Series, presented by the Politics and Law Forum and sponsored by the Pacific Undergraduate Community Council.
Not only does Novick's appearance differ from the average person, so does the course of his education. He was forced out of junior high when a budget levy failed in 1976 for the Cottage Grove schools, and enrolled full-time in classes at the University of Oregon at the age of 14 in 1977. Four years later, he attended Harvard Law School and graduated when he was 21.
After all the adversity he seemed to go through in his younger days, Novick doesn't identify himself as part of the disabled population, saying in the August 2007 issue of "Portland Monthly" that, "kids whose parents don't read to them have a lot more obstacles to overcome than I do."
As for his political platform, Novick is a self-described "progressive Democrat" who is extremely adamant about reforming the national health care system. "Forty-seven million Americans, including 600,000 Oregonians, are uninsured. That's a scandal," he said. "I would support a single payer system, but I also realize there are other ways to tackle the problem."
One of those ways, Novick said, is to adopt a plan similar to what John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Ron Wyden are pushing for by requiring everyone to have health insurance and require all employers to pay a fee toward health care. "Right now, the employers that provide health care are basically punished for it," he said, going on to explain that hospitals raise rates for the insured patients and their employers when uninsured patients go to the emergency room.
Novick's next set of questions from the audience steered him towards explaining why he thought he was a better candidate than fellow Democrat, Senator Jeff Merkley, who is set to speak at Pacific April 8. "Merkley claims to want the same goals I do, but there is no discussion on how to pay for them," he said. "Against Gordon Smith, that 'something for nothing' type of politics will not work."
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