Novick gets kind words from unlikely source

Former U.S. Senate. candidate Steve NovickWASHINGTON – Former U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick was the recipient of kind words today from an unlikely source: U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Rewind to the Democratic primary when Novick was facing off against state House Speaker Jeff Merkley (D-Portland). The DSCC threw its support behind Merkley, airing a television advertisement in the final days of the campaign that attacked Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton) and defended Merkley. Merkley would go on to narrowly win the hard-fought primary.

“I have to give a lot of credit to Steve Novick, who ran very strong, stronger than we thought. And to Novick’s credit, the day after the primary he went out there complimenting Merkley and has been helping Merkley ever since, which I just wanted to thank him for that,” Schumer said at a press conference at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee this afternoon.

Then, to laughter, the Brooklyn-born Schumer added: Novick’s “a mensch, you know what I mean?”

The Mirriam-Webster dictionary defines mensch as Yiddish for “a person of integrity and honor.”

Oregon wasn’t the only state this cycle where Schumer’s DSCC took sides in a contested primary. In Kentucky, the DSCC threw its support behind eventual nominee Bruce Lunsford in his battle against Greg Fischer. (Read more about this race on PolitickerKY.com.)

Earlier on in the press conference, Schumer articulated his strategy of choosing sides, explaining it was the way to get the strongest candidates for the general election.

“We do recruit. We make no bones about it. The old Democratic way, sort of never intervene before the primary, I used to call it ‘throwing up the cards and seeing where they fall down.’ We look for the best candidates and try to persuade them,” he said.