Just days before the election, Oregon’s U.S. Senatorial race is in a dead heat. But if things had gone differently last May, the nation may have been paying attention to the most recent injection of the unconventional into Oregon politics, a 4-foot 9-inch sparkplug of a man with a hook for a hand and unmatched determination. Here’s the story of the race before the race and the man who would have demanded our attention and might have even captured our hearts.

It’s six-thirty on a Saturday morning, the sun has yet to crack the Northwest skyline and Steve Novick is asleep in the backseat of an SUV. He is running for Oregon’s U.S. Senate Democratic nomination and currently he is on his way to Reedsport, a blue-collar coastal town three-and-a-half hours southwest of Portland. He has a booked-solid, sixteen-hour day ahead of him, and this morning he is scheduled to speak to the State Council of Machinists Union. He could really use their endorsement to bolster his campaign, but right now he’s just trying to catch up on his sleep. His hair is tousled, his suit is wrinkled and his 4’9’’ frame is scrunched up against the door. Two neckties hang from the handhold above him along with the prosthetic hook that serves as his left hand. With his left arm dangling from the hook, Novick looks more like bad dry cleaning than a potential candidate for the U.S. Senate, but anomaly is what his campaign is all about.

Novick is a first-time politician. He is battling Oregon’s House Speaker, Jeff Merkley, in the Democratic primary, but his focus is set on Gordon Smith, the two-term Republican incumbent. Both Novick and Merkley are relatively unknown candidates. In a January poll, Novick led Merkley by three points, 12 to 9. However, 73 percent of Democrats were undecided. Both candidates are running quixotic campaigns against the highly funded, media-savvy Smith while downplaying each other’s candidacy. They do not have many policy differences and both agree on most key issues, calling for a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, universal health care coverage and development of renewable energy sources. But Novick, already dishing out talking points like a seasoned pro, says that he entered the race because the Democrats need a challenger who can be a real threat to Smith and the American people need someone who isn’t afraid to tell the truth. Words the American people have heard before and words that won’t make Novick any less of a long shot. But Novick gushes confidence when considering his chances against Smith. He’s received the endorsements of former Governor John Kitzhaber and former Congressman Les AuCoin, and he’s quick to point out that Smith is vulnerable, recently polling below 50 percent. The electorate is looking for something different, he says. And when it comes to different, nobody can compete with Novick.

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The sun is blinking through the fir trees and Novick is slowly waking up. He unhooks his hook from the handhold and tucks it under his seatbelt. Yawning, he asks his campaign manager, Jake, how much farther to Reedsport. “Ten miles.” Novick wants or rather needs to make contribution calls (also known as dialing for dollars — an activity that consumes most of a candidate’s time). He needs as much financial support as he can get to have any chance against Smith and his $4 million campaign purse. By the end of 2007, Novick had raised $540,000. That’s a good start for a first-time Senate candidate, but not nearly enough. Right now though, he can’t get cell phone reception in the dense forest of southwest Oregon.

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