Lawyer Promotes Candidacy, Pokes Fun at His Disability, in YouTube Ads
Portland lawyer Steve Novick is taking a humorous look at his disabilities and his looks in YouTube ads seeking support for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate in Oregon.
Novick was born without a left hand and is missing one of the two major bones between the knee and foot in both legs, the Associated Press reports. But his disabilities were no impediment to legal success. Novick was just 21 years old when he graduated from Harvard Law School. He went on to work at the U.S. Justice Department battling polluters.
In one popular video, Novick is talking to a potential voter at a bar who struggles to get the cap off of a beer bottle. Novick reaches over and uses the metal hook that serves as his hand to pop off the lid.
“Steve Novick: He’s always found a way to get things done,” the announcer says.
In another video, called To Tell the Truth, three distinguished looking men all claim to be Steve Novick. Then the camera pans can to the real candidate, who is 4-foot-9 inches tall.
“I don’t look like the typical politician, but I won’t act like one either,” he says.
Not to be outdone, Novick’s primary opponent, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley, has posted his own humorous Internet video making fun of a recent rollover crash from which he walked away unhurt, the Oregonian reports. In the video, Merkley says the flipped car “is like the Bush economy. It’s gone belly up.”
