DENVER -- Former U.S. Senate candidate Steve Novick had some advice for the man who beat him in the primary, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley (D-Portland), as Merkley heads home for the general election campaign.

"I've told Jeff that everyone should take advantage of their natural strength," Novick said. "And Jeff is a hard-working, honest, geek."

Novick said that geekiness was actually a strength for Merkley, and after eight years of the Bush administration he estimated that Oregon's voters were looking for someone with a little more policy background and a little less polished.

"With the start of school, it's a great time to do a commercial showing Gordon Smith finally coming around on global warming, or the Iraq war," Novick said. "Then you show Jeff on the screen looking really geeky, and say something like, ‘"but Jeff does his
homework so he always knew the war was wrong, global warming a threat.'"

Novick ran a closely contested primary election against Merkley in the spring. His grassroots campaign, and creative campaign ads, almost led him to upset Merkley.

"He ran an inventive and fun campaign for the Senate," Democratic Party of Oregon chair Meredith Wood Smith said.