 On April 18, 2007, Novick formally announced his candidacy for Senate.By the end of May, both Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio had announced they were not interested in entering the race, depleting what was considered by many the "first-tier" list of candidates for the position leaving Democrats searching for more candidates.With no high-profile Democrats in the race, it was believed by that the most likely candidates would come from the state legislature.