Senate 2008: Dems Find a Candidate in Nebraska?
A Democratic race in Nebraska might seem futile on the surface. After all, George W. Bush carried the Cornhusker State by a 2-to-1 margin in 2004, winning all but one county in the state -- and losing that one by only 58 votes. What's more, a Democratic presidential candidate has only carried the state once in the last 70 years, and that only occurred in 1964.
That all said, Nebraskans do have a long history of giving their votes to Democratic candidates federal office, particularly the Senate. With the exception of two years in which an appointed Republican held one of the state's two Senate seats, Nebraska was represented by two Democrats in the Senate fromk 1979 to 1997, and the state has had at least one Democratic Senator since 1995, including their current junior Senator, Ben Nelson, who was reelected with 64 percent of the vote last fall. And even on the congressional level, Democrats won 45 percent of the vote in two Nebraska districts in 2006 and 41 percent in the other, indicating that with a real effort they can at least be in striking distance of winning contested federal elections.
No doubt it is difficult to defeat an incumbent in any year, and the Republicans do have a two-term Senator who is up for reelection in 2008. But that incumbent, Chuck Hagel, has not definitively declared that he will run for reelection, which, coupled with the fact that he had less than $150,000 in the bank as of the end of the year, has led many to believe that he will not seek another term, instead either running for president or retiring from politics.
With this in mind, it's no wonder that Democrats in the state, as well as some inside the Beltway, are keeping a close eye on this race. And according to C. David Kotok of the Omaha World-Herald, at least one Democrat is edging closer to a run in the state.
[Omaha] Mayor Mike Fahey knew what was coming when he agreed recently to meet with two of the nation's top Democrats - a pitch for him to run for the U.S. Senate.In the past, Fahey quickly blunted any speculation that he was interested in running for higher office. That has changed, with Fahey now saying he will consider a Senate race if Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel doesn't seek re-election in 2008.
Late last month, Fahey was in Washington, D.C., for a mayors conference when he was asked to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
"They talked to me about the Senate race, and they were very complimentary," Fahey said. "They said all the right things."
[...]
Fahey fits the mold of recent Nebraska Democrats elected to the Senate - Edward Zorinsky in 1976, J.J. Exon in 1978, Bob Kerrey in 1988 and Ben Nelson in 2000. All held elected executive positions prior to going to Washington: Zorinsky was mayor of Omaha when elected, and Exon, Kerrey and Nelson had served as governor.
Each first made his mark in business, as Fahey did by founding a title insurance company.
While Fahey would not run against Hagel, if the Senator did run for a third term, and it's not clear if the other often-mentioned candidate, former congressional candidate Scott Kleeb, would do so either, it is quite heartening to see that there is so much interest in the Nebraska Senate race this year. And though this might not be the top target for the Democrats in 2008 even if Hagel doesn't run, the fact that the Democrats can remain competitive in a Senate race in a state as supposedly red as Nebraska is a real testament to the success of rebuilding state parties and Democratic institutions across the country.
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