Dear Friends,

When I heard that we were closing in on our first million dollars raised, I started thinking about all the thousands of Nebraskans who have opened their homes and their hearts to this campaign.  And honestly, I just couldn't think of a way to say "thank you" enough.  So to mark this significant milestone, I've decided to offer a little something special to the donor who pushes us past the million dollar mark.

Please, join our community of supporters and contribute $500, $250, $100, or $25 today.

Dear Friends,

I wanted you to be the first to hear the good news: thanks to your contributions, our grassroots campaign has managed to shatter expectations and outraise our opponent, a former two-term Governor and Bush Cabinet member, for the most recent fundraising quarter. Make no mistakes about it - change is in the air here in Nebraska.

The Journal Star reports: "Democratic Senate candidate Scott Kleeb seems to be finding fundraising traction in this heavily Republican state, bringing in nearly $700,000 in the latest reporting period and besting Republican Mike Johanns for the first time."

When I first announced for the Senate in February, I don't think anyone imagined that we'd be in such a strong position today.  For everything you've done to help bring us to this point, I can not say enough.  On behalf of my family and my staff, I am deeply touched and sincerely thank you.

Now, we're just 113 days away from Election and we still have a long way to go. But with your continued hard work and support,  I know that victory is within reach.

Thanks again,

Scott Kleeb

P.S. Keep the momentum going, please visit our new website to learn about more ways to get involved with the campaign.

This Friday, we celebrate 232 years of independence. We celebrate not only our country's independence - but the independent spirit we as Americans all share.

Independence Day isn't just about our past, it's also about our future.  Our campaign is committed to practicing a new brand of politics, and that requires each of us to recommit ourselves to the principles our founding fathers fought for.

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold Indiana's voter ID law, the state-by-state battle to pass similar legislation has escalated with politicians seeking partisan gain furiously pushing laws that hinder access to the ballot. However, lawmakers seeking to dismantle barriers to electoral participation are just as committed to election integrity and protecting the voting rights of potentially millions of voters by calling out voter ID laws as "sheer political posturing." Meanwhile, positive measures to increase participation through Election Day Registration (EDR) are gaining ground in several states even as Iowa prepares to test-drive its new EDR law in the June 3 primary.

Yesterday Rasmussen Reports released polling out of Nebraska, a state that the Democrats have not carried in a presidential election since 1964 and which even Franklin Delano Roosevelt lost twice, showing Barack Obama a net 22 points stronger against John McCain than John Kerry did against George W. Bush in 2004, trailing only by a 50 percent to 39 percent margin. Lest one think that this spread means that it would be worthless for Obama to campaign and expend resources in Nebraska, Poblano says think again.

Nebraska is one of two states (Maine is the other) to split some of its electoral votes by Congressional District. In 2004, John Kerry ran 11 points better in NE-2 (Omaha) than he did in the state as a whole, and 6 points better in NE-1 (Eastern Nebraska) than in the state as a whole. Meanwhile, he ran 18 points worse in NE-3 (Western Nebraska).

What this implies is that if Obama is about 10 points down in Nebraska overall, NE-2 in Omaha should be considered a toss-up, whereas NE-1 may be competitive. There are definitely scenarios where this is relevant. For example, if Obama wins Kerry states + Iowa + Colorado -- one of his more plausible electoral combinations -- he would be sitting on 268 electoral votes. Winning NE-2 in Omaha would get him to 269 electoral votes, at which point the tie would probably be broken in his favor by the incoming House of Representatives. We account for any and all such scenarios in our simulations.

It would obviously be preferable if Obama didn't need to win one or two electoral votes out of the Cornhusker state, as could be the situation (Poblano puts forward one permutation of the electoral vote map in which Nebraska would really matter, for instance). That said, putting the McCain campaign on its heels in a corner of the country that Republicans haven't seriously played defense in for decades (the highest mark any Democrat has received in the state since Lyndon Johnson's 53 percent in 1964 was Michael Dukakis' 39 percent in 1988 [better than Bill Clinton's best of 35 percent in 1996 and Jimmy Carter's 38 percent in 1976]*) can't be a bad thing.

I have a confession to make. Despite being a political junkie, I was never quite sure exactly what a caucus is. That is because I have lived my life in Kentucky, a state that always uses closed primaries, where only a person registered in a particular party can decide the party's nominee. A state that uses secret ballots to choose their nominee.

Interesting debate bumped, jerome

On the front page of MyDD today, there are some who are touting the win of Scott Kleeb over Tony Raimondo in the Nebraska Democratic U.S. Senate primary [Source:  5/13/2008 MyDD blog "Scott Kleeb Wins Nebraska Democratic Senate Primary!"].

Let me begin by congratulating Scott Kleeb on becoming the Democratic Party of Nebraska's U.S. Senate nominee.  I wish him much luck in November.

Now, look at the vote totals for that primary...

...In the U.S. Senate race, more than 90,000 people participated in that Democratic primary.  Just to put that number into perspective, in the February 9th Nebraska Democratic Presidential Caucuses, less than half of the people (38,571) who voted in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary participated in the caucuses [Source:  2/10/2008 Nebraska Democratic Party 2008 Presidential Caucus Results].

To put things into further perspective, if Nebraska had held a primary instead of a caucus to choose its national convention delegates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would have been virtually tied.  Below are the results of Nebraska's Democratic Presidential Preference Primary:

Democrat - President  

Hillary Clinton - 43,614 or 47%
Mike Gravel -  3,864 or 4%
Barack Obama 46,279 or 49%

Source:  5/13/2008 Unofficial Nebraska Presidential Preference Primary Results

Now you know I've got to pull out my trusty Democratic National Convention Delegate Selection Rule book and cite y'all some rules.  It's what I do.

Rule 2.A

Participation in the delegate selection process shall be open to all voters who wish to participate as Democrats.

Rule 3.A

All official Party meetings and events related to the national convention delegate selection process, including caucuses, conventions, committee meetings, filing dates, and Party enrollment periods, shall be scheduled for dates, times and public places which would be most likely to encourage the participation of all Democrats, and must begin and end at reasonable hours.

Rule 3.B

All such meetings or events which are the first meeting or event in the delegate selection process shall be scheduled at times and dates which are uniform throughout the state, except where it is established by the state party and approved by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee that such uniform times and dates would significantly reduce participation in the delegate selection process.

The short summary of these rules is that the Democratic Party of the United States A.) wants the delegate selection process to be open to all persons who wish to be known as Democrats; and B.) expressly prohibits the scheduling of delegate selection meetings that would "significantly reduce participation in the delegate selection process."

Now you tell me...with 38,571 Democrats participating in the Nebraska presidential caucuses and 93,757 Democrats participating in the Nebraska presidential preference primary, which method A.) opens the process to all persons wishing to be known as Democrats; B.) encourages the participation of all Democrats; and C.) does not significantly reduce participation in the delegate selection process.

Now I know what the 20,000 screaming Obama-maniacs would say. They'd say that rules are rules and Sen. Obama won the Nebraska caucuses.

But I would suggest that when more people participate in a so-called "meaningless" primary that doesn't count than participated in caucuses that did count, we know which process encourages the participation of all Democrats and which process allows a candidate to "game the system" in his favor.

Michigan and Florida vote early, are penalized to the point that their votes don't count, yet they have record turnouts.

48 other states count plus Puerto Rico, Democrats Abroad, Guam, Virgin Islands, and other places that don't actually get to vote in a Presidential election. Yet, they count MORE than 2 ACTUAL U.S. states.

Tonight Nebraska held a primary and the results were quite different than the caucus.

Around 39,000 people participated in the NE caucus. Tonight in a primary that DID NOT COUNT more than 89,000 democrats voted, 50,000 more than what participated in the caucus and this did NOT count.

You'll see similar results in the WA caucus vs primary.