One of the most remarkable stories of the 2008 election was the dramatic Democratic surge in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District. After pouring in an unprecedented amount of resources into the Omaha-based CD, the Obama campaign narrowly won the district’s electoral vote just four years after John Kerry lost here by a punishing 60-38 margin. The district’s most populous area, Douglas County, saw Democrats overtake Republicans in voter registration for the first time since 1994, and the environment seemed ripe for GOP Rep. Lee Terry to face the most serious challenge of his career. Unfortunately, Terry held on by a four-point margin against his rematch challenger, Jim Esch (who lost by nine points in 2006), letting the GOP retain its domination of Nebraska’s House delegation.
However, Esch’s two solid shots against Terry may not have been made in vain, as a much more politically-seasoned challenger is contemplating a run: Omaha attorney and state Sen. Tom White, a man with some serious moxie. From the Lincoln Journal-Star:
State Sen. Tom White strode Saturday night to the brink of a 2010 bid for Republican Rep. Lee Terry’s House seat.
White focused on Terry with the intensity of a laser beam during a speech to 350 Democrats, portraying the six-term congressman as a tool of the GOP House leadership.
Terry has “morphed from George Bush’s rubberstamp into a proud, card-carrying member of the Party of No,” White told the traditional Morrison-Exon Dinner audience. […]
“We have a certain congressman who enthusiastically supported just about every idea George W. Bush came up with,” White said, “yet now reflexively votes against President Obama every chance he gets – just because his party leaders tell him to.”
On the GOP’s move to vote against the recent supplemental funding bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, White is more than eager to feed the GOP some of its own medicine:
Terry voted last week against a supplemental appropriations bill that included funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, White said.
“We support the troops with more than just sound bites,” he said.
“We will never, ever play politics with funding for troops in the field like House Republicans did.”
White says that he’s “seriously considering entering the race”, and will make a decision sometime next month. Judging by his eagerness to take the fight to Terry, I’d have to guess that White is at least leaning in favor of jumping into the race. And while White won’t have the advantage of the Obama turnout operation working in his favor, there are signs that Omaha’s blue trend wasn’t just a temporary aberration: Democrat Jim Suttle recently held the hotly-contested open seat mayor’s race against ex-Mayor (and ex-Rep.) Hal Daub, and Democrats took control of the Omaha city council for the first time since the 1980s. White’s legislative accomplishments and political seasoning would also blunt one of Terry’s favorite attack lines against Jim Esch — namely, the fact that no one seemed to know what Esch did for a living outside his two congressional runs.
Let’s hope he goes for it.
RaceTracker: NE-02
Current office holder? Check.
Relatively conservative for the national Democratic party, but without reflexively denigrating it? Check.
Liable to be able to secure considerable funding? Check.
In a district that’s rapidly moving towards the Dems? Check.
Add in the fact that Terry spent most of his last campaign talking about “Obama-Terry voters” and you might even be able to force him to take some more moderate stands too. Certainly if I was running Obama’s political shop I’d want to be recycling a lot of policies I didn’t have votes for towards the end of the 2010 session, so that Republicans would have to either give up on claiming to be bipartisan or wave his policies through.
The only downside is that Nebraska might yet try to redistrict such that Obama has no chance of carrying any congressional districts in 2012.
I heard that republicans in Nebraska are trying to pass a bill to get rid of splitting its electoral votes so a democrat does not end up getting the omaha vote.