(From the diaries. – promoted by James L.)
Not to say I told you so, or anything, but it looks like Jon Bruning’s running.
The Lincoln Journal Star has more:
The plot not only thickened in the 2008 Senate race Wednesday night, it threatened to spin out of control.
Attorney General Jon Bruning is ready to enter the 2008 Republican primary whether Sen. Chuck Hagel seeks re-election or not. Bruning confirmed his intentions in a statement released Thursday morning.
Hagel’s recent vote supporting a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and his recent criticism of President Bush provide “significant reasons” to enter the Senate race, the attorney general said.
“Senator Hagel voted with the Democratic leadership against President Bush on the most important issue facing our country,” Bruning said.“His comments (in a recent Esquire magazine article) made it clear that he thinks impeachment of the president is an option,” the attorney general said.
“These are drastic and dramatic shifts away from the Republican Party, our president and the people of Nebraska.”
Bruning, 37, was elected as Nebraska’s Attorney General in 2002, and reelected (unopposed) in 2006. His website is still not Firefox-friendly. Bruning announced on March 15, shortly after Hagel’s non-announcement, that he was forming an exploratory committee to run for Chuck Hagel’s United States Senate seat… but only if Hagel did not run. Now, due to Hagel’s vote on the Iraq supplemental and a significant dissatisfaction among Republican voters in Nebraska – the exact factors that I predicted would land Hagel in Joe Lieberman’s position from 2006 – Bruning has decided that he’s not going to wait for Hagel.
I certainly didn’t expect this to happen so soon. But now that it has, we’ve got to fight this one. Chuck Hagel may have the establishment behind him, but he’s pissed off a lot of Republicans – and now they have someone to unite behind. He’ll be running as George Bush’s puppet – a perfect target for any Democratic candidate, yes, even in Nebraska. We need to make sure that our nominee is prepared for this. Bruning is not to be taken lightly, but he can be beaten.
Among the other rumors in that article…
Bob Kerrey is not running for Senate. There’s been a poll going around (one of my friends got it last week), that’s asked a lot of questions about Kerrey, but you all remember the ugliness right before his exit from the Senate, and let’s not forget that he’s lived in New York for the past six years. We have better candidates than Bob Kerrey.
Mike Fahey’s laying the groundwork for a reelection run in 2009, ramping up his fundraising. This shouldn’t be any cause for concern, it’s been generally assumed that he’s going to run for reelection should he not run for Senate, and he’s not going to make that decision until later this year.
Stay tuned with us here in Nebraska for any more developments.