Oct.17

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Nebraska's Time to Shine?

It is well known that people each get 15 minutes of fame. Does that also hold for states? If so, California needs to move on and stop hogging the spotlight. But some states haven't had their allotted 15 minutes yet. One of them is Nebraska, which is a peaceful place that is usually happy to stay out of the limelight. But maybe this year it will get its time in the sun. For six reasons, no less:

• Walz: First, Gov. Tim Walz (DFL-MN) was born in a small town in Nebraska, grew up there, and went to college there. He has also been campaigning there. Having a major-party candidate campaigning in a state alone puts it on the map because where the candidates go, reporters follow and they write up what they see.
  
  
• NE-02: If Harris wins the usual blue states and the three Rust Belt states and Nevada, she will get 270 EVs, sort of. If she loses ME-02, that gives her only 269, one EV too few. But if she can win the Omaha-based NE-02 district, that gets her to 270 and the White House. So a lot of love is being inflicted on NE-02. When Walz goes to Nebraska, much of his time is spent in NE-02 (his hometown, in case you were wondering, is about 30 miles north of NE-02).
  
  
• Bacon: The House is up for grabs and one district the Democrats would love to flip is—you guessed it—NE-02, a seat currently occupied by Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE). When Walz is in town, he campaigns with Democrat Tony Vargas, who is trying to cook Bacon. So, the district matters for both the electoral vote and the House seat, a doubleheader.
  
  
• Osborn: There are two Senate races in Nebraska this year. There is the special election in which the voters get to decide if they approve of then-Gov. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) appointing himself to the vacant seat left behind when former senator Ben Sasse took off for sunny Florida. They do approve, and Ricketts will crush Preston Love (D), a completely unknown professor from Omaha. The other (regular) race is quite interesting. It pits Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) against independent Navy veteran Dan Osborn. The Democrats didn't bother to nominate a candidate. Instead, they are supporting Osborn. Osborn is a union leader and running an amazing campaign. He has avoided most national issues and is talking only about Nebraska issues, like farm subsidies, a farmer's right to repair his own equipment, and railroad safety. On abortion, he is a libertarian, saying it is none of the government's damn business. In several recent polls, he is actually ahead of Fischer. If he wins, it would be the biggest upset in this millennium. But the fact that some polls have him leading means that he is getting a lot of attention (and money), something Nebraska Senate candidates normally don't get. If he wins, his vote could determine which party controls the Senate. Would Elon Musk outdo the Egyptian government in terms of the number of gold bars made available to the senator, and throw in a nice Tesla to boot? In any event, there is a lot of attention being focused on the race due to the polling.
  
  
• Abortion: While nine other states have one abortion amendment on the ballot, Nebraska has two of them. One legalizes abortion until the point of viability. The other pretty much bans it. As a result, ads can't say "Vote yes on the abortion amendment" because voters won't know which one to vote for. Voting yes on both is not considered cool. If both pass, the one with the most votes counts. It is expected that with two abortion amendments on the ballot, turnout will be very high, especially in NE-02. Ricketts supports the one banning abortion and has put $5 million into ads supporting the ban.
  
  
• Felons: Yesterday, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that a law passed by the state legislature allowing ex-felons who had served their time to vote was constitutional. Republican Secretary of State Robert Evnen claimed that he didn't have to allow ex-felons to register because that would violate the state Constitution. The Court disagreed. One justice wrote: "Do we want to live in a world where every state employee who has a hunch a statute is flawed gets to ignore it?" What will be interesting is to see from the exit polls how many of the thousands of reenfranchised former felons actually register and vote. This is a hot issue in many states.
  

So Nov. 5 will be Nebraska's 15 minutes in the sun. But it may have to share it with Montana on account of the critical Senate race there. (V)