Posted on 12/02/2004 7:42:04 AM PST by BigMacGOP
Interesting to see if Nelson switches parties now....
Whaaaa?
OK, not bad.
Okay, I don't understand this one, from a political perspective anyways.
That was a surprise. I think he'll do fine, though.
Weird. I guess this means Ben Nelson gets a free pass for re-election in '06. Johanns could only run against him if he were still in the damn state and not starting a new career in Washington.
Does Johanns offer any hope of cutting subsidies?
What the he** is Bush thinking? This is so stupid I'm going to pop a blood vessel.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
What would stop Johanns from resigning in 2006 to run against Nelson if he wanted? Remember Mel Martinez? He served in the administration, then resigned to run for the Senate in Florida.
Maybe this is Bush clearing the way for Tom Osbourne to take on Nelson?
I hope it is anyways.
He won the governor's office in 1998 and in 2002 became the first Republican to win re-election in more than four decades.
Johanns had been considered a possible challenger to Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson in 2006.
???????????
On second thought, I definitely spoke too soon about a "free pass." There must be plenty of good Republican officeholders in the state who want the chance to have a Senate seat for life. I know Osborne wants to be Governor, but there must be other statewide elected officials who can campaign on a Bush platform.
It's Nebraska, for crying out loud.
Nelson will lose in 2006 to Nebraska legend, Tom Osborn.
Well, he would have to campaign across the state, and you can't campaign and run for Senate at the same time. Johanns would have to resign by the summer to begin fundraising, etc.
Martinez had four years in Washington, not two, and his association with Bush raised his profile in a state where he'd been a local official with little experience beyond Orange County.
If you want to run for Senate, you want to be living and working full-time in the state you hope to represent if you have any opportunity to do so. Governors have the best position in the world to speak with voters, make connections with officials and volunteers, and lay out an agenda. He can't do anything like that when he's living in NoVa and working on just one issue, albeit an important issue in Nebraska.
If he wanted to run for Senate he would never have made this move. End of story.
How do we know he would be a good candidate, given the fact that the state has three congressmen?
Why's he a legend?
I thought that Osborne was all-but-declared for the Governorship. It suits him better, certainly.
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