Posted on 04/27/2005 4:34:30 PM PDT by ChuckK
Former Attorney General Don Stenberg appeared poised Wednesday to jump into the 2006 Republican Senate race and seek a rematch with Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. Stenberg
Stenberg, who served as attorney general for 12 years, will hold a news conference today at Republican state headquarters to make "an important announcement about his future political plans." All signs pointed to his third bid for a seat in the Senate.
Stenberg, who left the attorney general's office in 2003 to enter private practice in Omaha, lost to Nelson in 2000 by 15,000 votes.
But Stenberg supporters are quick to point out that was the closest margin since Nebraska began directly electing senators by popular vote in 1916 and that the Republican voter registration advantage over Democrats has grown by 34,000 since 2000.
On the other hand, Democrats note, Nelson won that 2000 election swimming against a Republican tide in a presidential election year. Even though George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 202,000 votes, they point out, Stenberg was defeated.
"Nebraska voters are likely to be reminded they've already decided this contest," Democratic state executive director Barry Rubin said.
"Most Nebraskans will remember Don Stenberg's ideological extremism and his failure to connect with Nebraska families," Rubin said.
In Washington, Nelson's media spokesman, David DiMartino, said: "Senator Nelson isn't worried about his campaign; he's focusing today on improving health care in rural Nebraska."
While Stenberg appeared ready to get a jump-start on other potential Republican candidates and begin the task of raising campaign funds, Nelson entered April with $1.5 million in the bank.
A long list of GOP Senate prospects includes former Republican State Chairman David Kramer of Omaha, GOP National Committeeman Kerry Winterer of Omaha, Speaker of the Legislature Kermit Brashear of Omaha, former Lt. Gov. Dave Maurstad and State Treasurer Ron Ross.
Stenberg would be "a very formidable candidate" who has won three statewide races for attorney general, Kramer said.
"For anyone who hopes to challenge Ben in the general election, having Don in the primary would provide a good, strong test," he said. "It would provide a good measure of electability."
Kramer said he will make his own decision in early June.
When Stenberg first broached the possibility of entering the Senate race last February, he said he would center on cultural concerns as well as economic and security issues.
During an interview in Grand Island two months ago, Stenberg said he sees "a real need to stand up" and defend the institution of marriage and work to ban so-called partial birth abortion.
Stenberg, 56, who lives along the Platte River near Gretna, lost the Republican Senate nomination to Chuck Hagel in 1996. Hagel subsequently defeated Nelson, then the incumbent governor, to win a seat in the Senate.
I surely do believe that, yes, I surely do.
Right. Dancing hand-in-hand with Durbin and Reid to Tom Petty's tune, "I Won't Back Down".
Hope he gets dumpbed
As much as I hate to say it, I prefer him to Hagel. Nelson is basically an honest, conservative democrat who has helped Bush. Hegel is an untrustworthy, liberal repub who takes every opportunity to trash Bush.
Mostly, right, except Hagel really isn't that liberal, he justs acts like one and talks like one, and then votes conservative.
I always saw an irony to the fact that he will bad mouth the living hell out of most conservative things (except abortion), the media will give him play, and then he'll quietly vote the right way anyway.
His ACU and ADA and several other orgs all rate in as pretty conservative, much more then Nelson.
To me, he may vote the way I want him to, but he still has no character and no integrity, and no shame.
Actually, your analysis is right on. I let my disgust for Hagel cloud my evaluation of his voting record. The clincher for me was when he was on Hardball one night and Chrissy tried to pin him down on whether the the war on Iraq was the right thing to do or not. Hagel's response was "we won't know till it's over". What a gutless thing to say. I guess if we win it was right, if we lose it was wrong. I simply can't stand him any more.
Does anyone remember the song, "He did it before and he will do it again"? That sums up Don Stenberg. It's time to let someone else take a stab at it.
In the very begining, I used to like him, I started to notice him back when the kyoto treaty was being worked on.
He got back before Al Gore did, and told the press that the kyoto treaty was dead on arrival.
It humiliated Gore and Clinton (which is always a good thing). He helped kill it in the senate.
Then he started getting weird.
In 2000, he backed McCain (who is his friend, so thats somewhat understandable) and was supporting CFR, he was talking about how much it was necessary and blah blah blah.
Then he went out and voted against it.
I thought it was a bad bill, and I'm glad he voted against it, but its also when I realized he had no character, and no shame. He basically lied, lied, and lied, and did the right thing when nobody noticed but only after milking it all for media attention.
I think thats when he learned, acting liberal gets you attention in a media adores you way.
But his ego, has no limits, and he craves the kind of attention that hurts the GOP more then helps it.
Ironically, behind the scenes he made Christine Todd Whitmans life a living hell with the EPA, undermining her, undercutting her, and and tormenting her, to keep the EPA from harrassing businesses (i.e. doing the right thing) while at the same time, ripping Bush over other things in public.
I never liked Whitman, and I hate the EPA, but he could have been vocal and helped Americans realize the problems with the EPA. Instead he took the easy way out, and at the same time, played footsie with the MSM.
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