Thursday, March 15, 2007

Bruning's Bold Move?


For you Omahans who only get your news from the local paper, we’d like to let you know that there is a bit of news happening today, which the Omaha World Herald has conveniently ignored.

Attorney General Jon Bruning is making an announcement about his political future today at 10:00 AM. (Bruning may prepare for Senate opening – LJS- 3/15/07).

Now if Bruning announces that he’ll make an announcement about his plans sometime in the fall, the denizens of Leavenworth Street will march to the nearest hat store and eat the available merchandise. One HAS to figure that Bruning is specifically taking this opportunity to show that, unlike another who announced recently, he is willing to step up and make a firm decision.

We would expect that Bruning will declare that he’s running and raising money, etc. It will be interesting to see if:

1) he will declare that he’ll stay in the race no matter what Chuck Hagel decides to do.
2) he’ll jump out and declare his positions on the issues of the day.

If he’s saying that he’ll drop out if Hagel stays in then, frankly, Leavenworth Street does not see what the purpose of this announcement is. It’s not as if declaring now will give him some major advantage. Donors and endorsers will most likely wait for Hagel’s decision.

However, if he’s throwing down the gauntlet in front of Hagel, well, that makes it a little more interesting doesn’t it?

We chuckled a little at Bruning’s apparent anger – viewed by many -- at Hagel’s non-announcement announcement. Bruning expressed “surprise” at Hagel’s statement – even though the conventional wisdom expressed by many was that at most, Hagel would announce an exploratory committee and keep his Senate re-elect options open. Was Bruning hoping for an endorsement from Hagel on the stage?

WOWT.com and KETV.com both are stating that they’ll be running a live webcast of the event. We would expect the usual radio suspects as well.
Send in your predictions before the event!!!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

SS should get your hat(s)ready.

However, There's no way that the AG could leave fundraising until later this Fall. That would only leave a clear advantage to a self-funder and I believe there is only one of those in this state and he is chomping at the bit to try and prove himself, again.

Remember, the AG may have a lot of bucks in his AG campaign account, but it is all tainted by the blood of the corporate thieves (or so most of the Dems in America believe so!) Any how, not a penny of it can be used for a Federal race-not that it ever stopped a sitting state senator from using their campaign $$ to wage the intial federal campaigns. The only difference here is that they were all Dems and the AG is a Republican.

We'll see.

Anonymous said...

I'm more interested in why the OWH would ignore Bruning's announcement than in whatever he has to say. I know they're no great fan of his but ... damn.

Either way - Go Jon!

UW

Street Sweeper said...

Nebraska TV (http://www.nebraska.tv/news/local/6508757.html)is reporting that Bruning may announce an “exploratory committee to run for Senate”. Now if this is true, we won’t be heading to the hat store, but I may just lean over the gutter and hurl my breakfast burrito. Exploratory committee for Senate? Is the “exploratory committee” now going to trickle down all over politics? “I’m setting up an exploratory committee for my Student Council run.” We’ll see in about 20 minutes…

xxx xxx said...

My crystal ball is awesome! You should really see it sometime. Anyway, JB will say:
1. he is opening an exploratory committee;
2. that Hagel is totally awesome and is a such a treat for Nebraskans;
3. he needs to open his ears to Nebraskans and see if they are calling his name;
4. Hagel is totally awesome and is such a treat for Nebraskans (he says this twice for fear that tomorrow morning he might wake up next to a horse's head)

Anonymous said...

Uncle Wiggly:

My take on the World-Hagel's silence: They want to avoid further embarrasing Hagel by highlighting the political chaos the non-announcement triggered among those lusting for the Senate seat.

Sweeper:

I agree that an "explaratory committee" for a Senate race would make Bruning look ridiculous. Not that he needs much help as it is.

Wake up, people!

Street Sweeper said...

Willis (I'll decline the "Sweet" part), I think you may be correct.

Anonymous said...

IMHO, a smart move by Jon Bruning. KFAB reported this morning that Hal Duab put out a press release that he's "looking at possibly running for Senate nomination". Lets Jon get his campaign setup and money coming in and when Hagel makes his next major misstep, whatever that may be, Jon is ready for action including running against severely damaged goods Chuckie when he discovers his presidential ambitions collapse.