Raimondo thinks Hagel is OUT

First, a little Separated at Birth for our Senate Candidate and Prognosticator of the Day…

Columbus's Tony Raimondo and The Soprano’s Christofuh Moltisanti!

The OWH’s Joe Morton reports today that Tony Raimondo believes that U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel will NOT run for re-election. (Raimondo preparing for Senate campaign – OWH – 6/14/07.) Raimondo, chairman of Behlen Manufacturing in Columbus, is now assembling his campaign organization for a run of his own. To date he hasn’t raised any cash but is looking to hire a campaign manager.

It is well known that one of Raimondo’s good buddies is Senator Ben Nelson, and one would think that Raimondo wouldn’t make a move, or a statement, like this unless he was fairly confident, or had some inside scoop. That being said, Hagel’s inner circle is notoriously tight, and it would be surprising if anyone actually knew what was going through his mind these days.

(And the countdown clock, above to the right, continues to tick.)

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The Beatrice Fiddler blog pointed out that RedState.com has already (!) endorsed Jon Bruning over Hagel in the Nebraska Senate primary. No matter that Hagel isn’t actually IN the race yet, and there may be many other candidates involved at one point or another. RedState, and many of the commenters to the post make the Connecticut Joe Lieberman – Ned Lamont comparison as well.

Besides being ridiculously early in this endorsement, we would point out that no matter how swell their intentions, those from out-of-state may want to temper their enthusiasm for dumping Chuck Hagel. Nebraskans are very protective of their own, and are not likely to be happy about those from around the country telling them how to vote. In other words, Nebraska GOPers may tell ‘em, “If he’s an S.O.B., he’s our S.O.B.”

(We’d also like to thank The Beatrice Fiddler for the nice little post about Leavenworth Street.)

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The FEC has entered the internet age with a leap and a bound by making their Presidential fundraising reports waaaay more user friendly. When you enter their site, you simply click on a state name, then an area and you can see who in that zip code has donated to a particular candidate.

For instance, click, Nebraska, Chris Dodd and Omaha, and you can see that Omaha’s Mayor Mike Fahey has dropped $2,100 into Senator Dodd’s coffers. (And if the thought of a “President Dodd” doesn’t make your skin quiver, well then we don’t know what to tell you…) Kudos to the site designer that you can also sort the various columns.

The FEC apparently plans to do the same thing for Senate and House candidates soon. If you never visited before, the old format forced you to download .pdf documents and wade through pages and pages to find what you were looking for.