A third Republican candidate has entered the race to become state Treasurer.
And that is good news for Don Stenberg.
When former head of the Nebraska state patrol, Tom Nesbitt, entered the race yesterday, he immediately began taking votes away from state Senator Tony Fulton. Why?
Because no one knows who Fulton is. Sure maybe YOU do, but you're sitting there reading a Nebraska political blog. The average Nebraskan who will make the effort to vote in the 2010 GOP primary? Maybe not so much.
The advantage that Fulton will hope for is that, as it stands now, very few people will make the effort to vote in the primary.
Sure the Lee Terry and Matt Sak supporters will have to get off their duffs in May, but the rest of the state? When the only race to vote on is Treasurer? It will be a lot easier to just go home and catch Dancing with the Idols, or whatever is on.
What about the average voter, who will go out and vote anyway? They've heard of Don Stenberg. And that could be enough to float Stenberg the lead.
Tony Fulton's problem -- or Tom Nesbitt's, assuming he can pull together a campaign -- will be that those folks who don't like Donny Sten will have another non-Stenberg box from which to choose.
And if others choose to jump in the race? Just more dilution of the non-Stenberg votes.
That's the reality -- right now anyway. Unless Fulton can whip together a hell of a campaign and really get his people to the polls. But it ain't gonna be easy.
***
And who is Tom Nesbitt? Interesting story on him.
He is the first Nebraska state patrol sergeant to rise to the top spot of the state patrol -- placed there by Mike Johanns. He even took time off and then campaigned for Johanns on behalf of the union.
But when Dave Heineman came into office, Heineman wanted "his own person in the job".
Nesbitt then worked for a time -- in the state Treasurer's office.
But he left that gig -- to work on Tom Osborne's Gubernatorial campaign against Dave Heineman.
Hmm.
So then in January 2008, Nesbitt moves to Canton, Ohio and is named public safety to prevent all the crime perpetrated by hobbled men walking around in yellow sports jackets.
He then resigned from that gig in July of this year in a huff due to an undisclosed disagreement with the Canton Mayor who originally placed him.
He has now moved back to Nebraska and wants a better seat in the Treasurer's office (and has found himself a pair of those rectangular frames).No word as to whether T.O. will endorse him (but wouldn't THAT be a coup).
***
We have yet to hear about anyone else getting in the Treasurer's race -- on either side of the aisle.
Posts
12 comments:
Still kind unbelieavable that the Dems don't have a candidate for this office. What a commentary on NDP/Covalt/Rogers.
The second paragraph of the second section is less than clear- "He is the first Nebraska state patrol sergeant to rise to the of the state patrol"
I think you might have left out some info in there, somewhere. Otherwise a decent post.
What are you, my grammar teacher to me, of?
OK, OK, I've have updated...
One reason the D's don't have candidates is they, apparently, are too busy fighting and attacking each other over the public option. Take a look at Vile Kyle's latest article at NNN.
The circular firing squad--keep it up guys!
Anon 11:30, I found your post to be extremely hypocritical. I have been reading Leavenworth off and on for about a year, and I do appreciate the time and effort that it takes to keep a blog going. You say that the Dems are just firing in a circle, but there is a post by sweeper taking shots at Chuck Hagel. I doubt you have called out Sweeper on this, and to call Kyle vile is just childish. Kyle has every right to call out a member of his own party on any issue that he thinks is wrong. Just like anyone on the R’s can call out Chuck Hagel. (I believe that Hagel needs to be called out more, but that is just me.)
People on this blog keep harping on this non-sense that NNN is this horrible, hate filled blog. You should take a look at the comments here and then judge, because I have seen more hate from comments on this blog, then I have over at NNN.
Sorry, Dave W--not even close. Look at the content of the articles here--they tend to be witty, offbeat and humerous at times. All you ever see from NNN is bile--attacks on Terry, attacks on Johanns, then back to attack Terry, then more attacks on Johanns. We know very well what NNN hates--anything Republican. But where is their positive message on anything? There isn't any. I have lefty friends--they're sick of it too--and that's probably one reason so few people ever post there.
Anon: 12:51. I apologize; I did not know that it wasn’t ok to attack people without being witty. I guess if it is funny, then it must be true. Look at the Daily Show! I do admit that Kyle can be a bit dry, but he does a through job on explaining his points. My point was that the people that post on this blog are just as nasty and vile as the posters at NNN. Kyle sees an elected official that he believes that is making bad policy, and he calls them on it. How is this different the continuous rants and raves about Mayor Suttle? Or Tom White? Or the Fire Union? Or the Police Union? Or Ben Nelson? I could go on. Just because they are republican does not mean that they should get a free pass.
Nesbitt sued Nebraska at one point for backpay. I remember thinking how wrong it was for him to try to stick the taxpayer for money even when he was employed by taxpayers. There was an article about him suing the state for backpay after he was fired from the state patrol. I think he helps Stenberg, yes but he also helps the Democrats by giving them a nice Republican target to rip on.
Dave W--it is hard to compare the quality of the comments posted here v. NNN since the latter has so few. That might tell you something, actually.
Dave W=Kyle
We have three candidates, but frankly not a one I want to vote for.
Tony Fulton's record is short, and outside of rallying the tea parties, what has he done? He seems to cater too much to the right.
Stenberg needs to stick to his law practice. How many campaigns does he need to run to realize this? He couldn't beat Nelson even when he played up his conservative, anti-abortion cred.
And Nesbitt carries a lot of baggage. It's always been suspect the way Johanns seemed to reward him for his campaign role. He's obviously not Heineman's guy.
More than that, what qualifications do any of the three have for the office?
Their qualifications? Alot better than the Dem candidate--oh wait, there isn't one.
The fact that Covalt, Rogers and Samp haven't lined up a D for this open office speaks volumes . . .
Post a Comment