The race boils down to three candidates. Just for reference, so that no one thinks I’m cheating any one candidate, I’m done these in alphabetical order by last name:

Jon Bruning: Former NE State Legislator, Current NE AG – Endorsed by the following: Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Tea Party Express, US Chamber of Commerce, current Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood (remember, Nebraska only has one house), Sheriff Joe Arapaio, 41 county attorneys, and 79 county sheriffs and police chiefs, Nebraska Right to Life

Deb Fischer: Current NE State Legislator, cattle rancher – Endorsed by the following: (to be fair, I looked at Deb’s website in an attempt to find endorsements and could not find many others – I know of these four for sure) Former VP candidate Sarah Palin, US Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, (those first two came down within the last three to four days) Nebraska Right to Life, Former Neb. Governor Kay Orr

Don Stenberg: Current NE Treasurer, Former NE AG, fourth time running for US Senate – Endorsed by the following: US Senators Jim DeMint, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee, Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, the Madison Project, Ed Meese, Mark Levin, Family Research Council, Nebraska Right to Life, Nebraskans United for Life, Republican National Coalition for Life, and last but certainly not least, our hosts, Redstate and Erick.

I think that covers who is in the race, and who specifically they are and what endorsements they hold. The main powerplayer in the state regarding pro-life groups is Nebraska Right to Life. They hold a ton of sway and can mobilize quite quickly. They have endorsed all three candidates, and so haven’t really given an advantage to any one candidate.

The last national polling in this race can be found here:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/senate/nebraska_senate_race.html

and here:

http://weaskamerica.com/2012/05/07/mid-america-melee/

The last poll can be contested a tad bit because it was automated, which comes with its own set of problems, and the fact that it didn’t allow any undecideds – people were forced to choose a candidate. Still, interesting to see that when forced to choose, that Bruning still has that much of a lead.

The last poll released by one of the campaigns that I’m aware of can be found here:

http://www.debfischer2012.com/2012/05/fischer-surging-in-new-poll-releases-new-tv-ad/

It shows a lot of undecideds, and Deb Fischer close behind Jon Bruning. Of course, it is a poll released by one of the campaigns, so take it for what it’s worth.

Full disclosure: I have not decided whether I’ll vote for Deb Fischer or Jon Bruning. Don Stenberg lost my vote quite a while ago because of personal interaction with Don, and knowing enough people that have dealt with Don to know the kind of person he is, and he isn’t the type I would support in any race. That being said, I tried to be as fair to him above as I was to anyone else. I know Jon pretty well from college, and have gotten to know him better over the years. I’ve had the chance to meet Deb a couple times and she seems nice, and has a pretty decent record.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will point to a couple other columns that Erick and mbecker have posted earlier on this site. before I list them I will say I think they’re riddled with inaccurate statements about Jon’s policies. For example, eight of the points that are listed are taken from columns that Jon wrote for a daily rag at the University of Nebraska approximately two decades ago, and yet no evidence of his support for those policies can be found in his voting record. The defenses of these posts can be found here, at an independent Republican/conservative website I frequent that deals with Nebraska politics: www.leavenworthst.com

Erick and mbecker’s posts can be found here:

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/05/03/jon-bruning-loves-eric-holder-ronald-reagan-and-the-boy-scouts-not-exactly/

and here:

http://www.redstate.com/mbecker908/2012/05/04/rick-santorum-glad-youre-gone-dont-come-back/

I made several comments regarding the allegations in mbecker’s diary. You can read those and the information at leavenworthst and get a pretty fair view of where Jon stands on those issues. I’m not comfortable with a couple things with Jon, but many of the pieces Erick lists are just inaccurate regarding Jon’s current stance on the issues as evidenced by his performance in office.

It will be an interesting runup to next Tuesday. We also have early voting in Nebraska which ended earlier this week, so how much effect the late push will have has yet to be seen. I know the reports out of Douglas County from the last go-around showed that about a third of the votes casts were cast prior to election day.

Hope that helps, and I’ll try to answer any questions you might have.