Redstate

As of 11:10PM Central, Heineman is making an acceptance speech.  I'm disappointed, as I voted for TO, but I'll be happy to help out on Heineman's campaign.  Should be a lock for the election, it is Nebraska after all........

We posted at the same time.  Or at least, I hadn't checked the comments.  Thanks for the update.

If you have time and effort, I reccommend helping Mr. Ricketts who will need it much more.  He'd be a great Senator from what I've gathered following the race.

Well, helping out Ricketts goes without saying!  Again, I was a Stenberg guy (went to school with his daughter) but Pete seems like a stand up guy.  That was one thing I really liked about this primary, it was carried out in a very positive way, no one really tried to bring up negatives about anyone else.  Hopefully, now, we can all get together and get our GOP candidates elected in the fall.  I'll see you fellow NEGOPers out on the campaign trail!  

Heineman pulled through.  And in a no-negativity primary, no less.  Well done.  

And if you could point me towards any sites that actually spell out what the Governor did (specific accomplishments) to boost his popularity to the point where he could best the fabled Osborne in a primary, I'd appreciate it.  All the places I usually check seem to just refer to vague, general "successes."  The guy only had a year and a half.  How did he rack up so much goodwill in so little time?

But I think incumbency is harder to break than many like to believe.  Thus the real question would be "what has he done to get fired?"  It may be a question of who had the burden of proof.

I hope this dynamic plays out in NJ SEN as well.

I am glad Raese won. I was almost positive he would, but all the press reports made it sound like it would be close. It wasn't. With 93% of the vote counted, Raese has 58% to Lewis's 23%. Raese of course will face Robert Byrd in November, that will be a long tough fight with littel chance of success, but stranger things have happened.

Both Houses of our State Legislature has been controlled by the Democrats since 1934. Tonight House Majority Leader Rick Staton was soundly defeated in the Primary. The Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin is behind in his primary by 11 votes with 2 more precincts to count. That one could very well be a nail biter with the Democratic Leaders of both House being defeated. Add to that, the Speaker of the House retired. None of the Leaders of the Manchin Rubber Stamp will be back. Now if the Democrats can vote out their leaders, it is not impossible that they will at least look at Raese. WV is a very conservative state and Raese has a chance since Byrd has gotten more liberal as he has gotten older. Rumors are everywhere that Byrd will not stay in the race, I repeat RUMORS, if they are true that might not be a good thing. The same rumor has Gov Manchin running in his place. Manchin for some unknown reason is very popular. Manchin was also in the news last week for having 4 fundraisers recently, since his term is not up til 08, he must feel he needs to raise funds for something.

On a better note, the touch screen voting in my county was almost flawless, they had a few paper jams in some of the machines printers, and had to change out one machine at a precinct. Polls closed at 7:30 PM. I got to the courthouse at 9:15, the final results were posted at 9:35. 2 hours from the time the polls closed until my county's votes were totaled. I almost missed it.

The new machines might have kept voter turnout down, my county only had 20% turnout, well below the 30-35% normal in off year primaries.

As I mentioned earlier, I was on the ballot for the County Executive Committee. I was unopposed but it was nice to cast a vote for myself. :)

Republican Primary for Nebraska State Treasurer    

Shane Osborn     145068     63%

Ron Ross            83666       37%

Lt. Shane Osborn was the pilot of the US EP-3 spy plane that collided with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet on April 1, 2001.

A solid military guy should continue to do well in a very red state.

I know nothing about him.  Hopefully, he's a conservative on other issues as well.

If you had a dog in one of these fights its time to close ranks.

I'm sure Raese could use some cash as well while he goes after Bryd.

I admit that I don't hold out a lot of hope for knocking off the ex-KKK-er, but Raese sure seems like the guy who could do it.

The governor ran a smart campaign and pandered to where the voters were on schools and a couple of other issues. TO could have went after the governor on a couple of issues and did not.  Generally, TO carried Omaha, Lincoln and a fair number of secondary cities, but got killed in the country.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=24
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"In fact, Osborne hasn't lost since the Big 12 Championship Game in 1996."

Lets wish Coach Osborne and his family the best in whatever he decides to do now.

Check out sixers@nro, about the special election for an OK state senate seat yesterday.  Trust me, it's interesting.

Since Menendez has only been in the seat for a matter of months and the campaign was basically underway as soon as he assumed the seat, that's really more of an open seat.

Plus, the state is pretty mad at Jon Corzine for promising to cut taxes only to do an about face and promise a huge tax increase 2 months later. May transfer to other Democrats on the ticket.

Yeah, Ds have controlled the House and Senate for at least 60 years.  The term limits passed in 1990 started coming into effect in 2004.  The House flipped immediately as long standing Ds had to retire and their conservative districts sent Rs to the state house.  The Senate is a matter of time.  And if the Rs are within 1 seat, it is likely to happen in 2006.  If not, I cannot imagine it takes longer than 2010 in time for redistricting.  It is possible that redistricting could change the 4R/1D representation to 5R/0D if it is gerrymandered differently.  Remember it took a D controlled legislature to ensure that Ds had one US House seat.

I really like Raese from watching his ads online. Of course, the spots featuring Ronald Reagan endorsing Raese for his 1984 run against Rockefeller tugged at the heartstrings quite a bit, I must admit.

I think Raese has to 1) run on a positive pro-growth conservative message 2) gently remind West Virginians of Byrd's increasing liberalism and 3) remind West Virginians that Robert Byrd is getting up there in age and it's time to bring their beloved Senator home so he can spend his twilight years with the people that he so deeply cares about in West Virginia. And that Mr. Byrd will be able to rest easy knowing that John Raese is doing a good job taking care of the people's business in DC. :-)