Run Senator Run

I am hoping that Senator Tom White does indeed run against Lee Terry. Mostly because I believe State Senator Tom White would lose. The Republican party would win double one for holding on to the 2nc CD. Two they would stand a good chance at picking up his Legislative seat which is on the State Republican party wish list. The Republicans want to gain at least two legislative seats in 2010. If Senator Tom White runs for congress his legislative seat would be open since it is an election year or that seat as well. Also the facts are it is easier to have an elective post change party hands when it is an open race instead of an incumbent being involved. So my words are Run Senator Run.

The Democrats 6 Months

The democrats in the state of Nebraska are feeling good right now they have majorities on both the Lincoln and Omaha city councils. They also hold the mayor's offices in both and retained the Omaha's mayor office this last year. Thats not a bad 2009 but now that the 2009 election cycle is over so are the democrats chances of actually winning. The democrats at the Morrison-Exxon dinner were feeling rowdy from what it sounds like. They believe they are Goliath slayers ten feet tall and 500lbs. But now they have to find candidates that can compete in state wide elections which means the 1st CD and the 3rd CD will be be voting which means the democrats have to play to voters that are outside of the Lincoln-Omaha metro areas.
The democratic party chairman Vic Covalt insisted that they will field a full slate of candidates which I still hold as a long shot. State Senator Steve Lathrop is already backing down from a race for governor. Maybe the democratic party will dust off Scott Kleeb and make him a three-time loser or maybe even Jay Stoddard. The knight on the white horse is supposed to be State Senator Tom White a congressional candidate is going to headline your parties ticket. This will be good republicans can beat Tom White and get him out of the Unicameral at the same time. It is an election year for his legislative seat next year. The democrats reached the height of their influence. 2010 will be a good strong year for the Nebraska GOP.

It Could be Interesting

As is my normal routine I was checking the various political websites I follow to help make an informed opinion on this blog. CQPolitics.com has at the top of its page the Rep.Lee Terry is a target of the DCCC. Which means there could be an added national spotlight on this race. Why is the DCCC targeting Terry well as we all know Obama won the 2nd Congressional district. The article mentions the State Senator Tom White is considering making a run at the seat. This is because Sen. White was originally thinking of challenging Gov.Heineman being the sacrificial lamb. But the generally is not a good role to play for a pol who wants to move up.
Now CQPolitics.com says that Terry is on shaking ground. Where may I ask is he on shaky ground Sen. White is no Barack Obama he is a one-term State Senator who is a 52 year old white male. Somehow I don't see the same Obama jubilation for Senator White. Yes, previous time challenger Jim Esch made it close a couple of times. Those were also Landslide democratic years.
This will be a mid-term in which Obama's policies are put through the ringer not congressional republican's. I believe that this will be a show of how strong the Nebraska republican party is and Lee Terry will keep his seat. But this does have larger ramifications State Senator Tom White is up for re-election to the legislature. The republicans could gain a seat in the Unicameral and hold onto a congressional seat that is represented by a congressman that fits his district.

Governor's races

I was looking at CQPolitics.com and it showed an overview of all of the upcoming gubernatorial races around the country. The party that I was fairly amazed by is that only one race is considered Safe Republican which means that there is more than a 70% chance that the republican will win. That one state is our very own Governor. Jim Rogers the executive director of the State democratic party has said that the democrats will have a challenger for the governors mansion however viability is an issue. Even in the solid south where there are six state executive races only one is listed as "safe" and the is Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe. Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina are listed as "leans republican" which means that there is only a little better than a 50-50 chance that the republican will win. The sixth race is Florida since sitting governor Charlie Crist is running for U.S. Senate the governors mansion in Tallahassee has been thrown into the "toss up" category. Now the there is ray's of sunshine in the clouds which are the two gubernatorial races this year in Virginia and New Jersey Republicans have a very good chance of taking one if not both races. Let's work and hope that these two races will give us the momentum in 2010.

Limited Government

Having just received my copy of Joe Scarborough's book "The Last Best Hope". Which is stimulating to me. Scarborough brings up an excellent point, either we as conservatives are Federalists or we are not. We as conservatives have to remember that are party is the party of law and order. The rule of law its interesting we decry State Supreme Courts that overturn the popular vote by a decision. But yet many conservatives want there to be a U.S. Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage. My fellow conservatives marriage is a state issue lets leave it there. Abortion was on its way to being a state by state issue until Roe v. Wade. I believe as do many conservatives that abortion should be a state issue. Many conservatives agree with limited government when it helps the cause. But when expanding the government can help the cause many so called conservatives grow the government. Let us get back to our Federalist principles the made our party great we must to regain our previous glory.

Good Idea

I was reading an article written by Mike Murphy for Time. The article is "The Ice Age Cometh" it has a red white and blue mammoth. It is good symbolism and fits the article well and Murphy makes good points about the direction of the party. Two of them I completely agree with. Which are young voters and Latinos both of which broke decidedly for Obama. When it comes to young voters Mike Murphy points out that a more Libertarian stance on social issues would attract young voters. We must be smart young voters are not culture warriors and don't want to be and do not have the appetite for it.
The second point that I stand with Murphy on is Latinos, he points out that because of Latinos Obama carried Indiana, solid Republican Indiana. We as a party must modernize to what the demographics tell us. One Latino voters are a growing demographic and will continue to be a growing demographic. Why we remain scared of a small group of anti-immigration zealots is beyond me. They are a shrinking base that we will not win elections with. We don't need to drop our conservative principles but we do need to modernize them in a way that fits with the changing demographic landscape if we are really to avoid a republican ice age.

The State of Affairs

This year has not started out well for the GOP polls show a third of the party doesn't like the party. However what direction do we go in whatever direction it takes to start winning elections. We tend to hold up Ronald Reagan as a strong conservative symbol yet we don't follow the handbook that he made. The culture wars are over and many conservatives don't know anything else or any other argument. For too long we screamed at the other side and made them into bad people because of ideology. They are not bad people they are bad policies. The biggest thing conservatives need to do is stop legislating morality. President Taft has a quote that is my favorite," The world cannot be saved through legislation". What does this mean government is not the answer to questions. We must as a party tone done the rhetoric that is not helpful to further a debate.
The job of a political party is to win elections thats the point. In order to govern you have to be able to win. That means new fresh ideas not the same old manufactured ideas that voters are not buying anymore. I think we should all read Joe Scarborough's new book.

It Wont Happen

The poll question and the posting today are of the same vein. Will the democrats have a full slate of candidates for statewide offices. The answer is "no" they will not. The democrats don't have the bench to do it or the will power to do it. State Senator Tom White will most likely try for Rep. Lee Terry's seat in Congress. Eight other democrats are up for re-election to the Unicameral. And not all of them may run for re-election or even be re-elected so the bench continues to shrink. Having Christopher Geary at the top of the ticket is not going to provide any coattails. The democrats are putting all their eggs in one basket which will be the 2nd congressional district race. The democrats in the state of Nebraska have no message but they are trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice. Don't bet on it the democrats will have a lot of rhetorical fluff but thats about it.

He Just Does Not Get it

I was checking out democratic gubernatorial candidate Christopher Geary's website. I noticed that on his platform page he is against capitol punishment which is fine. He mentions that an innocent person could be put to death. Absolutely as long as humans are filling the jury boxes and are involved with the process there is always going to be the human error. I do not have an issue with Mr.Geary on that point. Mr.Geary's third point is what I have an issue with on capitol punishment. It states and I quote "I believe that life imprisonment is a more appropriate punishment than the death penalty because it gives people a longer period of time to regret what they have done." Mr.Geary is assuming that the people who are on death row have a conscience. If the people on death row had one they would not have done what they did to be put there in the first place. Mr.Geary assumes that the person regrets the act they did to begin with. Generally if someone ends up on death row they have earned it and they have earned the right to die. Thinking about there past crimes generally gives these individuals pleasure. As for what Jesus would do I am not qualified to answer that question and neither is Mr.Geary. But as the title says he just doesn't get it.

"41"

The number "41" for Nebraskans does not mean much nor should it. While checking out Governing Magazine.com I noticed the number 41 at the bottom of their page. So I clicked on it and it lead to a screen that said "41" was the number of times that Nevada Governor Jon Gibbons vetoed legislation from his legislature this past legislative session. It set a record that had stood since 1864-65. You might think good for the governor he is protecting the public I see it differently. I see this amount of vetoes as a signal in communication brake down. Certainly the governor would know the office numbers of his legislator's and they certainly would know where his office is. This an example of just bad governing all the way around. A state in Nevada which has a budget deficit and yet the legislature and governor can't get together and find common ground for the good of the state.
Stories like this just exemplify the excellent job that our own governor and the legislature did in communicating positions on legislation and working together. Earlier this week the governor stated that passing legislation on 6 major issues made this past legislative session a huge success. I would say in light of the "41" vetoes in Nevada the accomplishments of our legislature and it's willingness to work with the executive branch is absolutely amazing.

It Will Pick Up

This right now is the lull before the 2010 election cycle. This is the time when potential candidates a deciding whether to run for office or not. This is not an easy decision to make. It is a sacrifice for any family involved especially for a candidates family they are pushed back to a back burner during the campaign.
The Omaha World Herald recently said that the conservative nature of our legislature was evident because of the new state senators. Term limits have made our legislature more conservative basically. Looking at the list of legislative races of the 24 it is very likely the legislature will become more conservative. The State Republican party believes it can pick up at least two seats and will be focusing hard on two seats too pick up and helping in others.
Two democrats I would go after are Dist. 26 Amanda McGill who won her seat by a couple hundred votes. The second is Dist. 46 Danielle Nantkes who now has her third DUI which her opponent or opponents can should and will use in the campaign. After that Dist. 8 Tom White is most likely to run for Congress challenging Rep. Lee Terry. One has to believe the state party would love to take that open seat from the democrats and beat White in a congressional race.

George Tiller

Yes, the OBGYN which did perform abortions in Kansas was murdered in church. Yet MSNBC.com reports that top anti-abortion leaders are quietly distancing themselves from this. Are we serious as a law and order conservative I believe that the killer of Dr.Tiller deserves the same fate. We as conservatives do ourselves harm if we do not completely distance ourselves and decry this murder. This murder which it was, was done by an extremist and as conservatives we should be outraged that this individual uses our words to justify this act. If the murder itself was not bad enough but this individual murdered the doctor in church how much more does this extremist have to slap good conservatives in the face. I have not heard any others but I will be the first conservative call for the execution of this murderer. I hate abortion but our constitution strictly forbids vigilante justice and this was not vigilante justice this was an outright murder.