Big Election In Nebraska Tuesday

Many outsiders tend to think of Nebraska as another hopeless red ink state. But it's not. The Omaha-based 2nd district is a nice normal all-American swing district. In 2012 Obama won narrowly; in 2012 Romney won narrowly and in 2016 Trump beat Hillary 48.2 to 46.0%. The PVI is R+4. The current congressman is Republican Don Bacon, who beat Blue Dog Democrat (an "ex"-Republican himself) Brad Ashford, in 2016. Ashford was unable to motivate the Democratic base, primarily because he tended to vote with the Republicans most of the time. Bacon beat him 141,066 (48.9%) to 137,602 (47.7%). Ashford spent $2,515,416 on the race to Bacon's $1,576,183. The DCCC wasted $2,688,673 and Pelosi's PAC spent another $741,041 on Ashford while the NRCC spent $2,773,264 for Bacon while Ryan's PAC kicked in another $1,243,330.

This coming Tuesday (May 15) is primary day and the DCCC and the Blue Dogs and New Dems are all pushing heavily for Ashford again. As of the April 25 reporting deadline he had spent $397,194 while the progressive he's running against, Kara Eastman, had spent $284,880. Blue America endorsed Kara, as have Climate Hawks Vote, the Working Families Party, the PCCC, Justice Democrats and VoteProChoice. The rotgut insider hellhole, EMILY's List, making nice with the DCCC, has refused to endorse her. By the way, it's totally crunch time for Kara's grassroots campaign now-- which will win or lose based on their field operation in 4 days. If you want to help out, just click on the 2018 ActBlue congressional thermometer on the right.

This week, reporting for Rewire News, Ally Boguhn wrote about how the DCCC is screwing up the race by pushing for the proven reactionary Blue Dog against Kara. She told Boguhn that "What we continuously hear in the district is, 'Oh, it takes either a Republican to be in the seat or a conservative Democrat.' So we run conservative Democrats and they lose. What we need right now and what is exciting the base is a real Democrat." She was discussing Omaha but it's true from coast to coast-- and the corrupt conservatives who run the DCCC don't want to hear it.

Eastman said her campaign has knocked on more than 40,000 doors and is listening to voters about the issues they care about. Those include, she said, health care, education, and the environment.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the arm of the party that works to elect members to the U.S. House of Representatives, has lined up behind her primary rival, Brad Ashford-- a former Republican, state legislator, and U.S. congressperson-- adding him to their high-profile “red to blue” campaign.

That support comes despite Ashford’s record on reproductive rights. Ashford has claimed he has “always & will continue to support women’s right to choose.” But while in the state legislature he voted in favor of bills that would have restricted access to abortion care based on false premises including a 20-week abortion ban, which was signed into law. Speaking at that time on the state house floor, Ashford reportedly falsely claimed that “the line is 20 weeks” for abortion because “there is no question that there is fetal pain.” This is a myth parroted by conservatives to advocate for later abortion bans, despite the fact that medical experts agree a fetus cannot feel pain until later in pregnancy.

Ashford voted for a so-called informed consent measure later signed into law; it’s an unnecessary legislative intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship that forces doctors to offer an ultrasound to patients seeking abortion care. That bill was co-sponsored by Heath Mello, a Democrat who last spring sparked debate within the Democratic Party about its values when news broke that a high-ranking member of the Democratic National Committee would speak alongside him at a rally despite Mello’s anti-choice record in the state legislature. Weeks later, Mello lost his mayoral bid and suggested the controversy was at least partly responsible for his loss. Omaha, where Mello hoped to win office, is a part of Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District.

Ashford was later elected to U.S. Congress, representing the same district he is running for now, before being unseated by now-incumbent Rep. Don Bacon (R). During his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, Ashford voted against anti-choice legislation, earning him a 100 percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America in a 2015 legislative scorecard.

Though his website doesn’t include a section on his platform, Ashford has suggested that he “doesn’t think a single-payer system is politically feasible, but he does support some changes such as allowing those 50 and older to buy into Medicare,” according to the Omaha World-Herald. During a recent debate, he reportedly elaborated on his position, saying that he instead supports repairing the Affordable Care Act.

Ashford’s campaign did not respond to requests for an interview.

DCCC Chairperson Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) has maintained that abortion rights would not be used as a litmus test for candidates receiving its help.

Eastman told Rewire.News she was “surprised” when the DCCC got involved in the race. “I had been talking to them as well and they had told me that they would not be getting involved,” she said. “But the party doesn’t choose the candidate, the voters do.”

...“What we’re finding is that voters are engaged and excited,” Eastman continued. “And this is absolutely winnable, but we have to be speaking about the values of the people of the district and actually be willing to go out and talk, and more importantly listen to the voters.”