Neb.: Senate Seat Goes Republican In Nebraska

OMAHA, Neb. (AllPolitics, Nov. 5) -- Omaha investment banker Chuck Hagel scored a big upset for Republicans by defeating popular Democratic Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jim Exon is retiring.

The Democrats' hold on both Senate seats in conservative-leaning Nebraska seemed at risk when three-term incumbent Exon decided not to run for re-election. But Nebraska's other Senate Democrat, Bob Kerrey, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, scored a recruiting coup when Nelson agreed to run. Evidently, it wasn't enough to keep the seat Democratic.

In 1994, Nelson, who projects an image as a conservative Democrat, won a second term as governor with 74 percent of the vote, even as Republicans were making huge gains nationally by winning governorships.

Hagel hoped he could make lightning strike twice this year. He scored a come-from-behind victory over state Attorney General Don Stenberg in the Republican primary on May 14.

A former deputy director of the Veterans Administration who was also chief operating officer of the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations, Hagel returned to Omaha in 1992. He is president of a local investment banking firm.

Taking a page from Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole, Hagel hoped to catch his opponent by proposing a major tax cut, which he said would be offset by reducing the budgets of federal regulatory agencies, shifting funding and control of welfare and Medicaid to the states, cutting the projected increase in Medicare spending and eliminating the federal Departments of Energy, Commerce, Education, and Housing and Urban Development.

But also like Dole, Hagel had to defend himself against charges that his plan would increase the federal deficit. Nelson's campaign, for example, trumpeted the comments of Greg Hayden, a University of Nebraska at Lincoln economist, who said, "These types of promises are what have us in the (deficit) mess we are (in) today."

Nelson, who as required by state law proposed six balanced budgets as governor, came out with his own plan to balance the federal budget. He also defended the Education Department against Hagel's proposal to eliminate it.

Echoing a line of attack used by Stenberg in the primary, Nelson said Hagel returned to the state from Washington, D.C., specifically to run for the Senate. Republicans pointed out that Nelson promised during his 1994 re-election to serve all four years of his second term as governor.

Congressional Quarterly contributed to this report.

Related Stories:

• Banker Wins Republican Nod In Race To Succeed Exon -- May 20, 1996
• Nelson Cultivates Votes In Nebraska Race -- May 5, 1996

Related Links:

• Nebraska State Profile