Well, this is my first diary, so excuse any of the newb mistakes I make.
Lee Terry has been the House Rep. for Nebraska's second Congressional District since 1999, when he replaced fellow GOPer Jon Christensen (who resigned to run [unsuccessfully] for Governor). This year he is facing off in a rematch against his 2006 opponent, Jim Esch.
In 2006, Esch, running with only a shoestring budget, gave Terry a serious scare, before losing by about 8 pts. Terry has been warning the National GOP for months that NE-2 is in danger because of Obama. Now, with Obama opening his third field office in NE-2, it looks like Terry's getting scared. He's put out a pro-Obama ad! More over the fold.
NE-2 is the seat that was once held by the father of Warren Buffet (who is a Democrat), Howard H Buffett (who was a Republican). It's been held by the GOP since the Gingrich Revolution of 1994. Omaha's Mayor, Mike Fahey, is a Democrat, and Nebraska currently has one Democratic Senator (Ben Nelson). Our Republican Senator is, of course, Chuck Hagel, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that NE-2 could go Obama-Esch on November 4.
Esch ran a very Howard Dean-esque campaign in 2006. It wasn't uncommon to go to a rock show and see 5 or 6 people wearing Esch shirts...not working for the campaign, but just wearing the shirts.
I had the opportunity to meet Esch during the Nebraska Democratic Primary Caucus. He was the person elected to help try and convince the undecideds to come over to the Obama side (he did a pretty good job too, Obama won big at my caucus location). He didn't seek this position at the caucus, but once everyone found out he was in attendance, he was nominated and unanimously elected to the position. From what I've gathered, it was his experience that day that made him to decide to run for Congress again. He easily beat DINO Raimondo in the primary.
I heard a rumor somewhere (on this site, perhaps) that an internal poll conducted by Esch in August had Obama only down 4 pts against McCain.
Lee Terry must be getting the same sort of feed back.
There are several Alternative Weekly Newspapers in Omaha. I was shocked today when I opened the The Reader (probably the most popular of these Weeklies) to see this (poorly designed) ad which extolls the virtues of being an "Obama-Terry" voter.
Here's the ad:
I feel I have to comment again on the poor design of this ad (so as to justify all those student loans I got for my B.A. in art). Who designed this thing?
Here's a link to Jim Esch's website. I'm pretty sure he's an Orange-to-Blue candidate Esch is a Red-to-Blue candidate, so donate it if ya got it!