Pete Ricketts
Has spent almost $3 million of his own money on his campaign so far. The former COO of Ameritrade has spent the money on several
comically bad campaign ads that try and pass the son of a multimillionaire off as a Nebraska farm boy. If you're in Nebraska, you've seen them, and no doubt laughed at the stupidity of thirty people in a diner pulling out red stocking caps, shouting "Pete, you forgot your hat!"
And, if you're like me, you think, is anyone buying this?
According to a
poll released by the Ricketts campaign, yes.
The Ricketts poll, conducted last week by the same polling company used by President Bush in 2004, indicated that Ricketts was ahead of former attorney general Don Stenberg, 43 percent to 33 percent, with David Kramer third at 7 percent.
Pete Ricketts hasn't connected with the voters of Nebraska, from every indication we've seen so far. Still, this is the first poll that I've seen released to the media, and it has Ricketts with a comfortable advantage. I don't really believe it. There are a number of other things that don't add up, including Stenberg's relative position in the poll.
If Ricketts wins, it's bad news for the DSCC, who will have to spend a lot more money on Nelson's race than they normally would. Nelson's pretty safe here, he's got an approval rating of about 70% and he's popular among Republicans, but in this state, you never know. Stenberg or Kramer give Nelson the win in a walk. Ricketts makes him spend a lot of money, but he's such a joke of a candidate, that Nelson will crush him. There's no reason to believe Nelson's in any danger, so the main issue here is money.
There are less than three weeks until the primary. We'll see what this poll means, then.