One could make a pretty compelling argument that the biggest upset of 2008 at the presidential level, bigger than even the Obama victory in Indiana, was the fact that Barack Obama stole an electoral vote from John McCain in, of all places, Nebraska.
Nebraska, which awards its electoral votes piecemeal (two for winning the state, one for winning each congressional district), gave Obama one of its five electoral votes by virtue of his victory over John McCain in its Omaha-based 2nd District.
Tuesday night, the Democratic Party, and the voters of Omaha, made it clear that Obama's surprise single electoral vote in Nebraska was not an isolated incident.
Democrat Jim Suttle, a city councilman, scored the narrow win over former Republican mayor Hal Daub. Suttle won 50.7% of the vote, to Daub's 48.7% of the vote.
Officially, the municipal elections are nonpartisan, but party identifications were not exactly hidden--Daub has been a player in the Nebraska GOP for some time, frequently mentioned for statewide offices. Meanwhile, Suttle played up his Democratic party label, even including a photograph of President Obama in one of his pieces of campaign literature.
In the same election, voters elected a city council that will, for the first time in two decades, have a Democratic majority. Four of the city's seven council seats went to Democrats.
So...what's going on deep in the American heartland? Part of it has to do with Democratic hustle: In just eight years, Democrats have gone from about an 8000 person lead in voter registration, to a better than 19,000 person lead, according to an article in today's Omaha World-Herald by Paul Goodsell.
Click the link for some solid analysis, and one of the better headlines ever: "The Suttle Truth: We're A Democratic Town".
Goodsell also makes an excellent analytical point. If growing population forces the 2nd Congressional District to shed some population, it would likely come not from Omaha, but from neighboring Sarpy County. If that happens, GOP incumbent Lee Terry could be looking for K Street employment.
As it is, there is an apparent trend in the city of Omaha. It is not good news for Terry or the GOP.
Hopefully, however, if Suttle and his new council majority can deliver, it will be good news for Omaha.