Nebraska as a whole is a tough sell for the public option, but not Nebraska Dems, and that could get a little uncomfortable for Ben Nelson.
Nelson has been the Nebraska Democratic party during all the years of the Dem decline--he was the only Dem that could get elected, and the party was pretty much his. If he chose not to get involved in another Dem's race, like in the 2006 squeaker Congressional run by Scott Kleeb, the state party wouldn't get involved. But that might be changing.
The Nebraska Democratic Party put the state's senior senator, Ben Nelson, in an awkward spot on Saturday by passing a resolution making support for a government-run insurance option a central aspect of its platform.
In a nearly unanimous vote at a committee meeting in Fort Omaha Metro Community College, about 70 attendees approved language that urges members of Congress "to vote for such health care reform proposals that contain a robust public option at all stages of the legislative process including conference and reconciliation, and encourage legislators to pass such reform."
....
"[The provision] is popular with the Democrats in the state because we believe without it the bill could too easily become a welfare program for the insurance industry," said [party chair Vic] Covalt. The argument supporters made was that without the public plan, "basically we end up subsidizing insurance companies and hurting taxpayers who don't have coverage."
A little independence from Nelson will be a very good thing for the Nebraska Democratic Party. For more on the resolution, read NebraskaLefty's diary and the comments for an idea of what's happening on the ground in Nebraska.