Bob Kerrey (Union Square Ventures/CC BY 2.0)
According to the AP, Democrats have
landed their man:
Former Sen. Bob Kerrey is reversing course and says he'll seek the Democratic nomination for the Nebraska seat he once held.
Kerrey's announcement Wednesday comes just weeks after he publicly rejected a run to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson. It's also just two days before Nebraska's candidate filing deadline.
The 1992 presidential candidate and former Nebraska governor previously said not running was in his family's best interest.
As further confirmation, there's already a quickie
Kerrey 2012 website up. In any event, even if you've never liked Bob Kerrey, this has to be considered good news for Democrats. At the very least, it'll force Republicans to spend heavily to win this seat. (Of course, the DSCC will have to shell out money here, too, to stay competitive.) And it's not impossible for Kerrey to win: He's evidently seen polling that suggests he can, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten into the race. What's more, the GOP field is surprisingly weak and wracked with some real hostility; there's a very good chance their nominee—whether it's AG Jon Bruning, Treasurer Don Stenberg, or state Sen. Deb Fischer—will emerge bruised and penniless from the primary. So it's still a long shot for Team Blue, but the shot just got a bit shorter.