NE-Sen: People Power in Nebraska

When Scott Kleeb announced his candidacy in February, I talked with him about what brought him to politics in 2006, and where he was going to take this race.

JM: What did you learn from 2006 that you're taking in to 2008?

SK: I started the campaign in 2006 thinking that I had to have a whole lot of answers, thinking that people were going to be turning to me and saying "what do you think on this" and "How are you going to address it" and there's an element of truth to that, when you're electing somebody you want them to be able to think through an issue, have an opinion on an issue. That's obvious. However, when we really started to pick up was when I realized the other element, which is at some point people are engaged in your campaign for their own reasons. That our campaign became just that—it wasn't about me, it wasn't about you, it was about new people getting engaged in the political process and enlivening that process. They were there for their own reasons, they were there for their own communities, they were there for their own future. And together we became this vehicle for that. I tell you, once I realized that, it just had a tremendous impact. That's when our campaign really lit a spark and took off....

That's the way we're going to have to run this campaign. It's not just the way we're going to have to run to win, that's what it's about. Asking people to become engaged in the issues and to become engaged in our democracy ... whether it's on the netroots or whether it is on the call-in shows or whether it is on a campaign. That's the thing that is happening in this election, it's that people want to talk about politics. It is again something that's engaging for people and there's a desire there to be part of that change....

Nebraskans are engaged and they want to take back their state and their nation. They turned out in huge numbers for the state's first ever caucus, and have kept up the fervor by putting their money solidly behind the Dems in the presidential race.

That's what Scott Kleeb is counting on--an engaged and energized electorate that will put him over the top next Tuesday in his primary race with the newly-minted "Democrat" Tony Raimondo. As I wrote yesterday, Raimondo has made up for his lack of grassroots fundraising by loaning his campaign $450,000 of his own money.

Scott can't compete with that kind of personal fortune, but in Nebraska's relatively cheap media market, it won't take that kind of cash to keep Scott competitive. He's got the ground game working and we can help boost that by keeping him on the air. That's why we set a $20,000 goal by the end of the day Friday. I'd like to set a new goal--450 donations, one for every $1,000 Raimondo has invested. That's people power. We can do it.

You can help send a real Democrat to the Senate, and send the message that people power can compete with big money by contributing to Scott's campaign.

On the Web:
Kleeb for Senate
Daily Kos for Scott Kleeb ActBlue page

Race tracker wiki: NE-Sen