Believe it or not, WV is not the only primary tonight.  Nebraska had caucuses back in Feb, in which Obama won by 35.3 poins, but tonight Nebraskans got to vote on Senate and House races.

I'll bring the results from DKos's favorite cowboy's contested primary with Republican in Democratic clothing, Tony Raimondo.

I'll also be giving results for Nebraska's second CD which is between two true Democrats, Jim Esch and Richard Carter, once some numbers come in.

As I walked in to my polling place in Nebraska - my kids' elementary school - the fresh, crispness of the air struck me.  Air I'd breathed thousands of times over hundreds of days somehow this election day smelled fresher, cleaner.  For you see, I typically don't smell the air on election days here in Big Red.  I can't smell the air because I'm holding my nose as I enter the polling place - as I cast my ballot - as I reconcile the less than thrilling act of civil participation I just experienced.

But not today!!  

In what can only be called one of the most bizarre moves (not to mention strategic blunders) in a Democratic Congressional primary in history, Jim Esch today endorsed Columbus businessman Tony Raimondo. If you're not up on the race for Chuck Hagel's seat but the name still sounds familiar, it might be because Raimondo was Bush's first pick for manufacturing czar in 2004. You know, the one that had to withdraw from consideration for shipping jobs to China. Raimondo was also a large Republican donor until he decided to switch parties just before declaring his intention to run for Senate as a Democrat. KPTM has the story.

From the great state of Nebraska:

Democratic congressional candidate Richard Carter is in the running against his primary challenger, Jim Esch. The primary’s on May 13th, and Richard needs some help to put an honest Democrat in Lee Terry’s seat!

Tonight, there was a debate between Democrat Richard Carter, and his congressional primary challenger Jim Esch. As for the questioning, local issues weren’t on the agenda, but they were at the front of the points the candidates were making in their statements.

(My name is Richard Carter and I am the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in Nebraska's Second Congressional District.)

For those of you who are joining us for the first time, welcome! This is another in our weekly live blog series. A little about myself: I spent seven years on active duty in the Air Force, flying missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. While on active duty, I earned my Master's Degree in Economics, and I currently teach Economics at a local community college. I also still serve as a Captain in the Air Force Reserve. I am running for Congress to get our troops out of Iraq, balance the budget, and make sure that every American has access to quality, affordable health care.

Today's topic is over FISA and Civil Rights in general.

In regards to FISA, I have personal experience in this area. When I was in Afghanistan looking for those who attacked us on 9/11. I never once thought we needed to spy on the American people to help us with that job. Bin Laden isn't in America and we shouldnt be spying on our people. I am proud of the Democrats in Congress for fighting back on what was a ridiculous power grab by the Bush Administration.

Richard Carter, Democratic candidate for United States Congress in Nebraska's Second Congressional District, will be hosting his weekly live blog at 3 P.M. Central (4 P.M. Eastern). This weeks live blog will focus on FISA, Civil Rights, and other related topics.

The link will be posted on Carter's website, RichardCarter2008.com, around three o'clock and we encourage everyone to participate.

Click here if you would like to learn more about Richard Carter's candidacy for United States Congress. If you would like to donate to the campaign click here.

Thank you.

(My name is Richard Carter and I am a Democratic candidate for United States Congress in Nebraska's Second Congressional District.)

Since I announced my candidacy for United States Congress in February I've been listening. Listening to the issues that matter to the residents of Nebraska's Second Congressional District. I've spoken at Union Halls, Resturants, Community Centers, and on people's porches hoping to gain an insight into what they believe must change in America.

No issue has come up more than the War in Iraq; an issue, as a Veteran of the United States Air Force who flew combat reconaissance missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, I am uniquely equipped to lead on.

The primary is only 23 days away! Help us get our change message to the voters with a donation!

(In the interest of full discloser I support Richard Carter for U.S Congress 100% so take everything with a grain of salt and a handful of pepper -- bring a napkin.)

NE-02 Democratic candidates squared off Tuesday in there first debate.

Quite simply, this debate was a tie with both candidates showing an impressive grasp of the issues. Iraq Veteran Richard Carter won some debates, and 2006 nominee Jim Esch others -- it is spectatular to have great candidates.

I had expected the debate to be calmer then it was, with Richard Carter and Jim "agreeing" on most of the issues. In fact I had even predicted it would be similar to the debate from Futurama. But in reality their are stark differences between the two candidates; both on style and policy.

Here is my analysis:

Yesterday, April 15th, Richard Carter, a Democrat running for Nebraska's Second District Congressional Seat squared off against his primary opponent in what can only be called the Tax Day Debate. The debate was co-hosted by the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Student Government Association and the intellectual student group, The Forum. This diary is a general summary of the night.

From the New Nebraska Network:

I don't like putting "win" or "lose" on debates like this, too often a candidate's partisans will see simply what they want to see. And since I don't really want to make this a partisan piece, I just want to give you my general reactions to the debate without declaring winners or losers. If we want to use a cliche line, the real winner tonight was the Democratic Party.

This is a supporter diary for Richard Carter, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in Nebraska Second Congressional District. I encourage you to support him.

Define Upset:

Upset is a term used when referring to a competition, frequently in electoral politics or sports. When an upset occurs, the party popularly expected to win (the favorite) is defeated by an underdog the majority expects to lose, defying the conventional wisdom.

Examples of political upsets:

1948 - Unpopular Democratic United States President Harry Truman defeats the highly favored Republican candidate Thomas Dewey, which resulted in one of the most famous newspaper headlines, "Dewey Defeats Truman".

1990 - Paul Wellstone, an underfunded professor, defeats popular Senator Rudy Boschwitz in the United States Senate race.

2006 - Jim Webb, a Democrat who had served as Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, wins the senate seat away from incumbent Republican senator and former Governor of Virginia George Allen.

We just came from an all candidate forum, which went really well. I talked about getting our troops out of Iraq, balancing our budget, and fixing our healthcare and educational systems.

There are only 30 days until the primary, we have another debate on Tuesday, and several town halls this week, so I will have many more chances soon to talk to the people of my district about the important issues that are facing us.

This week, the floor is open for questions on any topic, and of course, donations are always appreciated.

Last thing before we get to the liveblog, I wanted to announce how proud I was to earn the endorsement of DailyKos's own Eternal Hope, who writes the excellent Obama Evening News Roundup diary series.

Thanks for coming today, and thank you for your continued support!

--Richard

Yesterday I wrote about one Republican Congressman's attempt to get the RNC to throw money in his district - "Obamaha," as it has come to be known.

Today's post will take a look at that district, from the Presidential race to the Senate, House, and local races. How likely are we to see a blue 2nd District in 2008?

Something interesting happened in the last week. As 2006 Congressional candidate Jim Esch kicked off his second challenge to Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), Terry went to the Omaha media and started publicly begging the Republican National Committee to invest resources in Nebraska.

For those of you who are joining us for the first time, welcome! This is another in our weekly liveblog series. A little about myself: I spent seven years on active duty in the Air Force, flying missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. While on active duty, I earned my Master's Degree in Economics, and I currently teach Economics at a local community college. I also still serve as a Captain in the Air Force Reserve. I am running for Congress to get our troops out of Iraq, balance the budget, and make sure that every American has access to quality, affordable healthcare.

Last Wednesday, I endorsed Darcy Burner's Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. We need to get our troops out of Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and focus on Afghanistan. But beyond the military reasons, we also need to rebuild our economy, which we cant do while we are spending 12 billion dollars a month in Iraq. The video from my speech and more details on the military side under the fold.

Richard Carter, Candidate for Congress in NE-02, will be liveblogging here at DKos at about 7:30 CST. Last week, Richard endorsed Darcy Burner's Responsible Plan to end the War in Iraq, and that is what we will be discussing for the most part.

Sorry for the quick hit diary, but we are on our way to a couple of events right now.

Also, our Web site was just rebuilt. We have an entirely new look to it, and within a day or two everything should be updated (the news and issues sections are still being transfered over, our server has been a bit difficult).

As a reaction to these posts, I have edited my comments. I apologize to the Carter campaign for causing any trouble. I am personally aggravated with way the Esch has run him campaign so far and do not feel that he is doing anything but riding the coat tails of his 2006 run and is not paying attention to the issues or the candidate that he pledged to support before re-entering the race. My endorsement of Carter is still, whole-heartedly valid, and I feel that my argument for him is as well. As I said, I came into this race as an Esch supporter, but I have found that Carter is the best candidate. Again, my endorsement still stands, and I would like people to read this diary, now edited, with forgiving eyes, and don't let the previous edition reflect poorly toward Mr. Carter or his campaign.