Obama Camp Targets Omaha
Reliably Republican, Nebraska has been giving the GOP all its electoral votes in every presidential election since 1964. Democratic candidate Barack Obama is trying to take just one of its five votes this year by focusing on Omaha, the state's biggest, most diverse city.
"If the major competitive states are split, we could be talking about a situation where one electoral vote matters," said Randall Adkins, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Only Nebraska and Maine divide their electoral votes, though the votes have never actually been split. Obama has opened a campaign office in Omaha to make a play for the electoral vote decided by results in the 2nd Congressional District, which would be essential to victory if the election ended in a 269-269 electoral tie, neither candidate reaching the mandatory 270 electoral votes.
Such a tie could happen, say Nebraska Democrats, if Obama and Republican John McCain were to take most of the states they're expected to win and if Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico were to switch from Republican to Democrat.
The Obama campaign started canvassing Omaha neighborhoods last month. John Berge, hired as director of Obama's Nebraska campaign, said that while some resources will go into the rest of the state, they'll be focused on the 2nd District.
Omaha, with about 400,000 people, lies in a congressional district of nearly 600,000. The city and suburbs have most of the state's black population and much of its population of Hispanics and other minorities, groups that national polls show favoring Obama.
The 2nd District gives Obama a small geographic area to target. Television ads aimed at Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the river, already spill over onto Omaha networks.
Adkins isn't convinced that Obama can actually win Omaha's electoral vote. Republicans have a 15,000-voter advantage in the district - much less than in other parts of the state, but still formidable.
So far, McCain's effort in Nebraska is largely volunteer.
The Nebraska Republican Party is canvassing on his behalf, said executive director Matt Miltenberger. Volunteers are hitting thousands of households with information about McCain and state candidates, including 5,000 homes in the 2nd District, Miltenberger said.
"There will definitely be a McCain presence here," Miltenberger said.
Loree Bykerk, chair of the political science department at UNO, said some of the attention for Nebraska might be more a result of Obama "having more money that he knows what to do with."
However, Bykerk added, "if they're going through the trouble of setting up campaign offices in Nebraska, Alaska, Wyoming, maybe it is going to be close."
In Maine, which has gone Democratic in the last four presidential elections, the Republican ticket is seen as having a shot at carrying the northern 2nd District, but little chance of taking the 1st District or the state at large.
"It's largely rural, overwhelmingly white and certainly not liberal," University of Maine political scientist professor Mark Brewer said of the 2nd District, which is the largest geographically east of the Mississippi.
Professor Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College, agreed that the 2nd District is more in play than the 1st, but would be "very surprised" if McCain took it.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. "If the major competitive states are split, we could be talking about a situation where one electoral vote matters," said Randall Adkins, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Only Nebraska and Maine divide their electoral votes, though the votes have never actually been split. Obama has opened a campaign office in Omaha to make a play for the electoral vote decided by results in the 2nd Congressional District, which would be essential to victory if the election ended in a 269-269 electoral tie, neither candidate reaching the mandatory 270 electoral votes.
Such a tie could happen, say Nebraska Democrats, if Obama and Republican John McCain were to take most of the states they're expected to win and if Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico were to switch from Republican to Democrat.
The Obama campaign started canvassing Omaha neighborhoods last month. John Berge, hired as director of Obama's Nebraska campaign, said that while some resources will go into the rest of the state, they'll be focused on the 2nd District.
Omaha, with about 400,000 people, lies in a congressional district of nearly 600,000. The city and suburbs have most of the state's black population and much of its population of Hispanics and other minorities, groups that national polls show favoring Obama.
The 2nd District gives Obama a small geographic area to target. Television ads aimed at Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the river, already spill over onto Omaha networks.
Adkins isn't convinced that Obama can actually win Omaha's electoral vote. Republicans have a 15,000-voter advantage in the district - much less than in other parts of the state, but still formidable.
So far, McCain's effort in Nebraska is largely volunteer.
The Nebraska Republican Party is canvassing on his behalf, said executive director Matt Miltenberger. Volunteers are hitting thousands of households with information about McCain and state candidates, including 5,000 homes in the 2nd District, Miltenberger said.
"There will definitely be a McCain presence here," Miltenberger said.
Loree Bykerk, chair of the political science department at UNO, said some of the attention for Nebraska might be more a result of Obama "having more money that he knows what to do with."
However, Bykerk added, "if they're going through the trouble of setting up campaign offices in Nebraska, Alaska, Wyoming, maybe it is going to be close."
In Maine, which has gone Democratic in the last four presidential elections, the Republican ticket is seen as having a shot at carrying the northern 2nd District, but little chance of taking the 1st District or the state at large.
"It's largely rural, overwhelmingly white and certainly not liberal," University of Maine political scientist professor Mark Brewer said of the 2nd District, which is the largest geographically east of the Mississippi.
Professor Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College, agreed that the 2nd District is more in play than the 1st, but would be "very surprised" if McCain took it.
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-We call Palin Trailer Trash, because, well, she is....
-TundraBilly Barbie/McWho? 08! All the JaysusBillies are praying for McWho? to die now?
-If I were a Messiah Barbie/McWho? partisan, I ''''d be worried that the End Times were coming and that I had my Left Behind Books with me
-Obama is the disgraceful Pig... with Lipstick on the Bu-tt
-The lipsticked pig has gone back to her home wallow. I hear they have nice mud in Alaska.....
-Here''''s the sound coming from Alaska today..."Oink, Oink."
-Palin: Lipstick on a fascist.
-Obama is lucky that he is supported by Many Self-Hating & Low Self-esteem White Liberals... and Blacks who thought Obama was "really" a Black.
-Getting a religious extremist on the ticket was just what the doctor ordered. Hopefully she gets her orders from a different God than W.
-The rotten hypocrite *** and her sidekick McBush will be exposed soon enough for their lies.
Obama = Original Pig on the Lipstick.
Yes, as a Moderate Democrat, I have said it, "Obama is a Disgraceful Pig".
Country first!!! Obama''''s EGO second.
Party Unity My A$$
MSM
Those black racists are really out in force supporting that muslim pig Nobama.
After viewing "shift happens", try to answer, as I did, which candidates and which party would be better suited to lead us forward?
Posted by Upto007 at 06:34 PM : Sep 10, 2008
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I agree McCain is fooling no one!
"NO" to 4 more years of irresponsible and destructive Republican leadership!