Politics

Battle Is Set For Kerrey Seat

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

May 10, 2000 / 8:41 AM EDT / CBS

Two popular Nebraskans are set to do battle for retiring Sen. Bob Kerrey's seat in November.

"We're going to reach out to Democratic voters and Independent voters as well as Republicans," Attorney General Don Stenberg said after winning half the votes cast in Tuesday's GOP primary.

Stenberg will face former Gov. Ben Nelson for the seat being vacated by Kerrey. Nelson won 93 percent of the Democratic primary vote, easily beating a homeless man who was his only opponent.

In other elections Tuesday, former University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne - who coached the Cornhusker football team to three national titles before retiring in 1998 - basked in one of the biggest wins of his career: the GOP nomination in Nebraska's sprawling 3rd Congressional District.

Osborne will face Rollie Reynolds, the lone Democrat vying for the seat held by retiring six-term Republican Rep. Bill Barrett.

There also were presidential primaries in Nebraska and West Virginia, but both were essentially meaningless since George W. Bush and Al Gore have sealed their parties' nominations.

In the Senate race, Stenberg received 92,525 votes, or 50 percent of the total. His top challengers were Secretary of State Scott Moore, who won 40,331 votes, or 22 percent; and Scottsbluff agribusinessman Dave Hergert, who had 31,365 votes, or 17 percent.

Stenberg, who was elected attorney general in 1990 and re-elected in 1994 and 1998, said the win showed voters like the job he has done.

"They know me and trust me as their attorney general," he said.

Stenberg recently defended Nebraska's ban on so-called partial birth abortions before the Supreme Court. He beat Moore despite the secretary of state's edge in fund raising this year. Moore had collected $224,000 to Stenberg's $144,000.

Nelson was elected governor in 1990, narrowly beating Republican incumbent Kay Orr, and re-elected in 1994. He left office in 1999 with an 80 percent approval rating.

Nelson has run ahead of all comers in Nebraska opinion polls as the favorite for the Senate seat being vacated by Kerrey. In a largely conservative state, Nelson has wide support among Republicans because of his moderate views. GOP officials have even approached him in the past about switching parties.

"We're going to run like we're 10 points down," Nelson said.

Kerrey, the only Democrat in Nebraska's congressional delegation, decided not to run for a third term and will instead become president of New School University in New York City.

In other West Virginia races, Gov. Cecil Underwood, who was elected to his first term as governor in 1956 and to his second term in 1996, easily won the GOP nomination for a third term. At 77, Underwood is the nation's oldest governor and the only Republican in a statewide office in West Virginia.

The more dramatic race was for the House seat being left by nine-term Rep. Bob Wise, who won the Democraic primary to challenge Underwood.

Four Democrats vied for Wise's seat, including 85-year-old Secretary of State Ken Hechler, who has already spent 18 years in Congress, from 1959 through 1977. Hechler finished third, well behind lawyer Jim Humphreys, who spent $3 million of his own money.

Hechler spent about $300,000 of his own money and said anything over $1 million in a primary is "overkill."

Humphreys won with 43 percent of the vote, followed by state Sen. Martha Yeager Walker, who had 26 percent. Hechler finished with 24 percent.