Don Walton: Kleeb bid trips GOP alarm wire

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It is obvious now. The late injection of national Republican money and TV ads into Nebraska’s 3rd District congressional race is confirmation the GOP fears it may be about to lose a “safe” House seat in eight days.

The decision to be a player in the western and central Nebraska district follows GOP polling in the contest between Republican nominee Adrian Smith and Democratic nominee Scott Kleeb.

No one is sharing results from the Republican poll, but it’s clear they were sufficiently alarming for the GOP to send in the cavalry with TV ads attacking Kleeb.

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One recent private poll in the district showed Kleeb moving into a narrow lead.

In the waning days of this battle, now the marquee race in Nebraska, the anti-tax Club for Growth also has dispatched a new bundle of funding into the state to help Smith.

Kleeb raised $105,000 during the first 18 days of October to bring his fund-raising total to $708,000, an unprecedented figure for a Democratic candidate in the heavily Republican district.

Smith raised $84,000 during the same period, bringing his total to $1.1 million, as of Oct. 18.

A Grand Island Independent editorial last week endorsing Smith demonstrated the spotlight is on Kleeb. Nine paragraphs were devoted to the Democratic nominee, one to Smith.

Kleeb’s “carefully crafted centrist/populist message has resonated across the 3rd District,” the newspaper said, but there is reason to question “the level of experience and legitimacy he brings to the race.”

Smith, the newspaper said, “best represents Nebraska’s core values: hearth, home, right to life, minimally intrusive government and the will to lessen the tax burden on one of the most heavily taxed regions of the nation.”

The Sidney Sun-Telegraph, which chose Pete Ricketts over Ben Nelson in the Senate race, endorsed Kleeb with this observation: “As we watched Kleeb speak at the Sidney Community Center, we could not help notice just how many Republicans came out to meet the Democratic candidate.”

We’ve got a race to the wire out there with a week to go.

Kleeb on horseback in TV ads; Smith riding an elephant.

Meanwhile, in the 2nd

Yes, Lee Terry says, he’ll consider a Senate bid in 2008 if Chuck Hagel decides not to seek a third term.

But that doesn’t mean he’d do it.

“I’d sit down with Robyn (his wife), and we’d decide if the timing was right,” Terry said last week over a cup of coffee at The Mill.

“With the kids as our priority, running a statewide race while being in Congress would be tough,” the Omaha Republican congressman said.

The Terrys have three young sons.

Other observations from Nebraska’s senior House member, who is seeking his fifth term:

* “I don’t think we’re going to lose the House. Things are starting to break our way (in) bellwether races in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Connecticut.”

* If he were to find himself in the minority for the first time, he believes his demonstrated willingness to work with Democrats while a member of the majority would help him be effective, “even though it’ll be tougher.”

* “If you want nothing done, you would love a divided government” in Washington. The current Senate, where 60 votes are required to jump most controversial hurdles, is the best example of how it would work, he says.

Finishing up

* Duane Acklie will be honored by the Nebraska Society of Washington with its distinguished Nebraskan award on Nov. 14.

* Ricketts received the endorsement of the Norfolk Daily News, which posed these questions: “Do northeast Nebraskans think it is important for the U.S. Senate to continue to be controlled by the Republican Party? Do they think it is important for a majority of senators to have conservative viewpoints on a variety of issues?”

* Another business nod to Nelson: The National Association of Manufacturers honored the senator in Omaha last week for his 84 percent “pro-growth, pro-manufacturing” voting record in the Senate.

* Despite tax cuts in Nebraska, the Cato Institute gave Dave Heineman a grade of C in its 2006 fiscal policy report card on the nation’s governors issued last week.

* Hagel will speak at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Wednesday and at Nebraska Wesleyan University on Thursday.

* Kleeb is at nearby Doane College in Crete tonight, speaking at the Whitcomb Lee Conservatory at 7 p.m.

* October SurveyUSA job performance approval ratings in Nebraska: Heineman, 69 percent; Nelson, 64 percent; Hagel, 60 percent; President Bush, 46 percent.

* The mid-October Rasmussen Reports automated telephone survey of 500 likely voters in Nebraska: Nelson, 54 percent, Ricketts, 34 percent. 

* Ah, do I feel a pulse in Lincoln’s private sector?

* Uh, dumb question from the bleacher seats, I suppose, after watching the Huskers survive against Kansas and lay an egg in Stillwater: Can we, will we, do we adjust, especially on defense, when the opponent has adjusted or the game plan ain’t going so well?

* Mizzou. It used to be a big game and now it is again. Tiger hunt Saturday with the season on the line.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com.