President Barack Obama’s initial policy pronouncements already are beginning to re-energize the Republican Party, newly elected GOP State Chairman Mark Fahleson said Saturday.

Obama and a heavily Democratic Congress are going to place Sen. Ben Nelson in jeopardy in 2012 if he seeks re-election, Fahleson said.

Nebraska’s Democratic senator has had “the luxury of playing the part of the moderate Democrat fighting those liberals in Congress” before this year, he said.

With Democrats now controlling the agenda in Congress and the White House, Fahleson said, Nelson will be “forced to show his true colors.”

As a result, Republicans will defeat him in 2012 if he seeks re-election, Fahleson said.

A big test will come when Nelson votes on labor legislation that would allow workers to organize their workplace and choose union representation without a secret ballot vote, Fahleson said.

“If Nelson sides with organized labor, that will be a key vote,” he said.

Obama revitalized the pro-life Republican base during his first week in office with policy pronouncements, Fahleson said.

And the president has stirred the traditional GOP commitment to fiscal responsibility  by constructing a  huge economic stimulus plan that would “increase the size and scope of the federal government,” he said.

“President Obama will help us in that regard,” Fahleson said.  “In some respects, his election is a curse and a blessing.”

Fahleson, a Lincoln attorney who was selected to lead Nebraska’s Republican Party two weeks ago, sat down over coffee Saturday to discuss his plans.

Mindful of Obama’s skillful use of electronic communication and technology during his campaign, Fahleson is determined to utilize similar techniques, but adapt them to “a different voter base.”

“I want to create cost-effective, efficient ways of communicating, networking and keeping in contact with voters,” he said.

Fahleson communicates on Twitter and Facebook, two social networking and messaging Web sites. Last September, he blogged daily from the Republican national convention for the Lincoln Journal Star.

Sometime in March or April, he wants to gather a group of about 10 Republican activists and officials together for a weekend strategy session to map out a two-year plan leading to the 2010 election.

Gov. Dave Heineman will head the GOP ticket. 

Fahleson said he doesn’t believe Obama’s 2008 victories in Omaha and Lincoln indicate  a Democratic surge in Nebraska’s two largest cities.

“It was Obama,” he said. 

“The cult of personality, an Obama phenomenon that doesn’t translate into ‘I want to vote for Democrats.’”

Other than Obama’s single electoral vote in metropolitan Omaha’s 2nd Congressional District, Republicans dominated the 2008 election in Nebraska, Fahleson said.

And Republicans will do well in city elections in Omaha and Lincoln this year, he predicted.

At the national level, Fahleson said, Republicans in Congress need to “offer constructive ideas and alternatives” to Obama’s proposals.

“It’s not enough to say, ‘We’re against them,’” he said.  “We need to say, ‘We oppose you on principle and here’s our alternatives and why they are better.’”

A “political Armageddon” may lie ahead on health care, Fahleson said.

“What I fear is that Democrats want to expand Medicare into a national health care program,” he said.

Republicans need to offer “creative alternatives,” he said, such as private health savings accounts.

That, he said, is a battle he’s willing to fight.

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