It wasn’t crowded at the beginning.

And Sen. Chuck Hagel was the target.

Now, everything has changed.

Attorney General Jon Bruning, who entered the 2008 Republican Senate race three months ago primed to challenge Hagel on Iraq and immigration, now faces Mike Johanns.

And Hal Daub.

Pat Flynn, a Schuyler businessman, is also in the GOP scrap. And there could be more coming.

Hagel is out, and sharp differences on Iraq probably are gone as an issue.

But Bruning believes not everything has changed. 

Immigration reform still is an issue, he says, and it may be his silver bullet against Johanns.

As President Bush’s secretary of agriculture, Johanns “stumped for the immigration bill that many people in Nebraska believe amounted to amnesty,” Bruning says during an interview at his campaign headquarters in Lincoln.

“If Mike Johanns had gotten his way, that amnesty bill would have been enacted. I suppose he can come out now and say I don’t believe in that anymore. But he has to be held accountable.”

Bruning points to a 2006 swing through California by Johanns boosting the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill that was supported by Bush. It included opening a pathway to legal status for most of the illegal immigrants already settled in the United States.

Immigration policy is “at the top of the list of domestic issues,” Bruning says. And Johanns is vulnerable on that issue, he contends.

“I’m all for legal immigration,” Bruning says, “but we can’t give a free pass to those who have skirted the laws of our country.”

Johanns, the former two-term governor who resigned from the president’s Cabinet last week to return to Nebraska to seek the Senate seat, is the acknowledged early favorite in the Republican race.

The man Bruning believes he has to beat.

Former Republican State Chairman David Kramer of Omaha, who temporarily is acting as Johanns’ spokesman, says Johanns opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants.

“Jon Bruning is flat wrong in portraying Secretary Johanns’ record on the issue of immigration,” Kramer says.

“Mike Johanns opposes amnesty. He believes an immigration bill is first and foremost a bill to secure our borders and prevent illegal immigration.” 

When voters compare Johanns and Bruning, “there is no question who is best-equipped to take a leadership role on this issue in the U.S. Senate,” Kramer says.

Bruning says he intends to engage Johanns, as well as Daub, in “a vigorous debate on the issues.”

The attorney general forewarned fellow Republicans in remarks to the Lancaster County GOP convention in the Haymarket the night before his interview.

“Don’t get squeamish,” he counseled them.

“This is gonna be ferocious.  We’re gonna have a very frank discussion.”

But, Bruning assured them, “it’ll all work out the day after the primary.  We’ll all get together and elect a Republican to the United States Senate.”

Bruning is frank about his tactics during the next day’s interview.

“We need to talk about our differences on issues,” he says. “If we talk about 10 issues or more where we agree, then it just becomes a popularity contest.”

Opposition to amnesty — or even the appearance of amnesty —for illegal immigrants jumped out as the most volatile issue in statewide polling conducted for Bruning earlier this month.

Last year, former Rep. Tom Osborne paid a political price on a tangential immigration issue when he said he supported state legislation allowing the children of illegal immigrants living in Nebraska to attend college at resident tuition rates. 

Gov.  Dave Heineman unsuccessfully vetoed that bill and hammered Osborne for his position during their Republican gubernatorial primary contest. Their disagreement emerged as one of a number of factors leading to Heineman’s victory.

Bruning says he’ll also hold Johanns accountable for leaving as ag secretary before shepherding a new farm program that is vital to Nebraska through Congress.

“It was a huge coup for a Nebraskan to be given this job and we needed him there to make sure Nebraska’s interests are protected,” Bruning says.

As ag secretary, Johanns already had failed Nebraskans by “not advocating for drought relief we needed desperately” and allowing 10 Farm Service Agency offices in the state to be closed, Bruning says.

“Washington changes people,” the attorney general says.

“Nebraskans want somebody not tainted by Washington. Mike Johanns and Hal Daub are going to have to prove they can get Washington scrubbed off them.”

Daub, the former Omaha mayor, served in the House for eight years in the 1980s.

“I’m the underdog in this race,” Bruning says. “Johanns definitely is the frontrunner (and) clearly Senator Hagel’s pick.”

“But nobody has gone AWOL on me” since Johanns announced he’s returning to Nebraska, Bruning says, pointing to charts on the walls listing the names of contributors and county campaign chairmen.

“Not one guy on my finance committee has peeled off.”

Bruning says he’s closing in on nearly $1 million in campaign funds.

“I’m off to a pretty good head start” in the Senate battle, he says, and polling shows him within reach of Johanns.

The results of his September survey of 400 likely Republican voters: Johanns, 39 percent; Bruning, 30 percent; Daub, 15 percent.

Bruning sees a message in those results.

“Mike Johanns is not as strong as conventional wisdom suggests.”

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