NNN: Tom White Inches Closer to Challenging Lee Terry

Kyle Michaelis, New Nebraska Network
June 21, 2009

I've never had a whole lot of interest in the rumors and speculation side of blogging. But, it's looking like we've just officially moved beyond that stage as Democrats search for the strongest possible challenger to endangered 2nd District Republican Congressman Lee Terry.

As Democrats have hoped and as Terry has undoubtedly feared, it looks like Omaha State Senator Tom White is on the verge of announcing his 2010 bid for Congress.

The Lincoln Journal-Star reports:

State Sen. Tom White strode Saturday night to the brink of a 2010 bid for Republican Rep. Lee Terry's House seat. White focused on Terry with the intensity of a laser beam during a speech to 350 Democrats, portraying the six-term congressman as a tool of the GOP House leadership.

Terry has "morphed from George Bush's rubberstamp into a proud, card-carrying member of the Party of No," White told the traditional Morrison-Exon Dinner audience....

In a pre-dinner interview, White said he plans to decide next month whether he'll enter metropolitan Omaha's 2nd District House race.

"I'm close to making a decision," he said. "It's fair to say I'm seriously considering entering the race."

Just in case there's any skepticism remaining about White's intentions and his commitment to entering the 2010 race, the following report from Congressional Quarterly appears to answer those questions quite definitively:

Six-term Nebraska Republican Lee Terry appears certain to be targeted by Democratic strategists in his 2010 House race, given his close escape in his 2008 general election rematch with Democrat Jim Esch in the state's 2nd District....

And while two-time challenger Esch, a lawyer and businessman, is unlikely to make a third try for the seat, the sudden burst of partisan competition in the 2nd District appears likely to produce a serious challenge to Terry by Democratic state Sen. Tom White, a member of Nebraska's unique unicameral legislature since 2006....

His supporters describe him as having a lot in common with a House constituency that has many blue-collar Roman Catholics with historic ties to the Democratic Party - but whose social conservatism had turned them into Republican voters in most major contests.

The 52-year-old White is "a pro-life Irish Catholic with a fiscally conservative voting record," according to his spokesman, Ian Russell. Jim Rogers, executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said the state party is urging White to run and touts his "record of public service and activism within the community."

White may be "pro-life" and "fiscally conservative", but in three years in the Legislaure he's also been one of the strongest voices demanding corporate accountability, fighting for government transparency, and defending the interests and values of Nebraska's middle class.

Putting that record and those values on the 2010 ballot should give voters a clear choice between more of the same from Lee Terry or finally having some real representation in Washington D.C.

CQ still predicts that Terry has the "early edge" heading into an increasingly likely race agaist White. As a six-term incumbent with almost a year-and-a-half until the 2010 general election, that isn't a very ringing endorsement of Terry's chances.

Make no mistake about it, right now, Lee Terry is on the defensive. The people have lost faith in his ability to lead. And, his party has lost faith in his ability to win. Terry spent months last year begging for national support while his standing with voters was in a virtual free-fall (1, 2). The National Republican Congressional Committee's late infusion of half-a-million dollars attacking Esch was enough to save Terry in 2008, but that's no guarantee he can count on another political bail-out in 2010.

In the last two elections, Jim Esch essentially ran stealth campaigns that exceeded any reasonable expectations for a candidate with so short a resume. Esch's strong performance despite the experience question proved just how hungry 2nd District voters were for a fresh voice and some actual leadership.

Should he run in 2010, Tom White offers all that and more. Except, this isn't going to be an under-the-radar match-up. This is shaping up to be the race to watch in Nebraska politics. In fact, don't be surprised if it even ends up becoming one of the biggest Congressional battlegrounds in the entire country.