OMAHA, Neb.—Presidential hopeful Barack Obama won the endorsement Saturday of Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, a popular moderate in largely Republican Nebraska who said he believes Obama has ability to bridge the partisan divide and to carry Democratic candidates across the country to victory in 2008.
Nelson, pledging his support for his Illinois colleague, said Obama has “the greatest potential to ending the bitterness and poisonous atmosphere in Washington.”
He said Obama’s victory speech after winning Iowa’s Jan. 3 caucuses was an effort to reach out to Democrats, independents and “enlightened Republicans,” and that Obama’s campaign epitomizes what Nelson has tried to do in Washington.
Obama is the “prototype of what we need today,” said Nelson, who served two terms as governor.
Nebraska Democrats will choose a presidential candidate at a caucus Feb. 9, four days after 24 states hold contests on Feb. 5.
If the Democratic nominee isn’t decided after Feb. 5, the Obama campaign will compete in all the states that come after, including Nebraska, said campaign manager David Plouffe.
That means Nebraskans could meet presidential candidates, a rare occurrence in a state that hasn’t supported a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson.
There are no specific plans yet for Obama to come to Nebraska, Plouffe said.
“We will take our cues very heavily from Sen. Nelson on how to campaign in Nebraska,” Plouffe said.
Nelson often votes with his GOP colleagues, and in 2005 won praise from President Bush, who called Nelson “a man with whom I can work.”
With Republican Sen. John McCain, another presidential hopeful, Nelson was one of the founding members of the so-called “Gang of 14,” a group of seven Republicans and seven Democrats that averted a Senate showdown over President Bush’s lower-court judicial nominees in 2006.
Nelson was elected governor of Nebraska in 1990 and re-elected in 1994, then won his Senate seat in 2000 and easily won re-election in 2006.
Republicans hold all statewide offices in Nebraska except Nelson’s seat and enjoy a heavy majority among voters.
But Obama has led the pack among both Democrats and Republicans in fundraising in the state, bringing in nearly $147,000 by Sept. 30, according to the Federal Election Commission. Obama’s numbers were helped by a high-dollar August fundraiser hosted by billionaire investor Warren Buffett in Omaha.
In Nebraska, Democratic presidential candidates raised nearly $281,000, versus about $192,00 for Republicans. Obama’s numbers were helped by a high-dollar August fundraiser hosted by billionaire investor Warren Buffett in Omaha.
Nelson said his support of Obama is not a slight of Hillary Clinton or John Edwards, other Democratic candidates, but said Obama “represents the best hope for our own political reconciliation.”
