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Campaign announcement season come early, as do the negative ads Well, it’s that time of year – when the corn is rising in the fields, the calves are fattening on the pastures, and politicians aplenty are announcing their candidacy for elected office.
Those announcements seem to come earlier than ever, as do the negative campaign ads.
The next election is the primary in 2026, about a year away. But unfortunately, it’s not too early to send out some mud-slinging ads condemning so-and-so for doing something horrible, like once traveling to China, or having supported a raise in the state gas tax so we have smooth highways.
The first hit my cell phone just minutes after Dan Osborn, an independent, announced a run against incumbent U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, a Republican.
“Dirty Dan Osborn” began the dark text message and even darker video accusing him of unsavory use of social media.
It’s pretty clear that the Ricketts camp is not going to shortchange Osborn’s chances to win the election, unlike U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, who narrowly beat the mechanic/labor leader in the 2024 election.
Incumbents, like Ricketts, might be a tad uneasy these days after voting for the “big, beautiful bill” from President Donald Trump.
The bill extends the tax cuts passed in 2017 – and everyone loves a tax cut. But it also does several things that polls show the public opposes. Such as cutting Medicaid, which state hospital officials say could cause the closure of six rural hospitals (one in Curtis already is closing).
All told, more than 100,000 Nebraskans could lose Medicaid coverage, according to the Nebraska Rural Health Association. Bet you’ll see that in a campaign ad.
Osborn ran a surprisingly close race with Fischer, running on the platform that Washington is broken, and what’s needed are folks who aren’t part of the political establishment. Hmmm, didn’t Trump use the same appeal successfully?
In other races, Gov. Jim Pillen, a veterinarian and big-time hog producer, announced plans to saddle up a run for re-election (a bad pun, I know, after the governor’s spill on a horse).
A Republican, Pillen has been a reliable and vocal supporter of Trump and his policies on immigration, spending cuts and the “big, beautiful bill.” Some say Pillen’s stance on immigration is a bit misguided, given that immigrants fill a bunch of the jobs at hog confinement operations and meat processing plants.
The governor – like every governor for the past six decades – has also been pushing, with limited success, plans to reduce the state’s traditionally high property taxes.
Pillen has made some progress, but his main solution is a tax shift – impose new taxes on junk food, cigarettes and previously untaxed services to lower the reliance on property taxes.
His plan, however, failed to gain much traction in a special session he called last summer and during the regular legislative session that ended last month. At 69, Pillen still jogs regularly, and looks ready to run again. But standing in the wings is businessman Chuck Herbster, a fellow Republican and a chum of President Trump. Herbster, as you recall, almost won the 2022 GOP primary and was leading Pillen until some revelations were reported about Herbster’s conduct around women.
A spokesman for Herbster, as reported by the Nebraska Examiner, said “he’s hearing from a lot of Nebraskans who want him to run.” It would be one spendy rematch if he gets in.
Up in Omaha, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican, announced that he wasn’t running again. He didn’t say it in so many words, but a congressional representative is constantly fund-raising and constantly on the move between their home and Washington. That, and just the nasty nature of politics these days, has got to wear someone down.
We’ve already seen a slew of candidate announcements for that open seat in the “purple district” (one that swings back and forth, Democrat and Republican). Included are the son of a former U.S. congressman (State Sen. John Cavanaugh, a Democrat), a current member of the Omaha City Council (Brinker Harding, a Republican) and a former state senator (Brett Lindstrom, also a Republican).
So hold onto your hats. Or, if you wish, toss it into the ring and run too.
