12 November 2008

After the Election, Life Returns to Normal in Lincoln, Nebraska

Republican state grants single Electoral College vote to Democrat Obama

Republican Jeff Fortenberry, flanked by his wife and daughter, hears November 4 he will return to the U.S. House of Representatives.

By Bridget Hunter
Staff Writer

Washington — In a news cycle saturated with election updates, it is difficult for someone from Washington to interpret the recent headline “Empty Seats Catch Osborne’s Eyes” as anything but political. After all, Tom Osborne is a former Nebraska congressman who could be considering another race.

But no, the former University of Nebraska football coach was expressing concern about empty seats in the student section of the football stadium. A few days after the 2008 elections, yard signs have been removed, political ads pulled and life is back to normal in Lincoln, Nebraska. (See “Football Bridges Partisan Politics in Lincoln, Nebraska.”)

As they have for decades, voters in the Nebraska 1st Congressional District turned out in large numbers to vote November 4, with approximately 70 percent of eligible voters casting ballots. For the first time, students at the University of Nebraska could vote at a polling place on campus, and they did so enthusiastically, although in a video posted by the Lincoln Journal Star, a few complained the long lines would make them late for class.

Statewide, Republican John McCain defeated Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential race by 16 percentage points but, unlike most other states, statewide results do not dictate the allocation of Nebraska’s five Electoral College votes. In Nebraska and Maine, those votes are awarded district by district, and a hard-fought contest in ethnically diverse Omaha, the state’s largest city, made a split in the state’s Electoral College votes possible.

In the 2008 presidential race, the Obama campaign made history by claiming the Nebraska 2nd’s single Electoral College vote. Even though McCain enjoyed a small lead among ballots cast in the Omaha area on Election Day, Obama won 8,434 of 15,039 mail-in ballots counted November 7 by election officials. Those votes gave Obama a 1,260-vote lead over McCain in unofficial returns from the Nebraska 2nd.

McCain won the popular vote statewide and the state’s other four electoral votes, but lost the national race. (See “Barack Obama Wins Historic Election Victory.”)

Democratic candidate for Senate Scott Kleeb concedes the race at the University of Nebraska Lincoln November 5 as his family looks on.

Despite McCain’s defeat, Nebraskans are finding one aspect of the pending Obama presidency exciting: Nebraska’s popular Chuck Hagel, who is retiring from the U.S. Senate in January 2009, is widely rumored to be under consideration for a Cabinet post in the Obama administration.

CONGRESSIONAL RACES, REFERENDUM

In the U.S. Senate race, former U.S. secretary of agriculture, Nebraska governor and Lincoln mayor Mike Johanns, a Republican, defeated Democratic newcomer Scott Kleeb to keep the seat in Republican hands. Johanns’ margin of victory, though decisive, was smaller than polls had predicted: The young newcomer garnered 41 percent of the vote.

In the Nebraska 1st congressional race, incumbent Republican Jeff Fortenberry defeated Democrat Max Yashirin, a 26-year-old Iraq war veteran running for political office for the first time, by 70 percent of the vote to Yashirin’s 30 percent. (See “Nebraska Races Pit Youth Against Experience.”)

One of the most contentious issues in the Nebraska ballot was a proposed ban on considering race in hiring or college admission decisions. Under an approach known as “affirmative action,” many U.S. businesses and schools give preferences to members of some minority groups to enhance diversity, but this practice has been attacked as “reverse discrimination” by groups that call for such decisions to be made without considering race.

The initiative passed 58 percent to 42 percent. It prohibits “the state or public institutions of higher education from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to individuals or groups based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.” A similar measure was narrowly rejected by Colorado voters on November 4.

It remains to be seen how the initiative will be implemented. The University of Nebraska’s chancellor has pledged to find ways to maintain the school’s commitment to diversity regardless of the fate of the ballot initiative. (See “2008 Campaign Engaging, but not Overwhelming, Nebraskans.”)

On November 4, Nebraska voters also filled 26 seats in the Nebraska Legislature, 15 of which were open because state senators are limited to two consecutive four-year terms. The Nebraska Legislature is another way in which Nebraska is special: It is the only unicameral (single chamber) state legislature in the United States. It also is the country’s only nonpartisan legislature.

This article is part of America.gov’s continuing coverage of seven of the 435 U.S. congressional districts during the 2008 campaign. Each offers a different prism through which to view U.S. politics. For more information, see U.S Elections — State and Local.