Ben Nelson is trying to win over Nebraskans angry or unsure about health care change by using a statewide unifying force — the Nebraska football team.
When fans in this Cornhusker-crazy state tuned in Wednesday night to watch NU tangle with the Arizona Wildcats, they also saw a new Nelson ad defending his support of the hotly contested health care bill.
Jim Rogers, chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, the group paying for the ad campaign, said he would bet that 80 percent of the state would see the ad. “It’s designed to have an impact.”
In the TV commercial, the Democratic U.S. senator — who cast the crucial 60th vote for change — says the bill would reduce the deficit. He also contends it would benefit Nebraska families and small businesses and that it would guarantee that Nebraskans with pre-existing conditions could no longer be denied coverage.
“I’m convinced this is right for Nebraska,” he says in the ad.
At least some Nebraskans seem convinced otherwise.
A Rasmussen poll, conducted Monday, found that Republican Gov. Dave Heineman would trounce Nelson 61 percent to 30 percent in a hypothetical race for the U.S. Senate, if the election were held this week.
The survey also said 55 percent of the Nebraskans surveyed viewed Nelson unfavorably. Of course, a Nelson-Heineman election couldn’t happen until 2012 — and wouldn’t happen at all unless Heineman decided to run for the Senate.
Heineman, in an interview Wednesday, said that a U.S. Senate seat has never been his “dream job” but that he would never say never to such a run.
“Who knows what the circumstances will be two years from now?” he asked.
Right now, Heineman said, his focus is on his re-election campaign for governor next year.
The Rasmussen poll results, Heineman said, are “really saying, ‘Listen to us, Senator Nelson, vote no’ ” on health care change.
Polls are often unreliable until just before an election. Nelson himself can attest to that — in August 1996, polls put Nelson, then Nebraska’s governor, 21 points ahead of Chuck Hagel in their Senate race. Three months later, on Election Day, Hagel beat Nelson by 14 points.
There’s no denying, though, that many Nebraskans are upset with Nelson, said Mark Fahleson, chairman of the Nebraska Republican Party.
“It’s fitting he chose to run the ad during the Nebraska football game since Nebraskans have made it clear they want to sack Ben Nelson,” Fahleson said.
Nelson’s ad, which will air for several days, seems designed to begin the long process of re-gathering Nebraskans who are deeply skeptical of health care change.
The House and Senate bills must still be combined, approved by both houses and signed by President Barack Obama before a health care overhaul could become reality.
This week, Nelson is looking directly into the camera and arguing that much of what constituents have heard about health care change is false.
“It’s reasonable that people are angry, and it’s understandable that they are going to vent it towards him,” said Paul Johnson, a Democrat who ran both of Nelson’s victorious Senate campaigns. “Clearly he’s the focus of a lot of attention, which is why he’s going to lay out his case directly and explain what is in the bill and what isn’t.”
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