Nebraska's Electoral Vote Garners National Attention
Nov 14, 12:36 PM CST
As the CD 2 vote totals get finalized, the historic nature of Barack Obama’s victory in CD 2 is making waves in the national media.
The New York Times:
“We had a good night,” Steve Achelpohl, chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said in a telephone interview. “I felt that Obama was a presence here in the second district, there’s no minimizing the effect that that had. We had an untold number of volunteers working in the three offices of the second district, constantly phoning and canvassing 24-7.”
The Wall Street Journal:
If 364 electoral votes wasn’t an impressive-enough haul for Barack Obama, then maybe Nebraska’s Second Congressional District – Omaha and the surrounding area – will do the trick by delivering one more.
The Cornhusker State and Maine (the Pine Tree State or Vacationland, take your pick) are the only two states to apportion their electoral votes by congressional districts, and neither has actually split its electoral votes before. Earlier this year, when some scenarios presented the chance of a perfectly tied Electoral College, Obama marshaled resources into Omaha, forcing GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin to play some defense with her own campaign swing to Omaha.
A win for Obama in the 2nd District would represent the first time that a Democrat would have picked up an electoral vote in Nebraska since Lyndon Johnson did so in 1964. It would also give the president-elect 365 electoral votes, to McCain’s 162.
“We’ve been working toward this kind of thing for a long time and it would never have happened without the volunteers who worked so hard and without out a candidate like Barack Obama,” said Van Horn. “It was just kind of the perfect storm here in Nebraska, and we look forward to building on it for years to come.”
Since Obama had already been declared the winner of 364 electoral votes — 74 more than needed for victory over Republican opponent John McCain — the added vote from the Omaha area is similar to kicking an extra point in a football game in which your team already has secured a big win. But it is symbolic of the big gains for Obama over the performances of the Democratic presidential nominees who lost to George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, and also of his success at expanding the playing field in the campaign for an electoral vote majority.
The New York Times, again:
It is not a race-maker or a tie-breaker. For the national party, it is “like a cherry on top” of an already sweet election, as one Democratic official put it.
In this corner of the Plains, it represents a significant shift from decades past, and the only departure from Republican domination in a solid geographic column that runs south from North Dakota to Texas. So while the rest of the country may have moved on, Democrats here still have some election night celebrating to do.
“We’re very proud of delivering that vote,” said Mayor Mike Fahey of Omaha, a Democrat who campaigned for Mr. Obama. “This is an historic moment for the state of Nebraska.”
And, perhaps most impressively, the Colbert Report picked up on the story. The video is safe for work, unless you have a particularly politically-sensitive office:
– by Eric Van Horn | Send this to a friend
