The second political anomaly found in Nebraska is its legislature.  The state lawmaking body is both unicameral and nonpartisan.  No other state legislature is made up of just one chamber, and every other state's legislators are affiliated with political parties.  In Nebraska, you have "senators" but not "representatives," and you don't see the traditional (R) or (D) after their names.

Governor:  The governor of Nebraska, however, is not nonpartisan.  And looking at a list of governor's from this state since 1955, you see an amazing pattern.  Until current Governor Dave Heineman, a Republican, succeeded GOP Governor Mike Johanns in 2005, Democrats and Republicans - in varying lengths of service - had alternated residency in the Governor's Mansion for the last 55 years.  This year, Heineman is up for re-election.  In 2006, one year after he was appointed governor after Johanns accepted a position in the Bush cabinet, Heineman got over 74% of the vote in his landslide first election.  There's no reason to expect his vote total in 2010 will be much changed from 4 years ago.  This race is an easy one to call:  Solid GOP Hold.

House District 2:  This congressional district, as exhibited in Obama's 2008 victory, is Nebraska's least Republican.  But that doesn't mean it isn't Republican.   Incumbent Representative Lee Terry has served 6 terms here.  After 4 easy wins, Terry weathered the blue wave elections of 2006 and 2008 by less overwhelming margins.  I don't think he's very vulnerable this, likely red, year, but the pundits have deemed his re-election bid somewhat shakey.  So, this race starts off as a Mod GOP Hold.  I wouldn't be surprised to see this race removed from the tracking list by November.

Check out the Nebraska state page for the lowdown on all Nebraska's races and a lot more interesting Nebraska stuff.

Next stop:  Nevada



Filed under:  Nebraska  NE House  NE Governor