Don Walton: Omaha clearly in play

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A battleground district it is.

No doubt about it, metropolitan Omaha’s 2nd Congressional District is in play.

Despite some noise pooh-poohing the Democratic challenge in the Omaha district, the battle for one of Nebraska’s presidential electoral votes could go either way.

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And that means the House contest between Lee Terry and Jim Esch is competitive.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s decision last week to allocate more than $400,000 to Esch’s campaign is a clear signal that someone has seen a post-economic crisis poll.

Republicans will be counting on Bellevue and other slices of Sarpy County to secure the electoral vote for John McCain over Barack Obama and hang on to Terry’s House seat.

But you get the impression Omaha is heading toward Obama and it could take Douglas County with it. Dependably Republican Sarpy County is the GOP’s firewall.

In Douglas County, Dave Phipps labors in the eye of the storm.

“I’d be shocked if we don’t see record vote numbers here,” says the county election commissioner.

“There’s a lot of excitement building.”

Mail ballots are flowing in at a rate of about 1,000 a day.

In-person early voting has averaged 300 or 400 a day since it began two weeks ago.

With as many as 1,000 people a day registering to vote (or changing their registration data in some way), the Republican voter registration advantage has been steadily dwindling.

Douglas County registration figures as of Oct. 1: Republicans, 121,584; Democrats, 119,790; independents, 58,430.

Phipps says he’s getting ready for a huge turnout.

Normally, the number of available ballots averages 85 percent of the number of registered voters at the time they are printed.

This time, Phipps says, he’s taking no chances. In most precincts, the number of printed ballots will equal 98.5 percent of the registration figure.

And in north Omaha and south Omaha, where the Obama campaign is aggressively registering new voters, the number of printed ballots will jump to 105 percent to prepare for a big turnout.

An extra poll worker will be assigned to every precinct to help direct voters, Phipps says.

But there still could be long lines at some precincts that have not normally handled the kind of turnout that may be on its way.

Especially in north Omaha.

“We’ve taken some positive steps to make sure things go smoothly,” Phipps says.

An advisory council has been at work in north Omaha. A public service announcement detailing early voting opportunities is airing regularly on Cox cable in Omaha.

“If there are lines in north Omaha on Election Day, there probably will be lines in west Omaha,” Phipps says.

“People need to understand it won’t be a five-minute experience. There’s likely to be some sort of wait.”

And right there is the strongest argument and incentive to vote early this year.

Phipps is guessing between 35,000 and 45,000 voters will do that in Douglas County.

The right stuff

The way it should work.

Chuck Hagel and Bob Kerrey sat together on the stage at Kimball Hall last week and discussed their views about health care reform.

Two guys who like and respect one another. Two men who value each other’s intellect, experience, opinions and views.

One a Republican, one a Democrat.

Their health care reform ideas, sketched in general terms at the UNL forum, are different. Probably substantially so in terms of specifics.

But if you charged those two men with the task of devising a health care plan and told them this urgent issue was entirely in their hands, they would do so.

They’d find a way to accommodate differences.

There would be give and take.

And, in the end, you’d probably have the best and most critical ideas of both men incorporated in the result in some way.

That’s the way it ought to work in Washington.

And doesn’t.

Hate campaigning

Ugly.

Can’t remember so many haters out there.

In recent days, this presidential campaign has turned them on, and some of them are shouting threats and words of violence.

Those who unleashed them have an obligation at least to calm them down. After all, their votes are not in question. But their actions are.

Credit McCain with beginning to try to calm them with words of reason at rallies last Friday. But there’s not much comfort in the fact that McCain’s efforts to defuse some of that hatred drew loud boos from his supporters.

Much of that raw anger is fueled by Hate Radio. Day after day after day.

It’s ugly — and becoming dangerous — out there.

Finishing up

* Hey, if you quit jumping out of the roller coaster car, we’ll all have a safer ride.

* Reminder: Nebraskans built an epic state Capitol during the Depression. You can’t build the future by halting or crippling progress.

* Final Senate debate Thursday in Grand Island.

* Bob Kerrey remembers a quiet young staffer who worked for him when he was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. David Plouffe now is credited with building a brilliant new presidential campaign model as Obama’s chairman.

* Wow! There’s life and hope in Husker football today.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com.