I hesitate to write about the senate race in Nebraska because I kind of doubt that most of my readers care too much. But the contest is interesting for a variety of reasons. It’s an open seat, created by the retirement of controversial Democratic Senator Ben Nelson. It’s widely considered the best pick-up opportunity for the Republicans, who need a net increase of three seats (if they also win the presidency) or four seats (if Romney loses) in order to take control of the upper chamber of Congress. The GOP Establishment is firmly behind the candidacy of Attorney General Jon Bruning. But Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), the Club for Growth, and many Tea Party organizations are opposing Bruning’s candidacy and throwing their support behind State Treasurer Don Stenberg. For the record, Stenberg lost a primary to Chuck Hagel in 1996 and a general election to Ben Nelson in 2000.
Obviously, the extreme anti-tax right-wingers think Stenberg is more conservative than Bruning, but he hasn’t been able to raise much money on his own, and he doesn’t have much indigenous support. For these reasons, he’d probably be a weaker candidate to go up against the Democrat’s candidate, former U.S. senator and presidential candidate Bob Kerrey.
What I find so fascinating about this race is the way it demonstrates fissures in the Republican Party. Let me quote from Jim DeMint:
But DeMint, who several years ago launched a mission to elect more conservatives to the Senate, has remained staunchly opposed [to Bruning].
He torched the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week for backing Bruning.
“As you may know, the Chamber supported the failed stimulus program, the Wall Street bailout, the auto bailout, cash-for-clunkers, as well as many other corporate welfare schemes,” DeMint wrote in a fundraising appeal for Stenberg. “The corporate welfare lobby in Washington wants to defeat Don Stenberg because he isn’t afraid to stand up to them.”
The Republican Party basically exists to serve four partially overlapping groups: the people at the top of the financial services industry, religious and social conservatives, libertarian anti-government guns rights folks, and the Chamber of Commerce. It’s possible for the interests of these groups to conflict, but it’s not too common for Wall Street and the Chamber to disagree. It’s even less common for Republican politicians to buck both the Street and the Chamber at the same time. But that’s what Jim DeMint is doing. In attacking the Wall Street bailout, the stimulus bill, and interventions in the auto industry, DeMint is taking an extreme anti-business stance. And with the Club for Growth by his side, we see another strange fissure. The Club for Growth is mainly concerned with enforcing a no-new-taxes orthodoxy on the Republican Party, but this is normally seen as a means to an end, not an end in itself. By starving the government of funds, they hope to reduce its regulatory reach. The aims of the Club for Growth and Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce are normally aligned. But that is not the case in this race in Nebraska.
We can see this fissure opening up in Washington DC, too. Today, it was announced that former Club for Growth president Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania will be taking over the leadership of the Republican Steering Committee from Jim DeMint.
“Sen. Pat Toomey is a proven and trusted conservative and I’m very glad he’s taking on this new role,” said DeMint. “I’ve fought hard over the last few years to help elect new conservatives to the Senate and it’s very rewarding to see them step into positions of leadership.
“I’ve enjoyed chairing this group for the past five years, and I look forward to working closely with Pat and the other Steering members to advance conservative principles at this critical time when our country needs them most,” he added.
Here in Pennsylvania, we see Pat Toomey as an ideologue, but mainly in the service of Wall Street and corporate America. If he is going to become a champion of the Tea Party, that will be news to us.
Now, one of the infuriating things about Ben Nelson is his allegiance to business interests above the concerns of workers, environmentalists, and average citizens. But that allegiance is a major reason why he has been elected repeatedly as a Democrat despite representing a very conservative state. He’s had the financial and political support of monied interests. Those interests can shift their support to Bob Kerrey without disrupting existing relationships. But they might be inclined to go over to Bruning, since the GOP is more reliable about doing their bidding. If, on the other hand, Stenberg prevails in the primary after his backers savage Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce, I’d expect Bob Kerrey to win the support of business interests throughout the Cornhusker State.
This is shaping up a lot like the races in Delaware, Colorado, Nevada, and Alaska did in 2010. The Tea Party is threatening to lose a seat for the Republicans that they ought to win. But it’s also showing some strange divisions with the Republican coalition. I just think it’s worth watching.