Stenberg argues he's the conservative choice
LINCOLN JOURNAL STARNovember, 3, 2011
By Don Walton
With six months to go, Don Stenberg thinks he sees a pathway to victory.
Rely on an established core base of support, present himself as the most consistent and reliable conservative, tea party candidate and turn Nebraska's 2012 Republican Senate battle into a national race.
Stenberg said Wednesday he looked at the model successfully pursued by Marco Rubio in Florida in 2010 and hired Pat Shortridge, a Minnesota-based consultant who was senior strategist in Rubio's tea party-fueled upset election to the Senate.
"Don's opportunity is similar to Marco's," Shortridge said Wednesday at Stenberg's campaign headquarters in Lincoln's Haymarket.
"This is not a fund-raising contest. This is about who you can trust and who you can believe. Promises get broken in Washington.
"Is Don ever going to be the flashy candidate? No," Shortridge said.
But, he said, the 2010 elections demonstrated that voters are not looking for "glitzy and slick" now, but for someone they believe will tackle the issues that concern them in Washington, including the lagging economy and ballooning federal debt.
Stenberg, the state treasurer, said he believes he has demonstrated he is the most fundamental and trustworthy conservative in the Republican Senate race and the candidate whose record best matches tea party concerns.
"All the candidates are saying pretty much the same thing now," Stenberg said. "But voters have seen that movie before and it didn't end well."
Stenberg noted that he has won five statewide Republican primary elections — three times for attorney general, once for the U.S. Senate and once for state treasurer in 2010. That has given him a strong base of support sufficient to win the five-candidate GOP Senate scrap, he said.
"Most of the establishment money" has gone to Attorney General Jon Bruning, Stenberg said, but he's focused on building a national fundraising base centered around support from conservative entities such as Freedom Works, Madison Project and the RedState blog and endorsements by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and conservative talk show host Mark Levin.
That support has not yet resulted in much fundraising success, but Stenberg said: "We're at work at that."
The latest campaign finance reports showed Bruning, the presumed frontrunner in the GOP derby, entering October with $1.6 million in the bank and state Sen. Deb Fischer of Valentine with $206,000 in cash on hand while Stenberg reported a scant $18,000.
Pat Flynn of Schuyler and Spencer Zimmerman of Omaha round out the Republican field.
What Stenberg needs to do, Shortridge said, is keep pushing ahead for the next six months "playing some old school Big Ten football, three yards and a cloud of dust."
Stenberg said he's going to make sure Republican voters understand he is the true conservative, tea party choice.
Soon, he said, he'll be asking his opponents to agree to six debates — two in each congressional district — so voters can see and hear that for themselves.
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