Omaha World-Herald: Tea Party Express targets few moderate Democrats left

By Matt Laslo

WASHINGTON — The Tea Party Express hopes to inundate Nebraska with dollars from across the nation to help unseat U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

In a sparsely attended press conference in the nation’s capital, the national group threw its first endorsement of the 2012 campaign season behind Republican Jon Bruning’s Senate bid, despite his not yet having secured Nebraska’s GOP nomination.

At the press conference the attorney general also revealed that former Berkshire Hathaway executive David Sokol who resigned in a cloud of controversy is no longer working for his campaign.

Bruning said "in light of the circumstances" he accepted Sokol’s resignation. The former executive had invested around $10 million in a chemical firm he Berkshire was considering acquiring.

Even with the lingering controversy over Bruning’s earlier defense of Sokol, members of the Tea Party Express say they’re supporting the state’s attorney general so early because they want to draw national attention and national dollars to the race — which, if Nelson ultimately decides to run, could prove one of the nation’s most hotly contested.

"Clearly this is a national race," spokesperson Sal Russo said at the National Press Club.

Bruning acknowledged that the early endorsement has the potential to limit his field of competitors in the GOP primary but said he’s "not worried about scaring anybody else."

The race already includes Nebraska State Treasurer Don Stenberg and Schuyler, Neb., businessman Pat Flynn, though others are weighing runs.

The national organization endorsed Bruning without interviewing the other candidates or consulting local tea party affiliates.

"I don’t think they’ve demonstrated they can put together a strong campaign," Russo said of the other announced candidates.

Local tea party affiliates described the endorsement as "premature" and said they were "disappointed" a national organization weighed in on the local race without first talking to their Nebraska counterparts.

Bruning, in Washington for the announcement, dismissed the response back home.

"They’ll all endorse me eventually," he said, adding that he has good, established relationships with Nebraska’s tea party groups.

Paul Johnson, Nelson’s campaign manager, downplayed the endorsement. He questioned the group’s influence, saying several of the group’s chosen candidates in the last election failed.

"They also made Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle and Joe Miller priorities — all of whom lost," said Johnson.

Russo did not shy away from his group’s 2010 failures. He said neither the Angle nor the Miller campaigns were as strong as they needed to be to win.

The national group pointed to the election of Republican Scott Brown to an open Senate seat in liberal Massachusetts — a race for which they helped raise thousands in campaign cash.

"Scott Brown could not win unless we nationalized that race," Russo said.

With Nelson’s pivotal support of the nation’s new health care law, the group says the Nebraska race was already on the radar for fiscal conservatives.

"People nationwide are paying attention," said Amy Kramer, chair of the Tea Party Express.