Sen. Ben Nelson (D) Elected 2000, 1st term up 2006
Born:	May 17, 1941, McCook
Home:	Omaha
Education:	U. of NE, B.A. 1963, M.A. 1965, LL.B. 1970
Religion:	Methodist
Marital Status:	married (Diane)
Elected  Office:	NE Gov., 1990-98.
Professional Career:	Gen. Cnsl., Central Natl. Group Insurance, 1972-74, Pres. & CEO, 1977-81; NE Insurance Dir., 1975-76; Exec. V.P., Natl. Assn. of Insurance Commissioners, 1982-85; Practicing atty., 1985-90.
DC Office	720 HSOB20510, 202-224-6551; Fax: 202-228-0012; Web site: bennelson.senate.gov
State Offices	Chadron, 308-260-2278; Lincoln, 402-437-5246; Omaha, 402-391-3411.
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Ben Nelson, two-term Democratic governor of Nebraska, was elected to the Senate in 2000 in his second try. Nelson grew up in McCook, the hometown of Senator George Norris and novelist Willa Cather; his high school principal, Ralph Brooks, a Democrat, was elected governor in 1958, by a 50.2%-49.8% margin. Nelson graduated from the University of Nebraska, practiced law, served as state insurance director and headed a major insurance company. He has collected several hundred clocks and is an avid hunter of turkeys and bears. In 1990 he ran for governor, taking on former Bob Kerrey staff aide Bill Hoppner in the primary, and won by all of 42 votes. In the general he beat Governor Kay Orr 50%-49%, because she raised taxes and her political consultants failed to place many of her paid-for TV spots in October. He cut spending increases by two-thirds and used his line-item veto to cut appropriations; in 1992, he got the Senate to pass and voters to approve a lottery, with proceeds to go to creative education and environmental projects. He built more prisons, trimmed workmen's comp and reorganized the human services department. He cut property taxes and reduced the income and sales taxes. His record won him high job ratings and re-election by a 73%-26% margin in the Republican year of 1994. When he ran for the Senate in 1996, he led in polls most of the way, but then fell behind in October and lost to Republican Chuck Hagel by a 56%-42% margin.

In 2000 Nebraska's other Senate seat came up. Everyone expected easy re-election for Senator Bob Kerrey, one of the Democratic Party's national stars. But in January 2000 he shocked Democrats and just about everyone else when he said that he would not run for reelection that fall. Nelson, a lawyer in Omaha with an interest in a public affairs firm in Washington, was obviously the strongest possible Democratic nominee and entered the race a month later. Six Republicans ran in the May primary. The winner was Attorney General Don Stenberg, with 50% of the vote.

Nelson and Stenberg agreed on some issues; both opposed abortion and backed tax cuts. But there were significant differences in style and a considerable history of partisan differences between the two in the 1990s. Nelson never mentioned his Democratic Party affiliation, unless asked directly about it. Stenberg ran as part of the "Bush-Hagel-Stenberg Team," sometimes bringing in Governor Mike Johanns as well. To which Nelson responded, "My opponent hasn't given us a single reason to vote for him apart from his party registration and the fact that he's associated with two people who are more popular than he is." Then there was style: Nelson is gregarious, has a good sense of humor, seems to enjoy campaigning; Stenberg was described as serious and studious--not a natural meeter-and-greeter. There were some serious differences on issues. Stenberg was for individual investment accounts as part of Social Security; Nelson was against. The two sparred over who was responsible for Nebraska's parlous position in a lawsuit brought by the four other states in a five-state compact to build a radioactive waste disposal site in Boyd County which Nebraska regulators blocked. Nelson led always in the polls and raised and spent more money; the big difference here was PAC contributions, of which the Democrat received three times as much as the Republican. Nelson was helped also by active campaigning by Bob Kerrey; George W. Bush, in a close national race, couldn't afford to spend time in locked-up (for him) Nebraska. Nelson's poll leads narrowed in October, to 12% in the Omaha World-Herald, and memories went back to 1996, when Nelson's poll leads vanished altogether. This time that didn't quite happen. Nelson won 51%-49%, carrying the Omaha area 54%-46% and the Lincoln area 60%-39%; he lost the remaining half of the state 54%-46%. Nelson ran 16% ahead of Al Gore in the Omaha area, 18% in the Lincoln area and 19% ahead in the rest of the state--just enough to win.

Nelson turned out to be, after Zell Miller, the Senate Democrat most likely to support Bush and to differ from most Democrats. He was one of three Democrats to vote against the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill and in May was one of five Democrats to vote for the Republican budget resolution (although in April he had voted against an earlier version). On the labor relations sections of the homeland security bill, he sought to stake out a middle position. But his version was unacceptable to the Bush administration, and the bill was not passed before the November 2002 election. A week after the election, Nelson was one of the senators who put together a compromise that would allow the president to cancel collective bargaining rights but allow that decision to be overturned by a future president and that allowed workers to appeal new rules or salary scales to a federal mediation board; they would be imposed after one month, but the unions could bring a case in court. His Democratic colleagues tolerated these apostasies; as one said, "He needs to do what he needs to do to keep his seat" in one of the most Republican states in the nation. In May 2003 Bush journeyed to Nebraska; Nelson said he was open to a tax cut over $350 billion, provided it included a cut in the dividend tax and $20 billion in aid to ailing states. Nelson supported Bush generally on Iraq; when the Abu Ghraib prison abuses were exposed, Nelson called for tearing down the prison. In August 2004 he said Bush would do well to appoint as CIA director one of two Nebraskans, Bob Kerrey or Chuck Hagel; he said nominee Porter Goss would face a "grueling confirmation process." He voted against the Family Marriage Amendment, arguing that same-sex marriage was a state issue after passage of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Many of Nelson's legislative initiatives have been aimed squarely at Nebraska problems. He got a white wheat initiative into the farm bill in April 2002; hard white wheat isn't produced in the U.S., but there's a big market for it in Asia. He voted for country of origin meat labeling. He voted for the farm bill in May 2002, saying that it provided $1.1 billion for Nebraska. When the Great Plains were hit by a drought in summer 2002, and Nelson argued that affected areas should get disaster relief, in the same way that places hit by hurricanes and floods do; the compensation would be for crops or livestock lost, rather than property destroyed. Twice in 2002 he got the Senate to pass disaster relief; both times it was rejected in the House. In January 2003, he started applying a name to each drought, as names are applied to hurricanes, and filed his bill again for relief from "Drought David." In September 2004, when a bill for hurricane relief came up, Nelson and Hagel attached $2.9 in drought relief; the House accepted that but only by reducing farm bill conservation spending as an offset. He co-sponsored a bill to double the use of ethanol; it was approved by the Senate in June 2003. He got into the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill a pilot provision providing 100% reimbursement for Nebraska rural hospitals too small to qualify for higher reimbursement and too large to qualify for another provision requiring 100% reimbursement. He worked to get a fourth federal judge for Nebraska (dockets are bulging with drug cases) and to get a National Guard unit stationed at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha. Nelson's relationship with colleague Chuck Hagel is not warm; he was angry when Hagel said that a Nelson staffer leaked the nomination of Columbus, Nebraska, businessman Tony Raimondo as manufacturing czar to the Kerry campaign. Raimondo later withdrew his name from consideration. "We're not friends, we're colleagues," Hagel said. Nelson responded, "He said we are not friends, we are colleagues. That's fine with me." Evidently there was bitterness left over from the 1996 campaign, when Nelson challenged Hagel's business ethics. Nelson said, "I've gotten over losing in 1996. I don't know if Senator Hagel has gotten over winning."

Republicans have tried to persuade Nelson to switch parties several times during his first four years and again after the November 2004 election. Ten days after the election, according to the Omaha World-Herald, White House strategist Karl Rove offered Nelson the position of secretary of agriculture; the paper said Nelson considered it for five days before declining. If he had accepted, Republican Governor Mike Johanns would have appointed his successor. On Bush's number one domestic issue, Social Security, Nelson said he was not opposed to personal retirement accounts "in principle," but added, "I don't know how the economics of that can work." He declined to sign the letter signed by 42 Democratic senators opposing personal retirement accounts.

Nelson comes up for reelection in 2006, a Democrat in a state George W. Bush carried with 66% of the vote. It was generally assumed that Johanns would run against him, but in December 2004 Bush announced he was appointing Johanns as U.S. secretary of agriculture. Soon after, Congressman Lee Terry said he would not run for the seat. Congressman Tom Osborne, the hugely popular former University of Nebraska football coach, also announced he would not run; in April 2005 Osborne said he would run for governor. This left the race for the Republican nomination wide open. National party officials were hoping to convince Governor Dave Heineman to run, but Heineman told the Lincoln Journal Star in May that his interest, on a scale of zero to 100, was "minus-1000 and dropping." Former Attorney General Don Stenberg, the Republican nominee in 2000, announced he would seek a rematch. Other interested candidates included Republican state Chairman David Kramer; Speaker of the Legislature Kermit Brashear (who ran second in the 1986 governor primary); Republican National Committeeman and health care administration businessman Kerry Winterer; and state Treasurer Ron Ross. Democratic party executive director Barry Rubin scoffed, "No matter who runs that person is Plan C for the Nebraska Republican party." Left open in mid-2005 was how strongly the Bush White House would back the Republican nominee against a Democrat who has often voted with the president.

Committees

• Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry: Forestry, Conservation & Rural Revitalization; Marketing, Inspection & Product Promotion; Research, Nutrition & General Legislation.
• Armed Services: Emerging Threats & Capabilities; Personnel (RMM); Readiness & Management Support; Strategic Forces.
• Commerce, Science & Transportation: Aviation; Disaster Prevention & Prediction (RMM); Science & Space; Surface Transportation & Merchant Marine; Technology, Innovation & Competitiveness; Trade, Tourism & Economic Development.
• Rules & Administration.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	65	33	86	67	100	34	81	52	43	83	--
2003	45	--	67	21	--	42	86	42	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	51%	--	48%		53%	--	46%
Social	46%	--	53%		45%	--	54%
Foreign	53%	--	46%		54%	--	45%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Ban Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. Energy Bill Y 6. Support Roe v. Wade N		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Assault Weapons Ban N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Ban Bunker-Buster Bomb N 11. Fund Iraq War Y 12. Restrict Missile Defense N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2000 general	Ben Nelson (D)	353,093	51%	$2,794,887
	Don Stenberg (R)	337,977	49%	$1,795,402
2000 primary	Ben Nelson (D)	105,661	92%
	Al Hamburg (D)	8,482	7%
1994 general	Bob Kerrey (D)	317,297	55%	$5,009,792
	Jan Stoney (R)	260,668	45%	$1,821,778