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50-State Analysis: The Plains
Kansas | Nebraska | North Dakota | South Dakota
Democrats hope to dent the all-Republican Jayhawk lineup, but it won't be at the top. Gov. Bill Graves (R), who put down a right-wing challenge for renomination, has an easy race for reelection against state House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer (D). Freshman Sen. Sam Brownback (R) should encounter just as few problems in winning a full term over state Sen. Paul Feleciano Jr. (D). This makes it all the more remarkable that freshman Rep. Vince Snowbarger (R) is one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the country. His opponent, Dennis Moore (D), has won three races for district attorney in Johnson County, the Republican-leaning Kansas City suburbs, and has raised more money than Snowbarger, who angered some moderate Republicans by endorsing the challenger to Graves.
Polls show the race a tossup, but the newspaper endorsements have gone to Moore. The national GOP has poured in ad money to save Snowbarger, but Democrats insist a strong turnout effort in Wyandotte County (Kansas City) could break up the GOP monopoly.
Two-term Gov. Ben Nelson, a conservative Democrat, is stepping down and the moderate Republican mayor of Lincoln, Mike Johanns, is comfortably ahead of liberal Democrat Bill Hoppner, a former aide to two Nebraska Democratic senators, in the race to succeed Nelson.
The Omaha House seat left open when Rep. Jon Christensen (R) tried unsuccessfully to challenge Johanns in the GOP gubernatorial primary goes to Omaha Council President Lee Terry, a Republican.
The issues are clear in the races for Senate and the at-large House seat, but only the latter is a real contest. Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D) and Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D) blame the farm recession on NAFTA and the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act. Their opponents, state Sen. Donna Nalewaja (R) for the Senate and Kevin Cramer (R) for the House, accuse the Democrats of wanting to return to "failed policies of the past."
Nalewaja, who lost a race for lieutenant governor 10 years ago, says Dorgan talks a good game but accomplishes little. But she has only one-tenth of his funds and says she promised her husband "I wouldn't go into debt financing this thing myself." Cramer held Pomeroy to 55 percent of the vote in 1996 and is challenging aggressively enough this time that Dorgan has jumped into the race with criticisms of Cramer's ads. Pomeroy is viewed as a key player in next year's Social Security debate, and a Cramer victory would be something of an upset.
Gov. William J. Janklow (R), who has held that office for 12 of the last 20 years, seems ticketed for four more. He came through major surgery last winter, and, by comparison, his challenge from state Sen. Bernie Hunhoff (D) looks like a minor inconvenience. It hasn't hurt Senate Minority Leader Tom A. Daschle (D) that Janklow has credited him with boosting emergency farm aid to the state, but Ron Schmidt (R), Daschle's challenger, says the help has been tardy and inadequate. Daschle is confident of winning reelection, as is at-large Rep. John Thune (R), who reported $364,000 cash on hand in mid-October compared to $3,000 for opponent Jeff Moser (D).
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company |
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