Scott Bruhn/DN
Hagel defeats Nelson
inUJS. Senate race
HAGEL front page ! ; * [
for the post-election rally at AKsarben.
From the releasing of the first re
turns just minutes after the polls
closed, Hagel grabbed his 10-point
advantage and never gave it up.
For many at Hagel’s rally, the early
lead was stunning.
”1 expected this to be somewhere
in between 51 and 53 percent,” Omaha
Mayor Hal Daub said. “It’s turned into
a blowout.”
Tammi Reichel, co-chairwoman of
die University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Students for Hagel, said long hours and
Saturdays at football games paid off
surprisingly well.
*1 never would have thought in a
million years that Chuck would have
won this big,” she said.
Hagel, an Omaha investment
banka1, was a political unknown in
Nebraska when he announced his can
didacy in March 1995 and ran in the
Republican primary against Attorney
General Don Stenberg. A decorated
Vietnam veteran, Hagel spent the
1970s and '80s in Washington D.C.—
fust as a staffer for U.S. Rep. John Y.
McCollister and eventually as the
deputy director of the Veterans Affairs
administration.
Hagei married ms wire Linnet in
1985when they were still in Washing
ton. Hagei then got out of government
service to be one of the founding mem
bers of Vanguard Cellular Systems, a
cellular telephone company.
After working for the World USO,
Hagei and Lilibet came back to Ne
braska, mainly to spend more time
with their children, Allyn and Siler,
now ages 6 and 4.
Hagei was asked to run against U.S.
Sen. Bob Kerrey in 1993, but he re
fused. When James Exon’s seat opened
up last year, however, he took the
plunge.
Using grass-roots organization and
a nonstop campaign schedule, Hagei
upset Stenberg for the Republican
nomination in May. That same orga
nization turned out to make the differ
ence against Nelson, a 52-year-old
McCook native.
Hagei repeatedly thanked his vol
unteers and supporters and said the
’' • i - ' ' m
work had paid off. ? =
“What we have done tonight is his
toric, and it’s because of you,” Hagel
told supporters before Nelson had con
ceded the race.
Deb Fiddelke, Hagel’s spokes
woman, joined the campaign in De
cember 1995, when Hagel faced an
uphill battle against Stenberg. She said
victory came the same way in both
elections — organization.
“It’s overwhelming the way (sup
porters) responded in die general (elec
• tion),” she said.
Fiddelke said Hagel visited every
county in his first year on the trail,
starting organizations of supporters in
each one. Hard work from those vol
unteers carried the election, he said.
Daub also credited Hagel’s orga
nization as key to his success.
“They didn’t take the voter for
granted,” he said. “He campaigned
essentially one farmer, one worker, (me
housewife, one family at a time.”
Andy Abboud, executive director
of the Nebraska Republican party, said
many had doubts in May when Hagel
had only Nelson to run against.
“I knew we had the opportunity,”
he said. “But we had 24 years of losses
that made some people cynical.
“(Hagel) ran an incredible cam
paign. We finally did what die Demo
crats always did to us. We had a great
candidate. We outworked them. We
outspent mem.
Abboud was obviously pleased.
“The last time I was this happy was
the fourth quarter of the Orange Bowl
in Miami when we beat Miami,” he
said. “This is above and beyond that.”
A huge part of Hagers win,
Abboud said, was Stenberg calling for
Republican party unity.
Stenberg said Hagel ran a well
planned campaign and ‘he and his staff
deserve a lot of credit”
However, he said, it was hard to
gauge how much party unity meant to
die result.
Abboud said Stenberg’s work
brought Republicans back to me GOP
who had voted for Nelson in the gu
bernatorial race.
Abboud also warned that the
Democrats will “get them back over
my dead body.”
TOP LEFE MORE THAN 700 people came out TUesday night to cheer
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Chuck Hagel on to victory.
ABOVE: REPUBLICAN SENATORIAL candidate Chuck Hagel
shakes hands with supporters after his victory speech Tuesday night.
Negative ad campaigns
aided loss, Nelson says
By Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter
OMAHA — A gloomy and tired
Gov. Ben Nelson conceded his candi
dacy in the race for U.S. Senate Tues
day night, saying Nebraska voters ob
viously wanted to keep him as gover
nor.
“Maybe they weren’t saying no as
senator,” he said. “Maybe the voters
woe saying yes to governor.”
Nelson, 52, and his supporters woe
surprised at what berth sides predicted
would be a close race. Early estimates
put Hagel in the lead and kept him
there until early this morning, when
unofficial results showed the Repub
lican with 57,7 percent of the vote.
Nelson said there was “no doubt
about it” that $1 million in negative
attacks from third parties caused him
to lose to Republican businessman
Chuck Hagel.
“Negative ads work,” Nelson said.
“And quite frankly, that’s something
the people of Nebraska need to lock
at”
Nelson was referring to television
advertisements by the National Repub
lican Senatorial Committee and a
mass-mailing campaign paid for by
Victory ’96, a state Republican com
mittee.
Nelson said Republicans probably
focu8edon the congressional races be
cause they suspected their presidential
candidate Bob Dole would lose.
“There’s always the danger of the
150,000 Republicans to deal with,”
Nelson said. “In Nebraska, this sort of
thing can happen to you.”
Republican odds were stacked
against Nelson, as Nebraskans gave
Dole more than 52 percent of the popu
lar vote. Nebraskans also elected Re
publicans into the U.S. House of Rep
resentatives.
Throughout the campaign, Repub
licans confronted Nelson with a prom
ise he made when running fbr gover
nor two years ago. He signed* pledge
card stating he Would sore his full
four-year term as governor.
Republicans have said Nelsoi's
campaign for U.S. Senate has shown
his word cannot be trusted.
Nelson said he r*n for the Senate
seat to give Nebraskans a choice to
hold him to the pledge. They could
keep him in die governor’s office or
send him to Washington.
Nelson, a native of McCook, said
he thought he could do his best work
in the nation’s capital.
Even though Nelson's rigorous
campaign didn’t send him there, he
said, it made a bold statement at home.
“Our battle has been fought to do
what’s right for our children, to do
what’s right for our senior citizens,”
Nelson announced to supporters.
During the Democratic Party rally
at the Ramada Inn in downtown Lin
coln, Nelson talked to supporters while
the bulk of early returns were reported.
When 8 p.m. results showed Hagel
winning by a 10-point margin, televi
sion networks called the race a Repub
lican victory.
Nelson told the news media not to
count him out.
“It’s a little too eariy to call it,”
Nelson said. “I’ve been in close races
before, and you just have to wait these
things out. The trend has been that way
in the past.
‘Tve got nerves of steel, and it’s
not going to bother me.”
GOV BEN NELSON looks on as Lt. i
defeated by Republican Chuck Hagel
Some said the early results showed
a sad outcome. Other supporters said
the news networks were foolish for
declaring the race before most votes
were counted.
Democratic supporters scattered
throughout the rally admitted early that
Nelson’s chances looked pom:.
Nebraska State Sen. Don Wesely
said he was disappointed Hagel’s tac
tics would win over Nelson’s solid
political background and commitment
to Nebraskans.
Wesely said Hagel had a weak po- !
litical reputation coming to Nebraska
from another state. He said it was not
fair that Hagel could clinch the Ne
braska Senate seat using outside Re
publican groups* money, a charge
Hagel has denied.
“If that’s the formula here, it’s kind
of scary,” Wesely said.
The outside attacks pounded the
property tax issue so hard, he said, it
was bound to change some voters’
minds.
