Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Nebraska’s flirtation with “purple” status on thin ice

By Scott Stewart


Barack Obama continues to lead in the vote count in Douglas County, according to the latest updated election results from the Douglas County Election Commission.


Obama leads McCain by 3,404 votes in Douglas County, but trails by 5,947 votes in traditionally conservative Sarpy County. Between both counties, the only two composing the Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, Obama is currently down 2,543 votes. Not all of Sarpy County, though, is included in the 2nd District, so it’s unknown whether Obama still maintains an edge in the district.


If Obama wins the race in the 2nd Congressional District, history will be made as Nebraska would split its electoral votes, awarding one of its five electoral votes to Obama. The split would turn Nebraska purple on electoral maps, which traditionally denote Democratic candidates by blue and Republican candidates by red.


Third-party candidates have had a meager showing so far in the Douglas County election results. Nebraska party candidate Chuck Baldwin has 0.2 percent of the vote with 264 votes cast. Green party candidate Cynthia McKinney has 0.1 percent with 163 votes. Libertarian party candidate Bob Barr has 0.3 percent with 508 votes. Independent candidate Ralph Nader has 0.5 percent with 823 votes.


Obama isn’t the only Democratic candidate with hope to win the 2nd District. Congressional candidate Jim Esch, who is challenging incumbent Republican Lee Terry Jr., has dropped behind both counties.


Esch currently trails Terry by 2,325 votes in Douglas County, with 78,290 votes for Terry and 75,965 votes for Esch. Terry has expanded his lead in Sarpy County with 18,886 votes to Esch’s 13,673. Overall, Terry leads the race by 5,213 votes.