Is Obama-Terry the winning ticket in Omaha?

“I saw a card that came in the mail the other day and it showed two men getting married,” Evans said, adding sarcastically, “Oh, my God.”

He said, “They were basically evoking the image that this man (Esch) has no morals and Nebraska standards are different.”

That mail piece, which came from the NRCC, not from the Terry campaign, features an image of two men in tuxedos and the cover line, “Gay marriage… For liberal Jim Esch, it’s just a ‘decoy issue.’”

Esch opposes the constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman. “I think that’s a states’ right issue; I don’t think the federal government has any business talking about marriage,” he said.

“I can’t control what they do,” said Terry’s campaign manager Dave Boomer, who was exasperated at the NRCC mailing. “This is a moderate district; this isn’t Texas.”

Pro-life Democrats a key constituency
Another social issue, abortion, may prove to be decisive. Boomer said, “If we keep Democratic pro-life voters, we win.”

Terry has a 100 percent rating from the leading anti-abortion group National Right to Life Committee and is endorsed by the group.

Terry is hammering Esch who said, “I would consider myself a pro-life candidate.”

Terry’s campaign mailers criticize Esch for telling an Omaha newspaper, “I think the Right to Life side is little more extremist” than he is. 

Jim Rogers, Esch's campaign manager said, “The bottom line is simple: Jim Esch is pro-life and Lee Terry is desperate to save his political career.”

Obama co-sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act which some lawyers say would invalidate state abortion restrictions such as parental consent laws and.

Esch said he “probably would” vote against the Freedom of Choice Act.

But Terry’s main criticism of Esch is that “he’s held no office; he’s been in no job position where he’s even supervised one person, let alone having to make major decisions. He lives off a family trust and kind of just hangs out and travels the world.”

Esch said, “In the almost three years I was at the Omaha Chamber of commerce, we raised $15 million for economic development initiatives…. I did more in that time in the small role I played than Terry did in the ten years (in Congress) to create any job here. If you’re a ten-year incumbent in Congress, you have a lot of explaining to do about where the country is at.”

Terry counters that the $15 million was raised by a local retired businessman named Dick Jefferies and that Esch’s job was simply as an assistant.

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