Opinion: Bob Kerrey decides to stay where he is

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The giddy mood that we have presumed pervaded the offices of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in recent weeks no doubt died down today with Bob Kerrey’s announcement that he will NOT reenter politics with a run for the Senate in Nebraska.

Kerrey once was a dominating Democrat in the traditionally Republican state, winning the governorship in 1982, at age 39, and then serving two Senate terms before declining to seek reelection in 2000. So when Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel decided last month that he would step down from the Senate after two terms, the prospect of a Kerrey candidacy aroused Democratic hopes that he could snatch the seat in next year’s election.

Kerrey, though, said today he would take a pass and continue as president of the New School, a university based in New York’s Greenwich Village. In a statement, he said the reason he would not run ‘is simple enough: For my family and me, now is not the time for me to reenter politics as a candidate.’

Kerrey, who during his governor’s term made news by dating actress Debra Winger, embarked upon a second marriage a few years back and has a young son.

National Democratic leaders probably were overly optimistic about Kerrey’s chances, anyway. Where he hangs his hat these days is, to say the least, a bit removed from his Nebraska roots. And he may have faced a particularly prominent Republican, Mike Johanns, in the general election.

Johanns, a former governor who most recently served as the Bush administration’s Agriculture secretary, announced earlier this month that he would seek his party’s Senate nomination, joining a race that includes state Atty. Gen. Jon Bruning. Primary races can be unpredictable, but Johanns would seem a strong choice for the party -- in 2002, he won a second gubernatorial term with almost 70% of the vote.

Even with the open Nebraska seat likely out of play for the Democrats, they still seemed poised for a strong showing in next year’s Senate races, as we reviewed in this recent post.

-- Don Frederick