Senate Appointment: The Catbird Seat or the Hot Seat?

Many, many years ago, David Karnes was a high school classmate of mine at Omaha Benson High School. Yes, we were fellow Benson Bunnies.

In March, 1987, Karnes was appointed to fill a U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska. At 38, Karnes was a political unknown who had never run for office when Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr appointed him to fill the seat. Karnes’ appointment surprised many political observers, who had assumed that the governor would name Hal Daub, an incumbent five-term congressman.

Karnes served for 20 months before being beaten in the 1988 general election by Bob Kerrey, now mentioned as a candidate for the 1992 Democratic national ticket.

In light of Pete Wilson’s surprise choice this week of Orange County state Sen. John Seymour to fill Wilson’s U.S. Senate seat, I thought it would be enlightening to call ol’ Dave Karnes and see how he enjoyed his experience as a fill-in senator.

After talking to him, I think it might be a good idea if Seymour also gave him a jingle.

Karnes could hardly exult in his good fortune, he said, because alongside the first-day newspaper story about his ascension to the Senate were interviews with “10 other people who wanted to be the senator. . . . One of the first things the (Nebraska) Democrats did was immediately side with all the discontented, disappointed Republican candidates and say, ‘Gee, we sure wouldn’t have turned our back on a five-term congressman who has served so well.’ ”

Now many are questioning why Seymour--who couldn’t win his own party’s nomination for lieutenant governor this year--is getting such a prestigious appointment. Karnes fielded the same barbs.

“It disappointed me and it went on longer than I thought,” Karnes said. “But that was partly because Hal Daub didn’t make any effort to help me, although the party had been very supportive of him all the way through. And then he ran against me in the primary” in 1988.

Likewise, Seymour almost certainly will get a party challenge next year. A Senate seat is too prestigious for other Republicans to concede to someone who has shown himself to be beatable statewide.

Karnes didn’t have any political track record, but he had the obvious negative of being unknown statewide. “The first poll done after I was a sitting senator had me at four-tenths of 1% name recognition, and that was with a plus or minus 4-point margin of error.”

Seymour has some name recognition but will have the disadvantage of having lost his last political race. That, coupled with being appointed, might hurt him because it will appear to some as if he’s been given a plum he didn’t deserve. Being an appointed senator may well “dog him (Seymour) throughout his campaign,” Karnes said.

Despite carrying that mantle himself, Karnes said, his Senate experience was memorable.

“I would have never thought about running for the Senate when I was 38 years old. It was a tremendous experience, a wonderful experience. It was a real character builder when you’re behind every single day of the campaign and you’ve got to go out and sell yourself, ask for money, put a campaign organization together, and you’ve got people taking shots at you, and people blaming you for being an appointed senator. That’s the hand you’re dealt.”

As a proven state legislator, Seymour probably has more savvy than Karnes about the Capitol scene. And unlike Karnes, he’ll inherit the Senate staff of a fellow Republican, so it should help him hit the ground running. “Forty-five minutes after I was sworn in, I had to vote on continuing Contra aid,” Karnes said. “Someone said, ‘How can you feel comfortable voting on such an important issue when you were just sworn in?’ And I said I had spent 100% of my time in the Senate studying the issue.”

But as Karnes pointed out, Seymour should be wary of the long knives that may come at him--even from fellow California Republicans who may covet his seat.

Oh, heck, Karnes is from Nebraska and Seymour is from California. They probably don’t have that much in common, anyway.

After all, Karnes lost to a charismatic former Democratic governor who was known as a bit of an outsider and who was just back from a political hiatus and who once dated someone in show business.

Luckily for Seymour, there’s no one in California who could possibly fit that profile.

Hey, wait a minute. . . !