OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Four years after Democrat Barack Obama managed to win one of Nebraska’s electoral votes, the president’s campaign doesn’t appear to have invested much in trying to repeat that feat.
The Obama campaign has only one office in Omaha this year instead of the three it had in 2008. And the president hasn’t campaigned in the city, Nebraska’s largest.
State Democratic Party Chairman-elect Vince Powers said that doesn’t mean the campaign isn’t pursuing Omaha’s 2nd Congressional District.
“The Obama campaign is making a strong effort in the 2nd District,” Powers said. “It’s different than it was four years ago because they know how to do it now.”
Omaha voters are seeing a flood of television ads, but they’re mostly aimed at competitive Iowa. Both Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are advertising on Nebraska stations to reach voters in western Iowa.
So maybe it makes sense that an Omaha World-Herald poll published Sunday suggests Obama has a shot at winning the district. Both Obama and Romney received support from 44 percent of the people polled.
The margin of error for the poll, conducted Sept. 17-20, is 3.5 percentage points. Wiese Research Associates interviewed 800 registered Nebraska voters for the poll, including 400 in the 2nd District.
But Nebraska Republicans are working hard to keep Obama from winning the district, which was redrawn to include more Republicans after the census.
“I’m very confident that the 2nd District — and all of Nebraska — will vote for Mitt Romney,” Nebraska GOP Chairman Mark Fahleson said.
In 2008, Obama’s campaign conducted an intensive ground campaign in the 2nd District, identifying and registering new voters and targeting young, minority and occasional voters. The campaign also worked on encouraging extensive early voting and spurring a large Election Day voter turnout.
Obama narrowly defeated Republican John McCain in the district — 138,809 to 135,439 — and took one of Nebraska’s five electoral votes while McCain won the other four.
Nebraska Republicans don’t like the fact that Obama found a way in 2008 to take advantage of the state’s unusual system that allows for its electoral votes to be split. Maine is the only other state besides Nebraska that allows splitting electoral votes instead of the winner-take-all approach most states favor.
In addition to redrawing the lines of the 2nd District to make it more conservative, prominent Nebraska Republicans, including Gov. Dave Heineman, have focused on the area to make sure GOP voters get to the polls.
Fahleson said he doesn’t think enough of the voters that supported Obama four years ago will show up on election day.
“We’re a conservative state,” Fahleson said. “2008 was a mistake. It’s not going to happen again in 2012.”
Obama may not have campaigned in Omaha himself yet this year as he did in 2008, but during a visit to Council Bluffs, Iowa, last month he made sure to mention Omaha as he described his plans for the country.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben Finkenbinder said volunteers are the heart of the president’s re-election strategy, and there is a good group of them in Omaha.
Powers said the Obama campaign has motivated and talented people working in Omaha, so he’s optimistic the city will again be known as the “blue dot city” in a red state. But he said the work the Obama campaign is doing in Omaha won’t be apparent until after the election.
