Election Returns

All the candidates I favored and/or voted for lost, which figures. :) But I did call the 3rd District win for Smith, in addition to the obvious Ricketts domination of the Senate race. I saw Kramer address his supporters on TV and he appeared pretty emotional in thanking his supporters; he made a surprisingly big gain in the last weeks to finish in double digits, but was obviously handicapped by lack of funding and name recognition.

Hanson (somewhat surprisingly) finished above Vavricek by tenths of a percentage point in the 3rd, but second isn't good enough. Smith faces Kleebs and Ricketts faces Nelson in the granddaddy of them all in the fall. Fortenberry and Moul will likely have a tight race in the 2nd District, while Terry is likely, but not guaranteed, to defeat Esch here at home in the 1st.

The one that eluded me was the Governor's race, where I assumed Osbourne's House district and rural interests would support him -- but this turned out not to be the case everywhere. TO actually WON Douglass and Lancaster counties, which frankly shocked me, but lost in many of the outstate rural counties. Never would have guessed it. Gov. Dave faces Lincoln businessman David Hahn in the fall.

One Osborn that did win was Shane for Treasurer -- against incumbent Ross no less. Facing no one in the fall, the job is his.