NE-Gov: Frontrunner Sheehy resigns

[Nutmeg]

From Political Wire:

Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy (R) resigned his post abruptly after questions were raised by the Omaha World-Herald about improper cell phone calls to four women, other than his wife, during the past four years.

An investigation "discovered that Sheehy made thousands of late-night telephone calls to the women on his state-issued cell phone, many of them long conversations held in the wee hours of the night."

Sheehy had been considered the frontrunner in the 2014 gubernatorial race and had already been endorsed by Gov. Dave Heineman (R).

[wan]

Another family values republican hits the dust.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

D+1

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

He probably used the state-issued cell because he thought it would be harder for his wife to find out about them.  Oops.  Unlike Mark Sanford's "Appalachian Trail", this is not the sort of scandal one can hope to recover from.   Unlike Mark, later marrying the other women isn't an option for Rick. (Technically Mark has only been engaged to Maria for six months, but the effect is the same.)

[Talleyrand]

Now both frontrunners, Mike Flood and Rick Sheehy, have opted out of the race. Perhaps Flood will reconsider, or maybe someone like Jeff Fortenberry or Adrian Smith will go for it. Maybe Dems will get lucky and face Don Stenberg/Jon Bruning.

Doesn't really matter in the bigger picture- the Republican will win easily. The real question is who it'll be.

[Miles]

Don Stenberg might run.

If so, he's becoming worse than Dino Rossi.

[politicallefty]

So, are Democrats actually going to try to run a competitive candidate in this race? What about someone like Scott Kleeb? After all, he did get 45% of the vote in NE-03 in 2006. He didn't do as well in 2008, but Johanns was probably a fairly strong Republican for NE. But what about a state race with a much weaker Republican nominee?

[seanNJ9]

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http://www.omaha.com/article/20130304/NEWS/703059997/1707

[Maxwell]

It's probably going to be stupid Don Stenberg who will be the Governor.

Who will be the Senator, though?

[SamInTheSouth]

What about Kleeb?  I'm guessing the gubernatorial race would probably be easier to win than a Senate race in that state for a Democrat.

[Badger]

Hmmmm. If bob kerry could make a surprisingly close race for comeback as senator thanks to a poor opponent last year, and jerry brown set the precedence of winning the governorship 30 years after leaving.....

[free my dawg]

I could see Stenberg running for either governor or Senate. Either way I think Bruning takes another stab at whichever one Stenberg doesn't take.