Ben Nelson: Laying the Groundwork for a Third Term
Two term Senator Ben Nelson hired a campaign manager, as reported by KETV news watch in Omaha.
Paul Johnson, the man who ran Nelson's campaign in 2006, will work for the senator again.
Johnson has also run Democratic campaigns for former Sen. Bob Kerrey, and former Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey.
This comes as a bit of a surprise as multiple polls have shown Nelson trailing by over 10 points to his likely Republican challenger.
Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas was held to under 40% of the vote in 2010 and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was held to 41% in 2006 after weak poll numbers earlier.
It is difficult for an incumbent to climb out of this deep a hole, but not impossible. Harry Reid of Nevada and Michael Bennett both overcame very weak poll numbers to defeat their opponents. Reid was by a much more comfortable margin than expected.
Even so, Colorado and Nevada have higher percentages of Democrats than Nebraska and Nelson would always be vulnerable to a strong Republican challenger just based on voter composition.
So while Nelson is the incumbent, his poor poll numbers have NE-SEN rated as Lean R.
