Earlier today, Scott Kleeb announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Nebraska. Kleeb ran a hard-fought race in Nebraska’s 3rd Congressional district in 2006, one of the country’s most conservative CDs. Following a long draft campaign (located at DraftKleeb.com and on Facebook) and frequent rumors that he would enter the race, Kleeb decided to challenge Tony Raimondo for the Democratic nomination. Raimondo was a Republican until he realized he couldn’t beat former Bush administration Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns in the GOP primary and switched over to the Democratic side.

Dave Sund of New Nebraska Network broke the story of Kleeb’s entry into the race last night with the discovery of a relaunched campaign website. Ryan Anderson, also of NNN, followed that with an exclusive interview of Kleeb:

In a wide-ranging interview with NNN, Scott explained his decision to run and offered his thoughts on the battles still to come:

“What was successful about our campaign last time was that it wasn’t just about me, it was about getting people engaged again, getting people to take charge of their democracy.” When he saw the success of DraftKleeb and the continued netroots excitement around a potential campaign “it showed me that what we built last time was for real… if I was going to run, I needed to know that there would be enough shoulders for me to stand on.”

Scott also pointed to the success of Nebraska’s first presidential caucus as a factor in his decision: “What the presidential election did here in Nebraska was remarkable” he said, pointing out that caucus turnout in Nebraska exceeded that in Washington later that day, despite Washington being a more populous and Democratic state. “It was great to have presidential candidates come to Nebraska, to have them learn about Nebraska issues… and we responded in great numbers.”

Asked about his primary opponent Raimondo (who publicly explored a bid for the GOP nomination for months prior to changing parties): “I know Tony and I like Tony, but he will have to face a very fundamental question in this race, which is: ‘why do you think you can beat Mike Johanns as a Democrat when you didn’t think you could beat him as a Republican?‘”

Kleeb’s new campaign website can be viewed here: www.ScottKleeb.com.

One thing of note on Kleeb’s site – he doesn’t have a logo and he’s asking supporters to submit designs, to be voted on by supporters. Kleeb is clearly showing signs that he’s a people-powered candidate.
Another thing that is exciting about Kleeb’s announcement and interview with Ryan Anderson is his repeated recourse to the narratives of change and populist Democrat issues of trade, health care, and combating global warming. Here’s from Anderson’s interview:

“How we did it was by saying, look, we as a country are facing countless problems right now, be it the debt, loss of job, health care, education… and these problems require that we address them in a fundamentally new and different way. We can’t just keep sending the same people back to Washington and expect these issues to get solved.”

And here’s from Kleeb’s announcement on his website:

We confront tremendous challenges: skyrocketing debt and growing budget deficits; rising trade imbalances and falling wages; a global threat of extremism and division with a damaged reputation in the world; and –as if each of those was not enough– we also face the moral test of our lifetime in combating climate change and achieving true energy independence.

We are in this together. These are our challenges. And we must solve them together, as Nebraskans always have.

We can either demand more of ourselves and our leaders, or we can settle for more of the same. We can demand new ideas that uphold our finest and oldest traditions, or we can settle for the same failed old policies. We can stand up, together, and have a say about our future or we can put our future in the same old hands that got us where we are today.

Anyone else reading a bit of Barack Obama meets David Sirota in these words?

The race between Kleeb and Raimondo for the Democratic nomination is going to be a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party. What will we stand for? Corporatist Republican-Lite politics that have never, ever succeeded? Or a people-powered movement that seeks to bring out the best in America to overcome our greatest challenges? I think Democrats of Nebraska will handily choose the latter over the former.

And the general election in Nebraska will likely look similar to the national election for the presidency. Obama vs McCain. Hopefully Kleeb vs Johanns. Change versus more of what we’ve been given the last eight years under Bush. Kleeb will provide an unmistakable alternative to Johanns. This is going to be a very exciting candidacy to watch.

You can donate to Kleeb’s campaign through ActBlue.