Your Next Unicameral: The Moats-McCoy Battleground In LD 39

by: Kyle Michaelis

Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 16:08:13 PM CDT

A largely suburban district spanning parts of three counties, Elkhorn is LD 39's main population center.  One of the key questions in this race will be the extent of voters' still-lingering resentments over that community's recent annexation by the city of Omaha.  Primary front-runner Rex Moats was one of the leaders in the fight to protect Elkhorn and is well-established throughout the community.  With four men running in the primary, Moats received a respectable 36.8%.  He was followed by Beau McCoy, whose 32.7% of the vote was also good enough to carry him into the general election.

The one factor working in McCoy's favor is his partisan advantage as the race's last remaining Republican candidate. Key to McCoy's surviving the primary and beating the other two Republican candidates was the support of Gov. Dave Heineman.  That sort of strong-arming from the Governor's mansion is a new and unfortunate development in local politics, but it shouldn't surprise considering McCoy's close ties to Heineman - supposedly including a stint as the Governor's personal driver.  Now, Heineman's looking to the 27 year-old McCoy to help drive his political agenda on the floor of the legislature.

One of the more telling contrasts in this race can be found in the voting guide provided by Omaha's League of Women Voters.  Both candidates were asked to describe their community involvement and volunteer hours.  Moats responded with his work on the American Legion's annual fireworks fundraiser, his presidency of the Elkhorn Youth Sports Association, and his membership in the Waterloo Masonic Lodge.  Contrast that with McCoy, who - other than his church - lists only "Nebraska Republican Party, Douglas County Republican Party, National Federation of Young Republicans, Nebraska Federation of Young Republicans, and Omaha Young Republicans."  It would be hard to find a more clear demonstration of where McCoy's true loyalties lie.  Hint: they most definitely ARE NOT with the people of LD 39.

If this race comes down to qualifications to be a State Senator and ties within the community, Moats should win hands down.  Recognizing Moats' strength in this regard, the Nebraska Republican Party went after him with everything they had this spring to soften him up and keep him from coming out of the primary in too strong of a position.  A Democrat in the Ben Nelson-mold, Moats is the sort of common sense moderate who just doesn't really have a place in today's Republican Party.  Despite his generally conservative positions on hot button social issues like guns, marriage, and abortion, Nebraska Republicans actually went after Moats in this nonpartisan race for no other reason than his being a registered Democrat.

The best the Nebraska GOP could do was digging up a few quotes from the Nebraska Democratic Party's platform and trying to pin those on Moats.  It didn't matter in the slightest that these positions were taken out of context or misleadingly paraphrased in each and every instance.  Nor did it matter that Moats' own positions were clearly different from his party's on these issues.  Further cheap shots were leveled at Moats for his work as a trial attorney - an insulting attack on the entire legal profession that was just the latest demonstration of Republican desperation.

One of the great peculiarities of this race is the involvement of the home schooling movement on McCoy's behalf.  McCoy is actually a product of home schooling, and they're evidently looking to get him elected so he might champion their cause in the legislature.  In fact, a newly-formed Nebraska Home Educators PAC has formed, dedicating itself primarily to McCoy's election.

This development becomes a little bit disturbing, though, in light of this PACs suspect efforts to recruit home schooled children as free labor for the McCoy campaign.  When young people get involved of their own volition, as a step in developing their own political consciousness, that's a definite benefit to our democracy.  But, where this involvement might cross the line into their school curriculum - dictated by parents pursuing their own political purposes - one starts to get a sense of why so many have such serious doubts about the quality and integrity of home school education.

Regardless, even with a whole army of home schooled children "volunteering" for McCoy, this is still going to be a very close race.  If the primary attacks on Moats are any indication, it's also going to get rather ugly from here on out.  LD 39 voters know Rex Moats.  He's one of them.  Right now, this race looks to be a test of whether the expected wave of partisan mudslinging can overcome those communal bonds, beating Moats and allowing McCoy to continue serving as one more of Heineman's hand-picked henchmen.