National
Journal Group
Learn more about our publications and sign up for a free trial.
E-Mail Alerts
Get notified the moment your favorite features are updated.
Need A Reprint?
Click here for details on reprints, permissions and back issues.
Advertise With Us
Details on advertising with National Journal Group -- both online and in print -- can be found in our online media kit.
Go Wireless
Get daily political updates on your handheld computer.
 Nebraska: Second District Rep. Jon Christensen (R) As of November 1998
Omaha, the commercial metropolis of Nebraska, the largest city on the Great Plains north of Kansas City and west of Minneapolis, the city that still produces one out of five American steaks, got its start from government: Abraham Lincoln picked it as the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific railroad, from which emerged the stockyards and livestock exchange that made it a top livestock town. Over the years, Omaha filled up with cattle hands from the West and European immigrants, especially Germans and Czechs; it developed fine civic institutions from the Joslyn Art Museum and the Ak-Sar-Ben (spell it backwards) Exhibition to the Boys Town of orphanage fame, founded by Father Flanagan in 1917. Though a major city by the 1880s, Omaha has remained small enough (and famous on Wall Street as the place where Warren Buffett lives and works) to be readily comprehensible; you don't feel distant, physically or psychologically, from the other side of town, and you usually know people from a broader range of backgrounds than you would in a large homogeneous neighborhood within a big metropolitan area. The older, less affluent part of Omaha is near the river and Iowa; to the west, the city has been quietly booming, with affluent neighborhoods and new shopping areas. All over, Omaha's economy has been changing. It still has many processors of food products, like the hard-charging ConAgra company, and the giant Peter Kiewit construction firm; but it is also the nation's telecommunications center, handling 100 million `800' and `900' calls annually and employing more than 10,000 people in 24 telemarketing centers. The 2d Congressional District of Nebraska is metropolitan Omaha: Douglas County with Omaha and its western suburbs; Sarpy County with suburbs to the south and the old Strategic Air Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base; and a sliver of Cass County just to the south. Politically, Omaha has long had competitive politics, with Democrats strong on the south side around the stockyards and the northeast and Republicans strong in the area west of 72d Street; the 2d District has been competitive more often than not over the last two decades. The congressman from the 2d District is Jon Christensen, a Republican elected in a bitter contest in 1994 and reelected in 1996. Christensen grew up in rural Nebraska, attended Midland Lutheran College on a basketball scholarship, went to law school in Texas, returned to Nebraska to work as an insurance agent and marketing director, and owned a company marketing organic fertilizer. In 1994, Christensen ran against Peter Hoagland, a Democratic congressman who had won by just 51%-49% in 1992. Christensen waged an active door-to-door campaign, backing school prayer, the option to teach creationism and a ban on abortion, and he won the May Republican primary with 53% to 25% for state Senator Brad Ashford, pro-choice and moderate, and 23% for Ron Staskiewicz, the 1992 Republican nominee. The general election was closely contested; Christensen led in the Omaha World-Herald poll after the primary -- unusual for a challenger, and a harbinger of November 1994. In June 1994 Christensen sat in the front row at a Ways and Means hearing when Hoagland cast the decisive vote for employer mandates in health care; it passed 20-18, and Christensen was immediately on the phone to an Omaha radio station. Previously Hoagland had worked with Mutual of Omaha, the city's largest employer, to develop a managed competition plan; Christensen favored medical savings accounts. Some bizarre charges and countercharges followed, with lie detector tests about whether Christensen denounced school textbooks while campaigning door-to-door and death threats against a family featured in a Hoagland spot. Christensen attacked Hoagland as a Clinton clone; Hoagland called him a right-wing extremist. Christensen pounded again and again on the moderate Hoagland's vote for the Clinton budget and tax package in August 1993 and on his record of 81% support of Clinton. Hoagland, who spent a total of $2.5 million in three previous campaigns, spent $1.1 million in this one, raising $780,000 from PACs (the seventh highest in the country). Christensen raised $779,000; he ended the campaign with $150,000 cash-on-hand. In November Hoagland carried Omaha's Douglas County but lost suburban Sarpy County by a wider margin, giving Christensen a 50%-49% victory. Christensen had a very conservative voting record and, with two other freshmen elected by narrow margins, got a seat on Ways and Means, the first Republican freshmen there since George Bush in 1968; all three won in 1996. There Christensen sponsored a bill to distinguish between independent contractors and employees, replacing the IRS's 20-factor test with a three-factor test; he added medical malpractice caps to the Republicans' tort reform bill; it passed the House but was vetoed by Clinton in May 1996. He voted against term limits because he thought them not stringent enough. He was unsuccessful in eliminating funding for the Capitol elevator operators. He had a bill to require prisoners to work 48 hours and study 12 hours a week, to ban televisions and weightlifting equipment in prisons and to end prisoner lawsuits. His big legislative success, ironically for a conservative, was increasing federal impact aid 8% for 1997, a big help to school districts in Sarpy County. Democrats targeted Christensen in 1996 and found an attractive candidate in lawyer and Vietnam veteran James Martin Davis. Davis spoke out against "arrogant" government overregulation and emphasized family and faith over welfare. Davis charged that Republicans orchestrated a lawsuit against him by a former client, a convicted killer, filed by a cousin of state Republican Party Director Andy Abboud. Abboud attacked Davis as a "dirt bag" for representing "the scum of the earth"; Davis replied that he had represented eight of Abboud's relatives. But the real campaign went on over the airwaves. Christensen raised $1.8 million, $627,000 from PACs, and starting in the spring, when his poll ratings were low (there were negative stories after the breakup of his marriage), ran positive spots about himself and called for less government, lower taxes and stiffer sentences. Davis, disheartened when his 16-year-old son died in a car crash in January, raised relatively little money, and spent $384,000 in all. The AFL-CIO ran ads against Christensen in May; he responded with a blitz accusing Davis of being controlled by "Washington union bosses." The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the AFL-CIO ran ads again in September, but Davis had little money and the few ads he ran were positive; both organizations dropped this race from their target lists. The result was that Christensen won 57%-40%, carrying Douglas County 55%-42% and Sarpy 65%-32%. In the 105th Congress Christensen was named to the Ways and Means bipartisan transportation tax task force. In September 1997 Christensen announced he would run for governor in 1998; Governor Ben Nelson is term limited. Christensen will face primary opposition from state Auditor John Breslow and Lincoln Mayor Michael Johanns, but Christensen will try to define himself as the "true conservative" in the campaign. Omaha City Council member Lee Terry and businessman Bradley Kuiper are both running; other Republican possibilities include Steve Kupka, chief of staff to Omaha Mayor Hal Daub, and businessman Andrew Winstrom. On the Democratic side, former Democratic National Committee member Mike Fahey and Chris McLean, an aide to Senator Robert Kerrey may run.
Update: June 1998
Christensen's successor will be either Republican Lee Terry or Democrat Michael Scott. Terry won a five-way primary with 40%; Scott bested three other Democrats to win 65%. To access more Almanac information about the Nebraska governor's race, click here. There is also additional information in Cloakroom's campaign section. Learn more about the Johanns and Hoppner campaigns by accessing their official Web sites.
Update: November 1998
The People: Pop. 1990: 526,573; 6% rural; 10% age 65+; 86% White; 10% Black; 1% Asian; 1% Amer. Indian; 3% Hispanic origin. Households: 55% married couple families; 28% married couple fams. w. children; 56% college educ.; median household income: $30,889; per capita income: $14,322; median gross rent: $405; median house value: $60,700.
Rep. Jon Christensen (R) Elected 1994; b. Feb. 2, 1963, St. Paul, NE; home, Omaha; Midland Lutheran Col., B.S. 1985; S. TX Col. of Law, J.D. 1989; Christian; divorced. Career: Vice Pres., COMREP Inc., 1989-91; Mktg. Dir., CT Mutual Insurance Co., 1991-94. DC Office: 413 CHOB 20515, 202-225-4155; Fax: 202-225-3032; e-mail: talk2jon@hr.house.gov. District Offices: Omaha, 402-397-9944. Committees: Ways & Means (19th of 23 R): Health; Social Security.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Back To Top
National Journal Group offers both print and electronic reprint services, as well as permissions for academic use, photocopying and republication. Click here to order, or call us at 877-394-7350.
