Nebraska's Democratic Mandate in Congress

A comment just made by one of our readers was pretty darn ingenious and deserves everyone's attention. Eric writes:

...44% of Nebraska voters chose a Democrat in their House race, so I'd say that the mandate for a Democratic House delegation is even bigger than the 423 mandate. That's got to entitle us to at least one seat right?

If you throw in the Senate race too, you'll see that 54% of votes cast for Federal offices were for Democrats. Certainly we should be able to argue that the Democratic Congress has a mandate from Nebraskans.

To be honest, I'm embarrased to admit that I hadn't even considered Nebraska's "Democratic mandate." But, there's actually a pretty powerful and convincing argument to be made here.

In the race that became Sen. Ben Nelson's landslide victory (64%), the stakes were laid out quite clearly that a vote for Nelson could mean a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress. By their votes, the people chose this possibility, finding it much more acceptable than the alternative.

Although they endorsed Nelson's independent leadership, the people showed an openness to the Democratic agenda that we should not be afraid to point out in making its case here in Nebraska.

In 2006, "54% of votes cast for Federal offices were for Democrats." I don't know if that's a popular mandate, but it's certainly an opportunity. And, we should sing it to the mountain tops...or, at least, to the highest points along our beautiful prairie (I believe they're called buttes).

The Democratic agenda is Nebraska's agenda. The people may not recognize it yet, but their votes are trying to tell them something.