Tea partyer Maxwell deciding NOT to take on GOP’s Lee Terry?
Joe Jordan | Nebraska Watchdog
Hold everything.
Nebraska Watchdog is learning that tea partyer Chip Maxwell in on the brink of getting out, that’s right getting out, of this year’s Omaha House race against incumbent Republican Lee Terry.
Earlier (today) Thursday, Maxwell announced an afternoon news conference telling reporters, “Come see what 2,000 signatures look like and find out what’s next.”
Well there are now strong indications that “what’s next” is Maxwell “standing down for 2014.”
Nebraska Watchdog has obtained an early July email—apparently sent by Maxwell—marked “CONFIDENTIAL” looking at a run in 2016:
“I’m convinced that, regardless of whether I run now or in 2016, I should complete the petition drive. Even if it’s 2016, I call a news conference to show the stack of signatures so critics can’t say I’m lying/bluffing. The signatures are proof that this was not just some feverish little fit in my imagination. There are a lot of people dissatisfied with the status quo. However, so many people are concerned about splitting the vote, and so many have promised support for 2016, that I am standing down for 2014 and will defer to 2016.”
“I’m not surprised by that,” Republican Scott Peterson tells Nebraska Watchdog. Peterson, who ran Dan Frei’s primary campaign that lost to Terry by a mere six points, says it was always going to be hard for Maxwell to pull off a 3rd party win.
Maxwell has not been available for comment.
But you can almost hear the moans from Democrat Brad Ashford’s backers, who have been counting on Maxwell to split the GOP vote and put Ashford in the winner’s circle.
Stay with Nebraska Watchdog for more on this developing story.
Contact Joe Jordan at joe@nebraskawatchdog.org.
Joe can be heard on Omaha’s KFAB radio every Monday at 7:40 a.m. and KHAS-AM in Hastings every Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.
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