Congressman Lee Terry to concede

By Joe Jordan and Deena Winter | Nebraska Watchdog

LINCOLN, Neb. – Congressman Lee Terry will concede to Democrat Brad Ashford this afternoon, even though absentee ballots are still being counted in Omaha, according to sources.

Terry trails Ashford by 4,100 votes in the Second Congressional District, according to the latest unofficial election results. But the Douglas County Election Commission still has 13,600 absentee ballots to count, and that won’t be done until Friday.

The eight-term congressman struggled to keep his base intact – securing far fewer votes in Douglas County than newcomer Ben Sasse, who won a U.S. Senate seat.

The campaign was a bruiser, with Republicans running TV ads that put Ashford side-by-side with serial killer Nikko Jenkins, calling him soft on crime for supporting the state’s “good time” law, which cuts prisoners’ sentences in half.

Jenkins served 10 years — about half of his original sentence – but could have served nine more months had prison officials docked more of his good time for rioting, assaulting a guard and acting bizzarely while in solitary confinement during most of his prison stint.

Despite his pleas for treatment and requests to be committed to the state psychiatric hospital, he got neither and killed four Omahans within 11 days of his release last year.

Another ad linked Ashford with terrorist beheadings. Some thought the ads backfired on Terry, but another factor in the race was an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort in Omaha by supporters of the minimum wage increase, which passed handily.

The pro-increase side targeted young people, women and minorities, helping Democrats build an early voting advantage in Omaha, with 53 percent of early voters compared to Republicans’ 33 percent, according to the Douglas County Election Commission.

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