State GOP furious with Rep. Terry’s Republican challenger

Joe Jordan | Nebraska Watchdog

There’s been another eruption in Omaha’s latest GOP family feud.

The May 13 primary fight between Rep. Lee Terry and Dan Frei now finds the Nebraska Republican Party claiming that Frei has gone too far, is not telling “the truth” and is “trying to manipulate the voters.”

At issue is a news release (in full below) fired off Wednesday by Frei’s campaign carrying the headline, “Nebraska Republican Party Fails to Endorse Lee Terry.”

Bud Synhorst, the Executive Director of the state GOP is furious and tells Nebraska Watchdog the party won’t stand for Frei’s “intellectually dishonest” stunt.

According to Synhorst, the party’s constitution would only allow an endorsement for Terry if Terry asked for one. Synhorst says Terry never asked.

A Frei spokesman tells Nebraska Watchdog there’s more to it.

“We had every indication that if Terry had asked for (the endorsement) he would not have gotten it,” says spokesman Bruce Dickes.

As for charges that Team Frei is playing fast and loose with the facts, Dickes says the state GOP is,”entitled to their opinion.”

The winner of the Terry-Frei fight likely takes on Democrat Brad Ashford in November.

Contact Joe Jordan at joe@nebraskawatchdog.org and listen to Joe every Monday morning at 7:40 on KFAB radio in Omaha.

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Frei News Release:

Nebraska Republican Party Fails to Endorse Lee Terry

April 30, 2014

OMAHA, NE – Congressman Lee Terry has not received the endorsement of the Nebraska Republican Party.

Although the constitution of the state party only allows the endorsement of incumbents, and Terry has traditionally been endorsed by the NEGOP, at the meeting of the NEGOP central committee on April 26 Terry did not garner the party’s endorsement.

Dan Frei, Terry’s opponent in the Republican U.S. House of Representatives primary commented, “Washington is broken, and Lee Terry is a big part of the problem. He promised to serve only three terms and is now seeking his ninth term in office. He has run as a fiscal conservative, but has consistently voted to approve countless increases to the national debt. Everywhere I go, voters tell me they have had enough of career politicians like Lee Terry. It is time for a common sense leader in Congress, a stronger voice that speaks for Nebraska.”

When a sitting Congressman, after eight terms in Washington, does not receive his own party’s endorsement, it is time for a change. When that same incumbent refuses to debate his challenger on the issues and his own record, it is obvious that the record cannot be defended.