Deb Fischer said she's the Republican candidate who can make the strongest case against Bob Kerrey in this year's Senate race.
Voters could measure the stark contrast between their extensive legislative voting records, she suggested.
After eight years in the Legislature, Fischer said, "People know where I stand; I don't just talk about it."
Voters can compare her conservative voting record on fiscal issues, taxes and social policy with Kerrey's voting record during his 12 years in the Senate, she said.
Her voting record validates who she is, the state senator from Valentine said. And so does the record Kerrey compiled as a Democratic member of the Senate from 1989 to 2001, Fischer said.Â
"I think I will be a harder candidate to attack on issues. I'd be a tougher candidate."
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Tough is a word some of Fischer's legislative colleagues use to describe her. She's been a strong and effective presence in the Legislature. Her signature achievement was passage of a 2011 law that will accelerate road construction in Nebraska by dedicating a slice of the revenue from the current state sales tax to roads, beginning next year.
Fischer brings some built-in advantages to the Republican Senate contest: She is the candidate from western and central Nebraska's 3rd Congressional District, a GOP stronghold that produces up to 40 percent of the vote in a statewide Republican primary race. She's a Sandhills rancher, the candidate who is engaged in agriculture. She's a woman in a six-candidate field largely dominated by men.
But Fischer has been underfunded in a contest of million-dollar campaigns conducted by Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and generated on behalf of State Treasurer Don Stenberg. Â
Unable to command the resources that would allow her to purchase saturation TV advertising that might have propelled her into the thick of the battle weeks or months ago, Fischer's success depends heavily now on erosion of support for the front-runners, particularly Bruning.
Fischer was grounded during the first 3 1/2 critical months of 2012 by her legislative responsibilities, limited to campaign appearances at night, on weekends and during legislative recess days. Before that, a special session of the Legislature summoned to deal with the proposed Keystone XL pipeline yanked her off the campaign trail in November.
Fischer, who faced challenges of voter familiarity that did not confront statewide ballot veterans Bruning and Stenberg, said she never gave serious consideration to resigning from the Legislature to campaign full-time.
"It really wasn't a question for me. I made a commitment to the people who elected me. I have campaigned around that. People forget I have traveled all over the state for six years as chairman of the Legislature's Transportation and Telecommunications Committee."
Despite being confined by her legislative duties in Lincoln this year, Fischer said, she made 83 campaign stops in more than 30 communities during the 2012 session.
Fischer, 61, grew up in Lincoln. Her father, Jerry Strobel, was director of the state Department of Roads during the governorship of Kay Orr, who emerged as one of the early voices urging Fischer to enter the Republican Senate race.
"I'm not a career politician," Fischer said. "I'm a citizen legislator, not the usual politician. We run a ranch; we run a business.
"People are tired of career politicians," she said. "We can't keep sending the same kind of persons to Washington or things won't change."
Fischer said she hopes voters will look at her performance in the Legislature.
"I would hope they'd see I have been very effective in a leadership position. I have a good record of passing bills. I understand the legislative process. I know how to work with my colleagues in building consensus. I work hard. I keep my word."
When she was working to build support for the road construction bill, and then trying to hold a coalition of senators together in the face of Gov. Dave Heineman's reluctance, Fischer said she was urged to summon a big, splashy news conference to stir support for the plan.
"No, I don't hold press conferences," she said she told them. "I want to get the bill passed. I do my job."
As a U.S. senator, Fischer said, she would focus on doing the hard work of cutting spending, balancing the federal budget and reducing the national debt. That's the way to build a healthier economy that will grow and create jobs, she said.
Fischer would vote to make the Bush administration tax cuts permanent, support Social Security and Medicare reform while protecting the current Social Security benefit structure for everyone older than 40 and and work to replace the national health care reform law with "a series of policies that permit market forces to lower costs."
Bottom line: "Tough decisions need to be made."