It didn't take long for the November rematch between Mike Flood and Patty Pansing Brooks to begin to take shape.
Flood's initial House vote against an active shooter alert bill was followed quickly by a vote against an abortion rights bill.Â
Guns and abortion right out of the chute.
Those are fundamental differences between Flood and Pansing Brooks and there will be more coming in a partisan Congress that is setting the stage for a battle for control of the House and the Senate during a dynamic election year.
On Nov. 8, it is likely to be rural counties versus Lincoln once again in Nebraska's 1st Congressional District as it was in the dramatic division that emerged in the special election last month.
Flood is clearly determined to make Lincoln more comfortable with him and Pansing Brooks knows that she will need all the votes she can gather in her home town to try to stave off the rural Republican tide that propelled Flood to victory in the special election on June 28.
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Pansing Brooks won Lancaster County by 10,050 votes while Flood racked up huge margins in 11 rural counties, seven of which he won with 82% of the vote or more.Â
While Pansing Brooks has a strong base in her hometown, the rural vote in Lancaster County eats away at the urban margin.
Jeff Fortenberry lost Lincoln in his last two congressional races, but it was a very close tally when all the votes were counted in Lancaster County.
Kate Bolz defeated Fortenberry in Lancaster County by 746 votes in 2020 and Jessica McClure won by 1,575 in 2018. Those votes reflect much larger margins within Lincoln. And they help define the size of Pansing Brooks' margin within the city last month.Â
While Pansing Brooks has developed her own carefully constructed message, which centered on abortion rights in June in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to wipe out Roe v. Wade a few days before the special election, the spotlight is likely to focus this summer on Flood's congressional record.
And that could emerge as the crux of the general election battle.
It's already creating and defining issues for November.
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Charles Herbster has praised the dramatic change in Nebraska Republican Party leadership created by the uprising at the GOP state convention in Kearney a week ago.
And Herbster suggests that Liberty Republicans and Patriot Republicans should be invited to participate now.
Liberty Republicans are part of the Libertarian movement and their platform includes elimination of some federal agencies and an end to foreign aid.
Patriot Republicans are a movement generally attached to former President Donald Trump.Â
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Finishing up:
* Why bother being president when you can be Joe Manchin and decide all the big stuff?
* NASA's new telescopic look into space is mind-boggling, mentally overwhelming, a lesson in humility and a dramatic reminder of what we don't know. Like most of the big stuff.
* Flood will be the new kid on the block when the Nebraska congressional delegation gathers once again at the Aerospace Museum in Ashland next month for the annual Chamber of Commerce legislative summit. The interaction on stage is always revealing -- and sometimes amusing.
* The Republican Party revolution in Kearney has created a whole new political dynamic in the state, but probably has not impacted major statewide and congressional races. Maybe some legislative races?
* It continues to seem that there really isn't a lot of concern for the lives of grandchildren and future generations in a Congress that refuses to take decisive action to combat, reduce or limit the impact of climate change.
* OK, let's toast Frank Solich on the big stage at the Oklahoma game in Lincoln in September -- if he will let us. Â
* What if Trump had gone to the Capitol on January 6th, as he clearly wanted to do? What would he have done?