Nebraska's Republican governor has a stern message for Ben Nelson (above), the senior Democratic senator from his state: We don't want Washington to cover all the costs of the proposed expansion of Medicaid under health care legislation. | REUTERS Neb. gov. to Nelson: Keep the money

Nebraska’s Republican governor has a stern message for Ben Nelson, the senior Democratic senator from his state: We don’t want Washington to cover all the costs of the proposed expansion of Medicaid under health care legislation.

“The last few days have made Nebraskans so angry that now it’s a matter of principle,” Gov. David Heineman told POLITICO. “The federal government can keep that money.”


Told about the governor’s comments, Nelson said: “If he wants to subject Nebraska to future liability — it’s his call.” And he called it “foolish,” because the money wouldn’t be available until several years down the road, when other states would almost certainly lobby to get increased federal aid.

Nelson is engaged in a tense war of words with his home-state governor over his health care vote and the Medicaid deal he helped secure for their state, a signal that Nelson’s political opponents plan to bloody him up for his health-care stand — and that could impact his standing ahead of his 2012 reelection campaign.

“The reason he’s in hot water right now is that he’s not listening to Nebraskans — it’s very unusual for him,” Heineman said. “I am shocked.”

Asked about the governor’s direct aim at him, Nelson said it’s just “partisan politics.”

The back-and-forth exchanges are somewhat unusual, Nebraska political analysts say, because the state’s governor and senators have historically stayed out of each others’ affairs.

“I think that’s what’s been the courtesy,” said Nelson, who was governor of Nebraska from 1991-98. “But if he chooses not to recognize that courtesy and continue it there’s not much I can do about it.”

Some see that this battle could presage a potential Nelson-Heineman 2012 matchup for the Senate seat, but Heineman said being governor is “the one job I love doing” and that he has expressed no interest in the seat, though he wouldn’t rule it out.

Heineman said while he usually he tries to avoid getting involved in Senate affairs, “health care is different,” given the costs to his state and fears that it would raise taxes and negatively impact people’s insurance premiums.

Since he announced he would vote for the health care bill last Saturday, Nelson has been the subject of intensifying criticism from the right for appearing to reverse his position and support the measure after securing deals to exempt Nebraska from new Medicaid payments, ease an excise tax on home-state insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and for brokering a middle-ground deal over whether federal dollars can be spent on abortion services.

Nelson has denied a quid-pro-quo over the deals, saying his position has been consistent and that he voted for the bill to deliver relief from rising health care costs to Nebraskans.

But that hasn’t stopped fierce attacks in his Republican-leaning state, with scathing editorials and sharp attacks from Republicans dubbing the Medicaid deal the “Cornhusker Kickback.” The Omaha World Herald, the state’s largest newspaper, carried an editorial cartoon Sunday of a man waiting in line to return an item he’d purchased — the item was Nelson.

“I think he probably earned himself the title ‘the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent in 2012,’” said Jennifer Duffy, a Senate expert at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “Think of the ads you can run with Ben Nelson before-and-after quotes.”

Despite being a Democrat in a solidly GOP state, Nelson has found long-running success at the ballot box after first being elected governor with a bare 50 percent of the vote. He lost once, when — as a sitting governor — he ran for the Senate in 1996 but lost to Republican Chuck Hagel, a senator with whom he had a frosty relationship.

Nelson, 68, is considered one of the most cautious legislators in the Senate and has long been one of the biggest swing votes in the upper chamber. His frequent defections on votes have even prompted unsuccessful attempts by Republicans to convince him to switch parties.

But now the GOP senses a fresh opportunity to knock off Nelson. For Heineman to run, he would have to begin a Senate campaign after the 2010 elections, in which he’s seeking a second full term as governor. If Heineman declines, there’s a deep bench of state officials and three GOP congressmen who might be eager to take Nelson on next cycle.

“I think he’s going to definitely take a hit as a result of this, the question is for how long,” John Hibbing, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said of Nelson and his health care position.

Nelson dismisses the chatter, saying that if he listened to analysts or the polls he would never have even run for governor initially.

“I just don’t make decisions on the basis of that,” Nelson said. “I’ll stand on my record.”

Asked if he would run in 2012, Nelson said: “I haven’t made a decision on that — but I certainly haven’t made a decision not to.” He has wavered before, including in 2006, when he was unsure whether to run for a second term. He ultimately skated to reelection.

But he could face a bigger hurdle back home in the wake of his role in the health care debate — after raising a litany of concerns initially but ultimately voicing support for the measure.

In particular, Heineman and his Nebraska GOP colleagues, such as Sen. Mike Johanns, have taken direct aim at language Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) inserted into the bill that would require the federal government to pick up the tab for any new Nebraska beneficiaries under the proposed expansion of the Medicaid law. Even though all states have their costs paid by the federal government through 2016, Nebraska is the only state where the federal government would permanently pick up the tab — a carve-out that the Congressional Budget Office said would cost federal taxpayers $100 million.

“We don’t like that,” Johanns, also a former governor, said in an interview. “We just think that’s so un-Nebraskan. You know, we live out there on the prairie. It’s hot in the summer. It’s cold in the winter, and we’re kind of less-government sort of people. We don’t want a special deal.”

Heineman added that he’s “never seen the emotional intensity on an issue that I’m seeing right now. This violated our sense of ethics.”

Nelson insists that he wasn’t seeking a special deal for his state on the Medicaid provisions, saying that he was merely pushing for an option for states either to join the expanded Medicaid program with the federal government incurring all the costs or to have the option to bow out altogether. And he said that given that states won’t have to pay until 2017, Congress will have a chance to revisit the language and expand federal funding in order to eliminate an “unfunded mandate.”

“This was not like getting a pot of money for the state of Nebraska for Medicaid,” Nelson said.

Nelson, who strongly opposes abortion, also said he would oppose any bill that would allow federal dollars to pay for abortion services. But he struck a deal that would attempt to segregate federal dollars from private dollars spent on abortion and allow states to implement even tighter restrictions, and that infuriated anti-abortion activists who have supported him in the past.

“I can’t imagine me doing something like that on a big issue, without knowing that by the time I’m doing a news conference to announce the bill they’re all standing behind me,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “I think there’s a backlash there and it will hurt him in terms of trust with pro-life people back home.”

Nelson defended his record opposing abortion, pointing to an unsuccessful amendment he authored that would have imposed even tighter abortion restrictions.

“Some people chose different language than what I’ve prepared, [but] it doesn’t make me any less pro-life,” Nelson said. “They’d have to live with their own conscience if they’re attacking me on this.”

And Nelson said the ferocity of the opposition has not intensified since Saturday, saying that calls to his office from Nebraskans are “probably fewer right now” than before.