Kerrey's campaign has made him a target for the new money brokers of the GOP. Can Kerrey Republicans help him?

You’ve heard of Reagan Democrats. But what about Bob Kerrey Republicans? And are there enough to push the maverick Democrat over the finish line in a GOP-dominated Nebraska?

That’s the question raised by what’s become a mutiny of moderates: old-guard Senate Republicans throwing their weight behind the 69-year-old Vietnam veteran, whose comeback campaign for Senate has made him a target for the new money brokers of the GOP.


In the biggest endorsement yet, former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel came off the sidelines for Kerrey Thursday. This follows on former Senate Republican Whip Alan Simpson of Wyoming giving his blessing to the Democrat Monday. Former New Hampshire Republican Sen. Warren Rudman has added his own video. And in interviews with POLITICO, former Republican Sens. John Danforth of Missouri and Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas warmly praised Kerrey, even as they said they felt compelled to stay out of the fray.

“Leadership is character and courage,” Hagel told reporters in Omaha. “Bob has demonstrated both in everything he has done. If there ever was a time for Nebraska to send this kind of trusted and experienced integrity to Washington, it is now.”

With a 3-to-2 edge over Democrats among registered voters, the Nebraska Republican establishment dismisses this as so much outside noise. And in an impressive show of force, Kerrey’s Republican opponent, state Sen. Deb Fischer, gathered in Lincoln Thursday with the state’s top GOP officials, including Sen. Mike Johanns and Gov. Dave Heineman, hours before the Hagel announcement.

“It’s too late and too little,” former Nebraska Republican Rep. Hal Daub said of the Hagel endorsement. And picking up on a line-of-attack to undercut Hagel, Daub suggested his former ally was only trying to improve his standing with President Barack Obama by helping a Democrat.

“She will win by double digits,” Daub said of Fischer. “I am confident of that.”

Nonetheless, Arizona Sen. John McCain is now expected to make a quick stop for Fischer in Omaha Friday to try to blunt any Hagel-Kerrey momentum. The three men—all Vietnam veterans—were once close allies, but their working relationship has grown more strained.

This sort of intraparty friction is not new for the GOP, especially with the rise of the tea party forces since 2010. But more often the focus is directed inside: a beleaguered Mike Castle in Delaware or Dick Lugar in Indiana.

What’s different in Nebraska is that Republican moderates are speaking up for a Democrat, even as billionaires like Joe Ricketts and the Koch brothers have spent heavily to level him.

American Crossroads and Karl Rove pummeled Kerrey well before he got into the race last spring. Alarmed by Fischer’s shrinking lead, Crossroads is back this week with a tough, well-financed TV spot attacking Kerrey on health care reform and spending issues. An initial $420,000 investment has already jumped to close to $950,000.

Yet contrast this attack with comments from Republican Danforth, who co-chaired with Kerrey a bipartisan entitlement reform commission in the 1990’s.

“I have a very high regard for Bob. I like him a lot,” Danforth said in an interview. “He is literally a hero — he has the Medal of Honor — but I think the way he handled the entitlement commission, he was a hero again.”

Kassebaum, who represented Kansas in the Senate for 18 years and is retired to Tennessee with her husband, former Senate Republican Leader Howard Baker, is not about to jump across party lines with an endorsement. But without hesitation, she praised Kerrey as someone able to restore more working relationships to a broken Senate.

“Bob is someone you can work with across the aisle,” Kassebaum said in an interview. “He understands the Senate with all its idiosyncrasies, and he understands the importance of having people in the Senate with that understanding.”

Hagel’s own Vietnam infantry record and years in the Senate with Kerrey fostered a genuine friendship. But Fischer has also been a Hagel supporter in the past, and he has provided some counsel to the state senator as she tries to learn the ropes on foreign policy issues.

Weeks ago, Hagel had insisted that he would not become involved, but just as his friend Colin Powell opted to step into the presidential race late, Hagel suggested he saw a chance to make a difference in the Senate contest.

“I think quite frankly that Bob had to show the people of his state that he could win this race. And he’s done that,” Hagel told reporters, “We’ll see what the voters of this state decide on Nov. 6 but he’s done that, he’s put himself in the race.”

In fact, recent polling has shown the race tightening with Kerrey trailing by just three points in a survey published Sunday by the Omaha World-Herald. Republicans are touting one of their own surveys showing Fischer with a double-digit lead, but Rove’s decision to come back with such force indicates he has seen numbers that show Kerrey in at least a competitive position.

“This is a special and moving moment for me,” Kerrey told POLITICO of the Hagel endorsement. “To have someone I admire so much risk so much to do what he believes is right is a memorable act regardless of who wins next Tuesday.”

That risk for Hagel – as evidenced in Daub’s remarks — didn’t take long to surface Thursday.

Hagel has already taped TV and radio spots for Kerrey. And by the end of his news conference, the former senator had gently reminded Johanns and Heineman that they had once valued his endorsement in difficult races of their own.

He bristled most openly at the suggestion that he was helping Kerrey to get a job for himself in a second Obama administration.

“If I was doing that I’d think I would be out in Virginia or Ohio campaigning for the president, not Bob Kerrey,” Hagel said. “Second, I turned a lot of pretty important jobs down when the president himself asked me.”

“If you are going to act in a bipartisan way, particularly on difficult issues … you have to be willing to take grief from your own party. I knew it before, but this is a demonstration of that,” Kerrey said. “Senator Hagel willingness to endorse me produces reaction from his own party and it’s a lesson. It’s an object lesson.”