An Independent candidate for Senate with close ties to Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D., N.Y.) political apparatus is endorsing a Democrat who is ostensibly running against him.
Both Dan Osborn, who is running as an independent, and the Nebraska Democratic Party are urging Democrats to vote for Cindy Burbank, a candidate who doesn’t even plan to run for Senate should she win the nomination.
“Here is the assignment for the U.S. Senate race,” Nebraska’s Democratic Party wrote, urging voters to back Burbank and not William Forbes, in the Democratic primary. “Vote for the real Democrat in the Primary Election, Cindy Burbank. Not the the Ricketts plant, William Forbes. Hear it from Dan himself!”
Given Nebraska’s deep-red lean, Democrats have resorted to running Osborn as a purported Independent candidate, while simultaneously funding him via Democrats’ dark money organizations.
That explains the Democrats’ urging voters to nominate Burbank, whose campaign website makes it clear that she will drop out because Osborn deserves a “fair shot against Ricketts.”
As such, she would “drop out if she won the nomination and support Osborn,” according to the Nebraska Examiner. Burbank’s ballot access has been an added wrinkle in this race; she was briefly removed from the ballot by Nebraska’s Secretary of State, Bob Evnen. Evnen argued that, since Burbank has “no intention of holding the office that she purportedly seeks,” she should be removed from the ballot.
However, Burbank enlisted Democratic Party mega-lawyer Marc Elias, who successfully sued to get her back on the ballot, preventing Forbes, who Democrats accuse of being a Ricketts plant, from getting the nomination uncontested.
While Democrats are unlikely to retake the Senate, they have worked to expand the map into traditionally Republican states. In Montana, where Sen. Steve Daines (R., Mont.) is retiring, Democrats are in an internal war as they deliberate whether Independent candidate Seth Bodnar should have a clear shot against Republican Kurt Alme. The Reporter has previously covered that Bodnar, like Osborn, has close ties to national Democrats, despite running for office without a stated party preference.
