Independent Dan Osborn launches new US Senate bid to challenge Nebraska Republican Pete Ricketts

OMAHA Neb AP A former labor union boss who drew national headlines in his race last year as an independent candidate challenging Nebraska Republican U S Sen Deb Fischer is again throwing his hat into the political ring this time to challenge Nebraska s junior senator Republican Pete Ricketts in I m running for Senate because Congress shouldn t just be a playground for the rich Dan Osborn revealed in a video disclosed Tuesday to announce his candidacy He criticized Ricketts a former two-term Nebraska governor and multimillionaire who is the son of billionaire TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts as a lawmaker who bought his Senate seat Ricketts campaign responded by touting his voting record to secure the frontier and cut taxes for Nebraska workers and painted Osborn as beholden to Democrats Dan Osborn is bought and paid for by his liberal out-of-state coastal donors Ricketts campaign spokesman Will Coup revealed in a written declaration That was a reference to the nearly million Osborn received last year from political action committees including those that tend to promotion Democratic candidates As he insisted last year Osborn disclosed he would serve as an independent if elected and has no plans to caucus with either Democrats or Republicans He pointed to Ricketts vote for Republicans massive tax cut and spending bill last week that contains trillion in tax cuts and cuts Medicaid and food stamps by trillion Congress spends their time bickering about how much we should cut taxes for billionaires and multinational corporations We re just an afterthought Osborn reported My kids and yours deserve an American dream too It s a familiar refrain from Osborn who centered his campaign last year on representing working families he says are being steamrolled by an ever-growing wealth gap and policies that favor the rich over the middle class Osborn was known in labor union circles as the Omaha industrial mechanic who successfully led a labor strike at Kellogg s cereal plants in winning higher wages and other benefits He was a political newcomer when he challenged Fischer outraising her by more than million and coming within percentage points of the two-term senator who was used to winning by wide margins Osborn acknowledged that it would be tough to pose a campaign finance threat to Ricketts one of the richest members of the U S Senate Federal campaign finance reports show Ricketts campaign had more than cash on hand at the end of March But Osborn believes his populist message appeals more to Nebraska voters than campaign war chests I think if you throw million of your own money into Nebraska I don t know that that moves the needle any more than does he commented I think we re going to win this the old school way Go out to where people are Just hold town hall after town hall and talk with the good people in Nebraska Ricketts is seeking reelection next year after winning a special electoral contest last year to finish out the term of former Sen Ben Sasse who resigned in Ricketts was appointed to the seat by his successor fellow Republican Gov Jim Pillen to fill the vacancy a move widely panned as having the appearance of backroom dealing as Ricketts had heavily supported and donated more than million to help elect Pillen Source