Attorney General Jon Bruning led a December poll measuring the strength of potential Republican successors to Sen. Chuck Hagel if Hagel chooses not to seek re-election next year.
The survey was commissioned by David Sokol of Omaha, chairman and CEO of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company. The results have been making the rounds in GOP circles in Omaha and Lincoln.
Sokol was finance chairman of Bruning’s 2002 campaign for attorney general.
Bruning, re-elected last November without opposition, appears on course to bid for the Senate seat in 2008 if Hagel opts not to seek re-election.
Hagel is expected to announce this month whether he will pursue the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, seek re-election or leave elective office at the conclusion of his second Senate term.
“I think he’s a fantastic senator,” Bruning said Tuesday. “If he does want to seek re-election, I want to be among the first to endorse and support him.”
Bruning said it would be “premature for me to comment” on whether he’d enter the race if Hagel decides not to seek re-election.
However, the attorney general clearly appears to be laying groundwork for a possible bid. He spent nearly half a million dollars on positive TV campaign ads prior to his unopposed re-election.
The Dec. 15-18 poll of 430 likely Republican voters showed Bruning ahead in a series of potential matchups involving six other Republicans.
GOP prospects included in the survey were Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, Rep. Lee Terry, former Omaha Mayor Hal Daub, 2006 Senate nominee Pete Ricketts, former Speaker of the Legislature Kermit Brashear and 2006 Senate candidate David Kramer.
Not included was Ag Secretary Mike Johanns, the former two-term governor, whose name also has been mentioned.
Illegal immigration emerged atop the list of key issues facing the state. Eighteen percent of respondents in the phone survey chose that as “the single most important issue facing Nebraska today.”
Fifteen percent named taxes and 10 percent chose health care.
Here are some of the matchups in the poll:
* Bruning, 52 percent; Daub, 20 percent.
* Bruning, 54 percent; Ricketts, 24 percent.
* Bruning, 38 percent; Terry, 22 percent.
* Bruning, 40 percent; Fortenberry, 20 percent.
* Bruning, 36 percent; Ricketts, 21 percent; Daub, 16 percent, in a three-way race.
Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.
