This would be funny if it wasn’t so serious: the political gamesmanship that’s being played between the Ricketts camp and the Democratic Party.

It’s funny how Ricketts thought he was pulling a fast one by getting a very conservative man to call himself a Democrat to confuse voters on election day.

It’s funny how the Democrats outsmarted him by getting a real Democrat to win the nomination and then pull out of the race, giving a boost to the Osborn campaign.

Now it’s funny to see that losing candidate has filed a lawsuit to force the Democrats to put a candidate on the ballot. Mind you, he’s not suing to get HIS name on the ballot. He’s suing to get ANYBODY’S name on the Democratic ticket to take votes away from the independent candidate Osborn.

The head of the state’s Democratic Party, Jane Kleeb, is laughing in the face of the lawsuit. There is no law that says the party must run a candidate. Hell, there have been elections in the past where the Democrats can’t even find a candidate to run for a statewide office like senator. I’m sure if the Democrats had a viable candidate, they’d put one up for a vote.

Yes, watching all this unfold is rather humorous.

But the consequences are very serious.

It appears that the incumbent senator is running scared.

He’s afraid that people will remember that his votes helped put Pete Hegseth in office, the man orchestrating the failing war in Iran.

He’s afraid that people haven’t forgotten that his vote helped keep the Epstein files under wraps by supporting Pam Bondi for Attorney General. Or that the measles epidemic and exploding diarrhea are happening under the unqualified head of Health and Human Services, a man he voted to put in office.

And if that isn’t enough, he’s worried that the 70% of Nebraska voters who voted for medical marijuana will remember how hard he’s worked to nullify their vote.

Last Thursday night Dan Osborn held a rally at the Astro amphitheater to kick off his tour of all 93 Nebraska counties. At first it was to be held at a union hall; when demand grew, they moved it to a bigger union hall. And when the RSVP’s reached a number that that hall couldn’t handle, they moved it to the Astro Theater in predominantly Republican LaVista.

Now traditionally, politicians like to hold rallies in venues that are smaller than the demand. It looks better on TV to see the place packed. There might just be a few hundred people there, but with the right camera angle in a small venue, it looks bigger than it is.

I was curious to see what it would look like in a venue that holds 2,400 people. Would the place look empty? Did they make a mistake in booking the bigger venue?

The crowd wasn’t at capacity, but there had to be at least a thousand or more people there to hear what Osborn had to say. Having followed local politics all these years, I can tell you that having that many people come to hear a candidate talk five months before an election in the middle of summer is a lot of people.

There were a lot of people who especially cheered when Dan Osborn made his more pointed attacks on our current senator. They loved his slogan “If you want to fix Washington send in a mechanic.”

I was at the first rally Dan Osborn held a little over two years ago when he announced his independent run for senator. There were maybe 150 people there and 4 or 5 campaign volunteers.

But even then, I could sense that something was happening. I saw Republican and Democratic friends who were looking for something different. But back then, an independent running against Deb Fischer seemed like a joke.

But nobody’s laughing now.

The Ricketts camp is spending a lot of money to run a series of TV ads. One TV ad attacks Dan personally, another praises Pete for cutting taxes.

But will voters be thinking of tax cuts if they can’t afford gas, groceries, and doctors? Will voters be more concerned with standing up to this administration’s abuses than what bathroom a person uses?

From a spectator’s point of view, what’s going on in this Senate race is fun to watch, but the consequences of this election are no laughing matter.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.