An Omaha city councilman announced this weekend that he would challenge Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) for his congressional seat in 2014, the Omaha World Herald reported.
Councilman Pete Festersen had said in August that he didn’t want to run for the sake of his family, according to the World Herald. But the dysfunction in Washington seems to have changed his mind.
“Like most people, my frustration has grown by the day over the last month, with the government shutdown and the brinkmanship on the debt ceiling,” Festersen said. “Change is needed. And I felt it was my responsibility to be that change.”
According to the World Herald, Festersen had been aggressively courted by national Democrats because they view Terry as vulnerable.
Terry has taken some heat during the shutdown for saying “dang straight” he’d accept his paycheck: “I’ve got a nice house and a kid in college, and I’ll tell you we cannot handle it. Giving our paycheck away when you still worked and earned it? That’s just not going to fly.” He later reversed that position.
