Scott Kleeb is running for U.S. Senate

Breaking news: The Draft Scott Kleeb effort has finally succeeded!

I just got off the phone with Scott Kleeb, who is headed East on I-80 towards the fight of his political life: "I'm going to Lincoln tomorrow to file for the United States Senate," he told me. "It's just the first step in what's going to be a long and hard fought campaign, but I will be taking that first step tomorrow."

This is the first time Scott has confirmed the rumors of the imminent launch of his campaign. Kleeb enters a Democratic primary contested by industrialist and former Republican Tony Raimondo, a battle to determine which one of them will compete in a decidedly uphill campaign against former Gov. Mike Johanns in November.

Speculation about Scott's potential Senate bid has been running through the blogosphere ever since his near-loss to Adrian Smith in Nebraska's extremely Republican NE-03 last cycle and the subsequent formation, one year later, of DraftKleeb.com, a grassroots effort that secured thousands of hours in volunteer pledges and captured the attention of local media.

In a wide-ranging interview with NNN, Scott explained his decision to run and offered his thoughts on the battles still to come:

"What was successful about our campaign last time was that it wasn't just about me, it was about getting people engaged again, getting people to take charge of their democracy." When he saw the success of DraftKleeb and the continued netroots excitement around a potential campaign "it showed me that what we built last time was for real... if I was going to run, I needed to know that there would be enough shoulders for me to stand on."

Scott is a heroic netroots candidate running for office in a very red state. You can learn about his candidacy and send a donation his way at his new website.