The center of the political universe this month has been in Omaha, Nebraska.
It’s not that the blue-collar workers in Rust Belt Pennsylvania or soccer moms in suburban Georgia have lost any of their importance in what is shaping up to be a close election, but Omaha is the only place where control of both the White House and the House of Representatives could be decided on November 5. That’s because Nebraska is one of two states that apportions its electoral votes by congressional district (the other is Maine). One of the state’s five electoral votes belongs to its second district, which includes Omaha and its surrounding suburbs and is perhaps the archetypal swing area. There are the blue-collar Catholic Democrats who have recently swung to the right and the country-club Republicans who have swung to the left; majority-minority neighborhoods in North Omaha; farms outside the rural county seat of Wahoo; Offutt Air Force Base, one of the Air Force’s key installations; and major college campuses such as the University of Nebraska Omaha and Creighton University.
The district has swung back and forth in recent presidential........