Terry Blasts Esch Over Comments in City Weekly

KETV-7 ran a story last night regarding a battle between congressional candidates Democratic challenger Jim Esch, on left, and Republican incumbent Lee Terry. Terry is upset over a comment on abortion that Esch made during an interview in last week's issue of the City Weekly.

Below is the KETV article. Here is a link to the video.

The KETV article in its entirety:

"Abortion Comment Heats Up Esch-Terry Race
Terry Demands Apology After Magazine Interview

OMAHA, Neb. -- The congressional race between Rep. Lee Terry and challenger Jim Esch is heating up after a statement Esch made about abortion opponents

Both candidates consider themselves opposed to abortion, but the Terry campaign is calling out Esch after he told the local magazine City Weekly that used the word extremist to refer to some abortion opponents.

“He said that pro-lifers are extremists. I don’t agree with that,” Terry said. “I think it shows his true colors on that issue.”

The Aug. 5 edition of the magazine posed a question to Esch about whether he would introduce or vote for legislation to restrict or outlaw abortions. In response, Esch spoke about the challenges of weighing the abortion issue philosophically.

“The other thing that frustrates me with that issue is you have two sides and really both, I think the right-to-life side is a little more extremist, but they think it says something fundamental about that person because they look at it as a strictly moral issue,” the magazine quoted Esch as saying.

“He owes all of the pro-lifers in the metro area and apology,” Terry said.

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on things,” said Dennis Esch, of the Jim Esch for Congress campaign.

Terry acknowledges that Esch may have misspoken during the interview, but also said it is evidence that Esch is not actually pro-life.

The Terry campaign’s accusations come through what is called its Truth Squad, a watchdog arm led by Richard Carter, who opposed Esch in the May primary."