Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: As Nebraska Senate race unexpectedly tightens, Rove rides in

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' NE-Sen: Whaddya know. There's now a third recent poll showing a (very) unexpectedly close Senate race in Nebraska. The Omaha World-Herald (once again utilizing local pollster Wiese Research) finds Republican Deb Fischer edging Democrat Bob Kerrey by just a 49-46 margin'much tighter than the 56-40 spread they saw in Fischer's favor in mid-September. (New pollster Pharos had Fischer up just 48-46, and a Kerrey internal had her ahead 50-45.) Fischer tried to pre-empt the OWH news with a poll of her own (from POS), showing her ahead by a commanding 55-39 margin.

So is it possible the race is actually close? Kerrey's been hammering Fischer hard over a lawsuit her family brought against their neighbors over 104 acres of prime riverfront grazing land; the Fischers argued they were the proper owners, but a court decisively rejected those claims. Kerrey's run ads like this one, in which he says Fischer "sued her elderly neighbors to take their land," costing them $40,000 in legal fees. Fischer was sufficiently stung to run a responsive ad'one that doesn't strike me as particularly effective.

I tend to be skeptical of the notion that a single issue can transform a race, though it certainly does happen from time to time. It's also believable that Republicans have been inattentive here, figuring Fischer would win in a walk. Indeed, we were not immune to that belief, seeing as we moved this race to Safe R some time ago. But even if Kerrey's path to victory is still slim as can be, it's hard to ignore all this polling, especially the Wiese trendline, so we're switching the contest back to Likely R.

And well, well, well. Look who's showing up at the last second to bail Fischer out: That's right, Karl Rove's American Crossroads. There's no word on the size of the buy as yet, but according to The Hotline, Crossroads "is going on the air in Nebraska for the final week of the Senate campaign."

P.S. Pharos's newest poll (out on Monday) had Kerrey back just three, despite a sizable surge for Romney. See below.