Bob Kerrey Weighs Return to Senate Born and bred in Nebraska, Bob Kerrey was the high-profile political face of his home state as governor, senator and presidential candidate. That background made him an obvious choice for Democrats courting the best candidate to retain the seat held by Senator Ben Nelson, who is retiring. But as Mr. Kerrey decides whether to enter the race after a decade out of office, Republicans have pre-emptively taken to the local airwaves to point out what they believe to be a glaring weakness - Cornhusker roots or not, this is a man who calls Greenwich Village home. "Straight from New York City, Bob Kerrey is bringing his liberal act to Nebraska," declared one advertisement by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group. After ditching our state over a decade ago, Kerrey is back, pushing an East Coast liberal agenda. The line of attack - another group called him Big Apple Bob - highlights a longstanding tension. Throughout the country, politicians, even those who spent their career wailing about the shortcomings of life outside the singular splendor of their state's borders, often leave office to find that the most compelling or lucrative career options can be found elsewhere. More than 40 percent of former senators now live outside their home states, according to the Senate Historical Office, most in the Washington area. Such relocations are particularly jarring here in the Midwest, where leaders have long worked to stop the outflow of promising young residents and dispel the notion that opportunity is in short supply locally. Undermining that official line is the fact that the politicians pledging to stop the outflow often move out as well. In Iowa and Indiana, two states that have wrestled with brain drain, all six living former senators live out of state, according to the Senate Historical Office. In Michigan, the only state to lose population in the last census, the governor made what she called a temporary move to California to teach after her term ended last year. And in Kansas not only did the political icon Bob Dole not return after leaving the Senate but five recent former governors left the state - though two have returned - either to serve in the federal government or take jobs in the private sector. Doug Bereuter, a Republican who moved to California to take a job running the nonprofit Asia Foundation after representing Nebraska for 13 terms in Congress, said he often saw colleagues who planned on returning home tempted by opportunities elsewhere. "You become a very valuable commodity," Mr. Bereuter said. And you're going to earn your money, if that's your interest, in very large communities like Washington or New York or San Francisco. Still, Mr. Bereuter, who has kept a house in Nebraska where he lives about half the year and serves on local boards, said that he believed politicians had an obligation to return to the state that elevated them into leadership. In Nebraska, one of the most Republican states, political leaders from both parties agree that even after his long absence Mr. Kerrey represents Democrats" best hopes of keeping Mr. Nelson's Senate seat. Mr. Nelson, a moderate Democrat who faced a difficult re-election battle, announced his retirement last month. Several prominent Republicans including the attorney general, the state treasurer and a state senator are running for the seat. Several Democrats considering the entering the race are waiting for Mr. Kerrey - who has entertained the idea of running for office in both Nebraska and New York before - to make a decision, which he said would come in the next few days. One of the pressing questions for Mr. Kerrey, who moved to New York to run the New School and has since started a family, is whether Nebraska will accept such a return after a long, self-imposed separation. He last appeared on a ballot here in 1994. Noting that he still has family and businesses in the state, Mr. Kerrey said he believes that if he runs he will be accepted because Nebraska has a well-established tradition of calling its expats home. "People graduate and leave, and we always want them to come back," he said. "It's a very Republican, very conservative state," he added. I'm going to have much bigger problems if I run in Nebraska than whether or not I've been living there for the last 11 years. Indeed, there is even a Web site with the explicit mission of luring back former Nebraskans. Mitch Arnold, president of a recruiting company based in Omaha that runs the Move Back to Nebraska site, said it was easier to lure job candidates who already have a Nebraska connection. "Nebraskans will welcome him back," he said of Mr. Kerrey. They may not vote for him, but they will welcome him back. One inspiration may be Dan Coats, a Republican former senator from Indiana who left the state to live in Washington and openly talked about retiring to North Carolina. But he returned to Indiana, and despite efforts by Democrats to use the long absence against him, he was reelected to the Senate in 2010. Michael Wagner, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, said the return would be made only more difficult by the fact that Republicans enjoy a huge advantage in voter registration. "He would have to spend some time defusing questions about being a carpetbagger and the rest of his time convincing every single independent and a couple of Republicans to vote for him too," he said. Steven Yaccino contributed reporting.