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After a long convalescence, briefly interrupted in 1970, when the entire family traveled to Washington to see President Nixon award him the Congressional Medal of Honor, Kerrey abandoned plans to open his own pharmacy because the Lincoln area was "overstocked." Instead, he and sister Jessie's husband Dean Rasmussen launched a restaurant they called Grandma's because Kerrey wanted it to feature "grandmother's kind of food." Recalls Jessie: "Dean and Bob were everything at first -- busboys, waiters, cooks and managers." For months, "they worked almost around the clock," says Jessie. Today the brothers-in-law own six restaurants and two fitness centers, employ 500 people and are easily millionaires. There seemed no reason why Kerrey would not continue as a successful small businessman, but by 1981, he had grown restless. With small groups of family and close friends, the talk frequently had an "Is this all there is?" theme. Maybe, Kerrey mused, he would try politics. Sure, everyone agreed. Mayor? The legislature? No, said Kerrey. He was thinking of running for Governor. Rasmussen was astonished. "Bob was not that well-known -- some community involvement, businessman, war hero. But he didn't know politicians, and they didn't know him." Adds Rasmussen: "But it was typical of him to go for the top job." There were other problems: his marriage had ended in divorce, hardly a plus for a politician; he had changed his registration from Republican to Democrat only three years earlier; and the incumbent Republican Governor was heavily favored to win a second term. Kerrey had little initial party support in the primary -- he had to rely on himself, friends and family.
Nevertheless, in a major upset, Kerrey in November of 1982 edged Governor Charles Thone by 7,000 votes. Buffeted by a sagging farm economy and fascinated by the charismatic newcomer, enough Republicans crossed over to send Kerrey to the state house. Kerrey inherited a state debt of $24 million, which he attacked with budget cuts, a temporary new tax and a broadened tax base, "none of which was popular," he notes. After dating Winger several times (they met when she was on location in Nebraska for a movie), he moved her into the Governor's mansion and somehow his approval rating in staid Nebraska remained in the mid-70s.
Then as his first term neared an end and the state's surplus reached $49 million, Kerrey withdrew from politics as suddenly as he had entered. "I had accomplished what I wanted to. It was time to move on," he says simply. Scott Matter, whose party regained the state house thanks to Kerrey's decision not to run, thinks his sudden disinterest is typical and unsettling. "He's got a short attention span," says Matter. "He's opportunistic. He could get bored with the Senate too." Kerrey concedes the point. "I could," he admits. Observes pollster Hickman: "He could walk away from politics and have a very fulfilling life. He takes issues a lot more seriously than he takes himself."