This was a Good Week

This week saw Treasurer Shane Osborn have a protection order put out against him and then withdrawn. This week saw the Unicameral stand up act like grown ups and reverse a horrible court action and reinstate a method for executions. For the anti-death penalty people they should remember retribution is a constitutional reason for having the death penalty at least according to the Supreme Court.
The Unicameral did excellent work especially in its final week. The Unicameral passed a strong budget that will keep us heading in the right direction. The Governor did not veto anything this session which is always a plus when the executive and legislative branches can work together. Now its is onto the election cycle which will mean fundraisers and speeches seeing our public officials out in public more. Let the 2010 cycle begin oh yeah !!!!

David Hahn or Stormy Dean

Well the democrats have a candidate for governor and one has to ask whether he will be more like David Hahn or Stormy Dean. The candidate is current martial arts instructor and former Marine Christopher Geary. Now Mr. Geary has had his own business in Omaha for 15 years which is an accomplishment. But outside of being a Marine and teaching Martial arts what qualifications does Mr. Geary have. He is not a current or past office holder of any kind, we don't know if he knows how to even run a campaign.
What about the issues if Mr. Geary believes that he can have a successful campaign without having any detailed ideas then he is mistaken. That strategy only works once an election cycle and Jim Suttle already used it. What does Mr. Geary know about agriculture if you look at his website Mr. Geary does not mention agriculture once. The state largest industry does not even receive mention. Mr. Geary is quick to point out the negatives that the human race has done to the planet.
Mr. Geary seems to be an anti-ethanol man which is fine but its going to be hard to keep the farmers and ranchers to vote for you with that stance. Mr.Geary has several nice pictures of different parts of Nebraska but we don't know if Mr. Geary know anything about greater Nebraska. His platform reads like an insulated Omaha liberal that does get real Nebraskans. After looking at Mr. Geary the democrats better wish that David Hahn or Stormy Dean runs a again but in governors races the democrats are used to being the lambs lead to slaughter.

New faces are needed

What we need in the GOP is too have more Rep.Eric Cantor and Rep.Paul Ryan. The party needs to realize that we need young faces to start carrying the conservative mantle. I am a fan of the old bulls such former U.S. Senators Trent Lott and John Warner but they are gone and retired. Reps. Cantor and Ryan have something that this party desperately needs which is youthful articulate leaders which it seems like in the Senate there is none. When Sen. Barrasso and our own Sen. Johanns are the symbols of youth in the GOP there is an issue. I am not saying the democrats are better but somehow they are connecting to younger voters better than we are. We have to show our support for youth because youth are symbols of the future many of the leaders in the GOP are not those symbols.

The Lethal Injection Debate

With the Unicameral taking up the debate over the changing of the death penalty from electrocution to lethal injection or to just get rid of the death penalty. It behooves us too look at how we got to this point. The State Supreme Court showed extreme judicial activism in this instance. The State Supreme Court took up a case in which all appeals had been with drawn by the defendant. Which means that the Court took a case that was not even up on appeal.
The State Constitution does not allow the State Supreme Court this power. There is no wording any where in the State Constitution that the State Court could rely upon in justify taking this case and or giving a decision on it. The is made up of seven appointees of former Governor and current U.S. Senator Ben Nelson. This activism of the State Supreme Court should leave lovers of the constitution state and federal disgusted.
Now we move to the legislature this is the priority of the state speaker and it is with great hope that the legislature does the just thing. Pass the bill and have lethal injection as the mode of execution in this state which will not only serve justice to the families of the victims. But it will hopefully send a message to the State Supreme Court that activism will be met with a legislative branch that will keep the court on the straight and narrow.

Latinos can be part of the solution

Our beloved republican party is in a difficult position many in the party want to keep a strangle hold on the direction of the party as anti-immigration and pure ideology. This is not what a political party is. Political parties are in the business of running and winning elections, and if you win enough elections then you receive the chance to govern.
But we can kill two birds with one stone how to expand our base with social conservatives and grow the minority ranks in our party. He can do this with Latinos social they have very conservative culture which fits with our party. The Hispanic culture's dedication to its family structure is something to admire. The issue is how do we recruit these good conservatives and many are excellent business people. Three tenants that are very strong to our party these are capitalist's they hate socialism as many of us do. Many of them have lived under socialist governments and the understand the shortfall's of the socialist ideal's. These are people who we can talk to we just have to do it. Now I am not advocating amnesty at any level I do believe we need a path to citizenship in someway. President George W. Bush did receive 44% down to 31% for John McCain. My fellow republicans we need to have strong recruiting efforts in all communities but especially ones that already share many of our value's.

Smart politics

I think that the presidents pick of Utah Governor Jon Huntsman as U.S Ambassador to China is very smart politically. Huntsman is a pragmatic non-ideologue governor of a very conservative state. Also an individual who has very solid international credentials and a potential 2012 Presidential candidate. Huntsman is absolutely qualified for the ambassadorship in China speaks fluent Mandarin and has been an ambassador in the two previous Bush administrations. This is a solid competent conservative that could have been a solid challenge to the President in 2012. I like Huntsman and he was steadily growing on many political lists as a potential candidate. Good move by the President and a show of bi-partisanship but also very shrewd politically.

Add another constitutional office

I would like to see Nebraska have a Secretary of Agriculture that is constitutionally elected. Just like all of the other constitutional officers. Nebraska is a top agriculture state and I believe that the top Ag official in the state should be elected by the people. Not that I have a problem with Gov.Heineman's choice it's just something that I happen to believe should be in the hands of the people. Whether it would be officially a partisan office or not I don't know. The Unicameral is non-partisan but everybody knows what party they belong too. So when it comes to that issue I believe a partisan election would be just as good. I would like to see a campaign where the issues revolve around agriculture for the most part. Simply put I believe agriculture is just too important to the state too let a single individual decide 0n who that Secretary or better yet they could have the title Commissioner of Agriculture.

Ideology and Pragmatism

The debate in the republican party is on whether to have party purification whatever that is it kinda scares me. Or make a bigger tent which is a legitimate argument. Conservatives love to talk about Ronald Reagan but to many don't know or don't look at his history and time in office. They simply say he won the cold war and the liberals blocked Robert Borke. These are both true but he also we have drinks many nights with Tip O'Neill the very liberal Speaker of the House. Conservatives today would want to execute Uncle Ronnie for that today. People forget the Neo-cons railed against President Reagan when he was in office hated the fact that he talked with the Soviets. They were very quick to take credit for the ending of the cold war though.
Neo-cons are not conservatives they are big government activist ideologues. Neo0cons are not pragmatic. They don't subscribe to the belief as Reagan did that somebody who agrees with me 80% of the time is my friend. If there is any purification that should go on its the neo-conservatives that should receive a kick in the pants.
Pragmatism is how conservatives will win back the day, not ideology. Common sense conservatives should start to fight back. The job of a political party is to win elections and have a design on how there way of governing is better. NRSC chairman Sen. John Cornyn has said that we need to pick regional candidates that fit their particular states. But some how people aren't listening.
The party seems to have a cardboard cut out of the perfect conservative. Its all based on a social hard line ideologue that believes that dis-likes higher education and has a southern accent. Its like some leaders just want to have conservative factory in Georgia and just send out southern conservative clones to every state and run them as candidates. We have to stop legislating morality and feel good legislation. We must return to to states rights and have a foreign policy agenda that promotes less U.S. involvement in everybody else's business.

Focus for 2010

Now that the Omaha races are over the politics can turn to 2010. In Nebraska the 2010 races will not have a U.S. Senate race however all of the constitutional races will be on the ballot plus several legislative races are scheduled for 2010. In 2010 there are 24 legislative races two incumbents are term-limited from seeking re-election to the legislature. There are 13 republicans and nine democrats up for re-election. Many of these incumbents will not have challengers and some may not run for re-election. We will have more on the legislative races in the coming weeks and months.
Onto the constitutional officers of course at the very top is Gov.Heineman he is seeking his second full term as governor. The governors race is probably going to be a no contest my guess is that the democrats will find a Stormy Dean like candidate thanks for the sacrifice. The Attorney General's race in most states is usually where the minority party targets its efforts is to have the top cop in the state. However with the popularity of the current AG Jon Bruning and his proven track record plus his ability to raise money. It will be hard to see who will challenge Bruning its doubtful any democrat would give up their seat in the Unicam to take on Bruning which is where his challenger would most likely come from.
The State Auditor's race may be a race that the democrats are looking at but Mike Foley has a very good record of cutting out waist and he is a formidable candidate. The democrats may make a run at him but I don't see this seat changing either. So far Republicans 3 and democrats 0. State Treasurer Shane Osborn has not indicated what he is doing for 2010 with the Treasurer in a divorce that could leave an opening for democrats too shoot but as far as we can see with the State Treasurer's website and complete open door policy with the state money he would be hard to beat on the issues.
Now comes the one race that the democrats could really target. The Secretary of State race the office is held by three-termer John Gale. Since Gale ran un-opposed last time it is hard to believe that against a three term incumbent the democrats are going to find the answer.
So that 5-0 for the republicans over the democrats. The democrats don't have the bench to run in all of the races and not a only that most democrats don't believe they can win those races.

Daub, the Republican Issue

Was Hal Daub the issue that republicans seem to be having across the country? The republicans seem to be having a struggle in finding new young faces of the party. Not the Hal Daub is not a well qualified capable person. But voters usually don't go for the past one more time. Rarely have governors or mayors been able to recapture their old jobs after they have left. There is something about voters and the executive branch. Once a politician has been in done it for awhile then leaves voters say o.k. you had your time, lets move on to someone new. Its only happened once in presidential history i.e. Grover Cleveland. With history not on Hal Daubs' side and in a city that is majority Democrat this result is not a real surprise.

Well, Suttle Wins

Omaha has decided that it was time to give Jim Suttle a chance instead of returning Hal Daub to the Mayors office. In the Omaha World Herald they brought up the point that Suttle received as many votes for him as Daub had against him. So does this mean that a pro-suttle slash anti-Daub coalition pushed Suttle over the top.
Generally this plan in campaigns does not work i.e. John Kerry with the anti-Bush vote in 2004 for. A campaign of "vote for me because I am not the other guy usually does not fly" with voters. The truth is that in registered voters Omaha is 44% democrat and 35% republican. Granted most of those democrats are conservative and many times vote republican. But is this a sign or a signal of things to come. Jim Suttle ran towards the democratic party and used it and exploited East Omaha. Suttle seemed to be able to answer questions about his lack of details in his plans to govern by stating "that he waned to listen to Omahans to help with solutions for the problems in Omaha". Thats a fine Utopian Wilsonian view but that does not usually govern very well. Suttle has challenges ahead of him and its hard for me to see him lasting more than one-term. As for Hal Daub he has lost two races for his old job now and his political future seems uncertain.

Legislatures and Perks

When it comes to perks many legislatures go all out for themselves. It is one of the toughest and most abused part of being a member in a state legislature. The Massachusetts state legislature is actually divided on the issue of perks when it comes to the legislature says the Boston Globe. The Chicago Tribune says that the Illinois state legislature is only now beginning to talk about ethics and perks reform after the fall from grace by former Gov.Blagojevich. The perks of being a state law maker range from sate to state. however there are two areas where Nebraskans really need to think about when it comes to the Unicam. The first is term limits which in many states are being declared unconstitutional by courts or being repealed by legislatures themselves. Unseating an incumbent because you can't beat him at the ballot box so you block him from running for re-election is completely undemocratic the only exception is the President.
The second issue that voters must look at is the pay of our legislators. $12,600 that in itself excludes many people from being candidates. Talented people in business or other areas are excluded because the salary is not enough to raise a family on or largely contribute. The citizen legislature which is what we have in Lincoln is great and does an amazing job. I don't believe they receive enough credit or pay.

The Terry Primary

Lee terry has an interesting primary in 2010. Against Omaha businessman Matt Sakalosky who seems to be from the ideological only side of the Republican party. It makes you wonder if candidate Matt is Pat Toomey junior. Lee Terry has a solid conservative voting record and yet candidate Sakalosky believes for this one vote Rep.Terry no longer deserves to represent the 2nd district. This is what you call an ideologue pure and simple Rep. Terry is no moderate but he is no ideologue either. For the exception of Rep.Fortenberry Nebraskans traditionally don't vote for ideologues. Nebraskans usually vote for candidates that have a pragmatic approach, principles are a good thing but you govern with pragmatism.
You must also challenge candidate Sakalosky, in his positions page he says he wants to role back TARP. How does he plan to do this in the minority party and as a freshman congressman.
Also we must look at when he speaks of taxes fair for all citizens what does that mean. Is he for a flat tax or not what does his tax policy mean. His stance against stem cell research is he for any medical research if he is he doesn't say so. He simply takes the ideological stance of no embryonic stem cell research but does not say what he is for.
Candidate Sakalosky is starting in a whole and the DCCC is probably overjoyed too see Rep.Terry however with Sakalosky an ideologue they should save their money on the general election.