Bespeckled former State Senator, Chris Beutler
and
Bespeckled Lake Wobegon resident, Garrison Keillor
Mustachioed Lincoln City Councilman, Ken Svoboda
and
Mustachioed Hawaii P.I., Tom Selleck.
With the Lincoln Mayor’s race down to two, we thought we would go ahead and post on the race. But instead of tossing out our take on the match-up between Beutler and Svoboda, we thought we’d toss it to YOU the Leavenworth Street reader on the comment board:
Who’s going to win, and why?
But please resist telling us who you think should win, or who has better proposals or whatever else.
Here on Leavenworth Street, we want to hear your political savvy as to why one of these two will win. What are the political reasons?
If you can’t help but get into their policy positions, please tell why voters – and which voters – will be drawn to vote for them based on that position.
- How will money play?
- How will Beutler’s primary plurality affect the psyche of the voters?
- What of voter turnout?
- And how about the party make-up of Lincoln voters?
Have at it!
Posts
28 comments:
The more important question is why would anyone want to be mayor of Lincolngrad, unless you also get to replace the liberal nannies populating the city council? There's a reason economic and business development struggles in Nebraska's second city beyond the "business of government" realm. Maybe the cure isn't in electing a more business-friendly city government (since that isn't likely to happen in any event), maybe the comrades in Lincoln should more closely follow the much more direct "buy them, then use them" political model followed in Omaha city government. It seems to work well for everyone...well, except the taxpayers.
Well, that's one way to begin the discussion, I suppose...
Up front.. I believe Ken should become the mayor of Lincoln
Having said that, I have a hard time believing this will happen given the state of GOP HQ in Lincoln. They have one election to worry about this year and they get blown away in the primary. I don't see why I should respond to the numerous telephone and mail requests to give money to the party when I have yet to see any results from the new executive director. We lost all the races in the legislature that we were supposed to win and the 72 hour program was a joke.
From a poltical stand point Ken is on his own and hopefully with his own hard work he will previal because the our own state party isn't helping matter much.
I think it's going to be a fairly close race but I'm giving the nod to Beutler.
True, he has to beat an incumbent, but I think Median-gate is going to haunt Svoboda more than he may realize. His company's contract with the City, and its inability to meet those contractual terms in some cases, is hanging around longer than anyone may have thought it would. He needs to put it to rest if he can.
I also believe that Beutler is outworking Svoboda. Maybe Svoboda will have a kick at the end of the race, but time is running out for him.
Finally, I think Beutler has broad appeal and can pull votes from both parties, even though this is supposedly a nonpartisan race.
State...you are absolutely, 100% correct. How many times do we need to lose before we see some accountability? Do we need to lose a Congressman before we replace the current bunch? They are perfectly nice people, but they aren't getting the job done.
Lay off the State Party. Whatever happened to acountability of the candidates running a good race? Aren't they the ones whose ultimate responsibility it is to run a proactive message driven campaign vs a reactive knee jerk bill board driven campaign?
Sideline Observer
Sideline Observer = Matt Connealy
Anonymous
Individual campaigns should run a good race. In that context.. what should be the role of a state party then. Why do we give them money to run operations? At the very least they should get out the vote and that did not happen in the latest primary nor the 2006 general.
Gov. Johanns, Heineman and Congressman Fortenberry all won Lancaster County so that means a republican can win the mayor's race.
The state GOP has 27 days to prove that its is worth our time and money to keep them around. I hope for their sake they don't let us down again.
Anonymous...Our candidates in Douglas and Lancaster county have been getting their butts whipped for the last 5 years. The NEGOP has lost nearly every targeted race during that time. We are talking about the Legislature, County Attorney, City Council, etc. We were winning those races 10 years ago. The candidates didn't change...the NEGOP HQ did...and now we are losing. Jon Barrett and others put together winning plans...the current staff has not. If Lincoln's General Election is anything like the Primary, it will be more of the same.
Inigo Montoya…I don’t know the last time I saw a string of such inanities to come from one naïve person. Lose a Congressman? Are you kidding me? Yeah, the 2006 Congressional elections were really close….Smith won by 10; Fortenberry won by 12; and Terry won by 10. Here’s some helpful advice, senor: why don’t you spend less time stuffing your feeble mind with the ridiculous theories coming out of the press room in the Nebraska Democratic HQ and more time existing in the real world.
To State of the party,
Wow…you sound just a tad on the bitter side. Tell me, what year were you fired from the Neb GOP because you sound like you have a pretty big axe to grind.
Granted, I’m obviously not as politically savvy or intelligent as you are, but didn’t Repubs pick up 12 or 13 of the open Legislative races this past year? Didn’t a Repub Governor kick the holy smoke out of his Democrat challenger? And according to the phone book, Nebraska has 5 Repubs in their Constitutional offices which would mean that the entire Executive Branch of the State is controlled by Repubs.
Oh, and I don’t mean to neglect our federal office holders but aren’t they all Repubs as well? No, that can’t be right because a witty politico like you would have picked up on that. Wait…I just checked the party registration for the Fort, Terry and Smith and they all have an R after their name. Help me out here because I forgot…what does R stand for? Democrat? So, yeah, I guess you have a really strong case here…
Even Matt Connealy (a.k.a. "Corky") could have won the Congressional and Governor's races in a state as Republican as Nebraska. Besides, those candidates were mostly responsible for their own races. I'd never blame the State GOP for Ricketts' dismal showing.
I just hope the State GOP can do better with Svoboda than they did with legislative candidates Ojeda, Guittar, Swanson, Bush, Senkbile, Schwab, Stothert...
I'm not sure where you've been over the last few months. In just this race alone I've had flyers on my door, countless phone calls and mailings all saying they were from the GOP. It seems to me that the party is doing their job; it's the candidates and campaigns, themselves, that fail in giving reasons for voters to vote for them. Svoboda isn't offering any new ideas in this already mind numbing race.
Candidates need to be accountable in the campaigns and be in charge of themselves. Despite what we all believe, voters in Nebraska vote for candidates not parties. Case-in-point: Nelson and Ricketts. How many republicans voted for Nelson? Was that simply a problem of not getting the vote out?
None of the current crop of candidate are Johanns, Heineman or Fortenberry.
Nick R.
I would ask if you are currently employed by the party but since you probably wouldn't answer that I would look to the NEGOP website. But wait-that only gets updated every few months.
Its comments like yours that shows the lazy additude that will be the downfall of our party.
The fact is the NEGOP targeted 8 races-7 legislative seats and the Douglas County attorney's race. thus they put all their resoures into them and ingorned the others as being safe. Republicans lost 6 of the 7 legislative races and lost the Douglas County attorney office.
That's the record you need to look at. The fact that we have all the state offices and 4 of five federal means nothing. The fact is none of the congressional seats should have been close and 10-12 points is close considering the Dem opposition. President Bush should have never had to come to the 3rd district, the mother of all districts.
We also lost the chance at the the last federal office due to the poor effort of the party to get out the vote in the last election which is continued to be seen in this past primary election in Lincoln.
I don't have an axe to grind Nick, I am seriously concerned about the direction of our party. You should be too...
P.S. I'm glad SS that we have a venue to have such discussions
Apparently Inigo Montoya thinks that there are only two counties in Nebraska: Douglas and Lancaster. No offense, Speedy Gonzalez, but last time I checked there were 93 counties in this state and the majority of them are in the 3rd District.
Speak for yourself, vato, we're having outstanding success in the panhandle electing solid conservatives to the Legislature. And another thing, how did this turn into a "bash the state parties" post; I thought this was supposed to be about who we thought would win the Lincoln Mayor's race. But since you and that bafoon State of the Party opened this can of worms I think it is only appropriate that we see it through to its conclusion. So, here's my conlcusion, you and that silly State of the Party nerd need to stop criticizing, find a day job, and start volunteering for local candidates because its obvious that you believe yourself to be the second coming of Karl Rove. Or maybe you don't have the courage to actually step outside your
parents basement and engage yourself in the political process.
By the way, my prediction for the mayor's race is this:
Beutler 52%-Svoboda 48%
I don't understand the complaining going on here. I think the GOP did a great job (sarcasm) of targeting Terry Warner's bid for re-election and unseating him with a smear campaign. I'm waiting for the same approach to be taken with Beutler.
Are there any other Democrats out there who are offended by this State-Of-The-Party dude? According to SOTP when Republicans lose it has nothing to do with the caliber of the Democrat opponent but rather just a lazy NEGOP. That is so offensive I hardly can find the words to articulate it. Maybe, SOTP, all of those “targeted races” you keep blathering on about had Democrat candidates who worked harder; had better ideas; had more funding; ran a better campaign; and actually made Nebraskans eager to vote for them.
In SOTP’s pin-headed world view political offices in Nebraska are intended only for Republicans….how stupid is that? I can recall a time when Democrats controlled most of the state offices and both Senate seats. I can recall a time when the Republican Party was a dismal, feeble organization with no direction.
And, as someone who actually worked her tail off to help get Scott Kleeb elected in the 3rd District, who in the world gave you moral authority to deem what is an appropriate margin of victory? Why don’t you log onto the Nebraska Democratic Party website and try selling your ridiculous theories on their blog and see how long it takes before your nonsense is nuked by critical thinking Nebraskans. But then again, I doubt you would have the courage to do that.
Excuse me while I wipe the vomit from the corners of my mouth after reading Miss Moore's orgasmic declaration of her love for Scott "Sock in My Wrangers" Kleeb and the NE Dems.
Because this conversation digressed into a critique of the NE GOP's performance, perhaps the Party's staff should put Nick Janssen on their radar.
Word has it that the son of state Sen. Ray Janssen (Independent representing Nebraska's 15th Leg. District) is gearing up to take on Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (NE-01). According to my gossip circle, Janssen (who sits on the North Bend, Neb. city council) formerly changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. No word on whether he has aquired Maxine Moul's campaign notes and capable staff...
The thing I can't stand about Svoboda is his smug sense of entitlement to the Mayor position. His slow footed campaign, which seems to be running with the same failed strategy as Pete Ricketts. Don't get me wrong, I don't like Buetler either, but it seems like we are scrapping the bottom of the barrel here in Lincoln for our Mayor
SS...
I have always wondered about your SAB feature. Do you align your "matches" to reflect your political favorite? Your favorite son/daughter gets an action figure and the politician you do not favor is matched with a dork. Not that I see a pattern or anything. It's probably my Freudian paranoia.
R/S
OOITT
OOITT,
I think we've been pretty fair in the SABs. The goal is to find someone who they look like. It's usually a split-second decision. When I see KS's stache, I think Selleck's stache (and just for the record, I spent a loooong time trying to find another approp stache - Borat, Tom Skerrit, Sam Elliott -- but noone fit better than Selleck.) On CB, I immediately thought Keillor.
Many people have sent in suggestions on various SABs and we're happy to consider them. Is there some action figure that would be better for CB? Is there an appropriate dork for KS? If so, send 'em in, and we'll take a look.
Thank you...you answered my nagging question honestly. I am also one that has offered SAB recommendations...and I am always impressed with your sharp eye for "familical resemblance." In most circles...at least the ones I hang out in...a comparison to Garrison K. would be considered an insult...not deserved by even a flea-bitten cur.
Honestly, I've never listened to the guy. Not exactly a virile looking fellow, but there must be people that like him, right?
Hey, Street Sweeper: How about a post on the so-called Republicans in the Nebraska Legislature who are working overtime to repeal the death penalty? RINOs like Brad Ashford (Omaha), Dwite Peterson (Elkhorn), and Abbie Cornett (Bellevue) are working against the vast majority of Nebraska taxpayers.
I hope you'll shine your spotlight on these foxes in the hen house!
scanning over this, there is a mistake.....Fortenberry blew out Nelson's Lt. Gov by 18%, not 12%.
I would venture to bid any city council person 'good luck' to outduel him in '08. especially one who can't decide if they are a Republican or a Democrat.
any ideas for a Dana Altman SAB?
The Journal Star reports a "shake up" on the Svoboda staff. Any specifics?
bespeckled, or bespectacled?
uh....I was speaking of their freckles, of course! (Yeah, that's it...)
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