We read the memo and believed that some major thought went into this thing, and thus there must be some other motive -- involved with the court case -- that put this thing into action.
But after listening to Chatelain on KFAB’s Tom Becka show (on 12/8 at 5pm), we are re-thinking it a little. (By the way, in all this MSRC spokesman Jeremy Aspen comes off as the calm, rational one of the whole bunch.)
Instead of being some grand legal plan, we are more inclined to think that Chatelain is simply hurt, bitter and defensive about his dealings with Dave Nabity and the MSRC and decided to hit Nabity before Nabity hit him.
Dave Nabity made it pretty clear that he was extremely critical to Chatelain and had his own ideas about how the MSRC should be run.So when it got out that Nabity was putting together his own organization to support the recall, Chatelain, Pat McPherson and Jim Cleary got out in front of it with the memo.
In it they not only knocked Nabity for allegedly being heavy handed in his views about running the committee. But they also have essentially alleged that if there was any legal wrongdoing regarding the paid circulators, it is on Nabity.
Now, as we have said, unless the MSRC folks are very, very confident that they are going to win the court case AND the eventual January recall election, this was a very short-sighted bet. And even worth the potential return? Not sure we see it.
Sure it provides them some CYA if the court case goes against them. And it hits Nabity early as being over ambitious, or whatever.But what if it simply gives the Anti-recallers ammo, or results in the tide turning against the recall?
Then it becomes bitter retribution that benefits only Jim Suttle.
We will know how this all turns out in a just a little over a month (potentially).
In the mean time, never a dull moment, eh?
**UPDATE Thurs evening**
From Jeremy Aspen of the Mayor Suttle Recall Committee:
Rg: Letter Issued by John Chatelain on December 8th, 2010
As a committee we want to clarify that the letter issued by John Chatelain on December 8th, to the press was not approved nor does it reflect the beliefs of the Mayor Suttle Recall Committee. The opinions and facts as see through his eyes remain solely his.
We welcome any efforts that individuals or organizations may have or will contribute to our cause and moreover are honored by their participation.
As a committee we remain steadfast in our endeavor to recall the mayor.The release was signed personally by the rest of the committee.
So there ya go.
Posts
67 comments:
Dave Nabity sleeps with fishes.
Dave, what does the underside of a bus look like anyway?
When Osborne filed to run against Dave Heineman for Governor everyone thought Osborne was a slam dunk. Then Osborne named Kate Witek as his running mate and overnight it became a 50/50 race.
Same holds true here. The Recall was a slam dunk and now Nabity/Chatelain have turned it into a 50/50 race.
Either way it sure exposes the soft underbelly of Omaha politics. A bunch of old men trying to relive their youth.
Mr Welch, please take all of this away and run whenever you have the chance.
It's obvious the liberal approach to governing isn't working, and now the old republicans are grasping at anything to regain some sense of significance. The good old boy network of years gone by has, well gone by.
Omaha politics has turned into a cesspool of out of touch libs and burnt out has been republicans. Meanwhile the city is in serious debt, the children are running the store, and citizens who can are leaving in droves.
Somehow the greed factor has robbed the city of any glory for the foreseeable future. But at least there is the Qwest, TD Park, and a walking bridge. I wonder how these will save the city?
On the bright side the migration from western Nebraska to Douglas County will slow down.
What the Recall now needs is for Hal Daub & Dave Nabity to say publicly that they are not running for Mayor.
Dan Welch spent his whole time on the city council trying to hide from Paul Landow who terrified and intimidated him at every turn. There's no way he'd ever stand up to city employee unions.
Any of you citizens of Omaha that are fed up with living in a city run by idiots and egomaniacs certainly could find life a lot better out here in the sticks. One good thing is, the cost of real estate in rural Nebraska is very reasonable. Your businesses can find hard working people that need the work. So, give up the daily grind in the big city and come find out what real living is all about. Nebraska, the Good Life, exists - just not in the big city.
Finally, these amateurs are starting to get it. When your campaign's obvious improprieties are exposed, you'd be a fool to simply deny, deny, deny. Especially if you must then convince the public to vote your new golden boy into office. You have to find yourself a nice fall guy, throw him under the bus, and move on.
I'm just glad that we're starting to see the post-recall strategy unfold.
Between Nabity and Daub, I wonder which one will be the next Mayor and which one will begin the recall committee against them.
"Dan Welch spent his whole time on the city council trying to hide from Paul Landow who terrified and intimidated him at every turn. There's no way he'd ever stand up to city employee unions."
Really, Really...Wasn't it Dan Welch that had the Matrix Study that called for 3 men on a firetruck!!!! Dan Welch was hated by the unions and they are afraid if he runs, he will win. Dan we need you buddy!
I always thought the recall was partisan sour grapes from Hal Daub supporters with a shot of tea party and the Restaurant Assn. I didn't know that when it was failing that it became the Dave Nabity campaign, because Nabity's ego was so great he couldn't wait until 2013 to run for mayor. But it took the Hal guys to expose the plot.
Dan Welch is not a FCINO.
He could fix our city's budget.
NE Voter and the rest of you Fourweird Omaha folks: Shut up, you lost, let's proceed with the election.
Nabity, Daub, Chatelain, et al.: Shut up, we got the signatures, let's proceed with the election, and THEN you can fight.
Dan Welch "terrified and intimidated" by Mayor Paul Landow while on the city council?
I think you need to stop hanging out with Juan Baca and smoking the cheap stuff.
Republicans: (of which I am one by the way) this is what you get when you let the fringe element wing (i.e. Nabity types and the tea party nut jobs) have too much leash.
(Let it sink in.)
You hate to admit it...but you know I'm right.
I remember it was the standing joke that Paul Landow actually ran the city and that Fahey (Mr. Ozark) was simply a figurehead. If that is true then Mr. Landow is terrifying indeed!
Whoops...may be I jumped the gun and Suttle isn't going anywhere.
Buh Bye Nabity!!
This recall has been exposed for what it is. It wasn't about broken promises. It wasn't about Jim Suttle. It was nothing but a power grab.
The recall committee, under the direction of McPherson, Cleary, Chatelain et al was foundering and Nabity stepped in to revive it. Motive is irrelevant.
They had a poor plan from the beginning and after the initial flurry of signatures they had no clue how to go get the rest.
The committee had refused to take advise early and had someone not stepped in it would have failed.
No this Omaha recall reinforces the opinion Nebraska has of Omaha. What a bunch of slimey self serving bastards.
Maybe the State will step in and assist you all. Looks like you need some adult supervision as it is! Oh and if you want to get more people involved in the election process then why not move the whole thing to the normal statewide election? It's dumb and expensive to hold them like you do now.
What a bunch of spoiled, special interest loving, inbred, punks you have devolved into. Not a statesman among you.
face it Republicans you got caught. You cheated. You had dead people sign the recall. Now the joke is on you. Losers again.
"You had dead people sign the recall."
OMG! The zombies have arrived and apparently they are a type never seen before: petition-signing zombies.
When did the republican party ever do what was in the best interests of the people? The lied and cheated on the recall. They give massive tax cuts to the top 2% of the population . Yet say screw you to the 9-11 heroes. They vote against helping the same people who lost their jobs because of the mis management of the country. Then the have the gall to say put us back in charge we will do the same things that we did the first time and when it does not work we will blame everyone but our selfs. The republican leaders make Klink of Hogans Heroes look like a great leader.
Between the infighting, the providing marijuana to petition signers, and the dead recall signers, is there anyone that is proud of how the recall has been going?
Oh mcadaddy who is clue less. Yes there were dead people signatures on the recall petition. It is a proven FACT. The families are upset about it . I bet that is a law suit waiting to happen. Face it republicans you pulled a NORMAL. FUBAR
8:17,
This has been a BI-partisan recall. A third of the signers were Democrats.
8:37,
Last time I checked it was the DEMOCRAT President who just pushed to continue tax cuts through the Democrat Senate.
Nice spin try.
ANON 859 before you spout off you need to get your facts right. First off the Democratic party dominated HR voted to give only a tax cut to the 98% who are not rich. The Senate by a vote of 53 to 47 voted the same way. All 42 republicans voted AGAINST a tax cut for the middle class. They said if our rich friends don't get one than no one gets one. Since you need 60 votes to get anything done in the Senate on money matters, Obama was in a bind. You see he cares about people. He is not a republican. So he gave a two year extension for the rich on the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts. Plus he got an extension of unemployment benefits for 13 months to help the people who lost their jobs because of the republican leadership in the Bush years. Again this money is all borrowed to pay for it. The amount to help the 2% rich people is almost a trillion dollars. The amount to help the people without their jobs is in the millions. But who cares about our debt so long the rich get more money.
The dead guys name was not on the petition, his brothers name was. When it was verified, the election commission counted it because of some obscure 10 year old court case. The recall did nothing more than take a signature from the brother of the deceased. Unless your accusing the recallers of tracking down siblings of dead people, there is no pattern here.
9:11,
Last time I checked, DEMOCRAT Ben Nelson was in favor of the tax cuts too. And I heard the DEMOCRAT President chastising the Democrats who didn't support the tax cuts.
Spin it in your head any way you like. The rest of us know what happened.
DiSlimevestro is furious according to Ne Watchdog...You see his character is such that he is above...wait a minute, what were you looking at on your County computer? Shame on you and Suttle!
The dead guy was still listed on the registration file. Why? BECAUSE THE FAMILY FAILED TO NOTIFY THE ELECTION COMMISIONER.
The chance to get rid of BOTH Shawn Watson and Bo Pelini?? Maybe there really is a Santa Claus.
Random interjection: in addition to Steve Achepohl leaving Jane Kleeb's BN group, looks like they lost two of their "valuable team members." Lisa Oliveras and Jill Haller (of State GOP Convention-crashing fame) are no longer on BN's web site as part of the "team." Jane sure knows how to run them off. Maybe they got sick of her preening for the media and taking all the credit.
This happens all the time. Dems use dead people to win elections all the time. Kennedy won because of dead people voting in cook county.
Hey 10:32, pipe down with the all caps yelling, particularly because Nebraska law places a duty on the Secretary of State and Election Commissioner to do things to update their rosters which, if they had been done, would have prevented this system.
By the way, shame on Election Commissioner Phipps and SOS Gale for not following the law and doing the things to update their voter rosters that would have eliminated this problem. Had they done what the law required (on a bienniel basis), this entire mess would have been averted.
Is this Omaha or is this Chicago? Worse yet, Phipps offers a lame defense to putting dead people on the roster and has the audacity to say there could be as many as 1,000 more of these!
All this has done is put another nail in the coffin of the recall. How much more slime is going to be exposed?
Does Phipps really believe he can defend his loosey goosey - willy nilly "verifying" in a court of law?
Nothing is going to change the fact that more than 27,000 people want a recall election. The remedy for an invalid signature is to throw out the signature. Unless they can repeat that over 2,000 times, this thing goes forward. See you in January!
Removing the deceased from registered voters list could be administratively very easy, I imagine. However, the same policies which prevent the mandatory use of some form of identification more rigourous than one's address probably removes many of these options which make 100% up-to-date lists possible. Who do we blame for the failure of securing proper access to our electoral process?
Passive and short sighted Republicans?
or...
Democrats whose shorts get tied into a not whenever anyone suggests that their be more checks on voter registration and actual voting?
QUESTION? Why don't you dumb hicks stop your bickering & find a competent, intelligent & dynamic person in the city to run for Mayor?? I know it's a stretch but surely there must be SOMEONE that all of you DOLTS can get behind & HELP???
I thought Gary was laying low. That's right his mouthpiece has law exams this week. Gary what was on that computer screen when you worked for the county and why don't you work there anymore?
To anonymous above: Usually an employee would be dismissed from a government job if they were playing games on the computer, doing personal business on the computer, or in rare cases viewing inappropriate images on a government computer. I hope that helps ;-)
Lets see on the election laws of the State of Nebraska that allowed a dead person to sign a petition. The Governor is a republican. Most of the State legislature is republican. The Secretary of State is a republican. The people who want a recall are republicans. The people to blame are republicans. The ones making excuses and making up their own facts are republicans. Republicans stop ruining our state.
...and in other news voters in Lincoln are watching the complete collapse of the Lancaster County Republicans. While Democrats had their largest losses in 100 years in 2010 they made gains in Lincoln, and the Rs have no candidate for Mayor and may end up losing all their city council seats.
Most of the people on welfare are democrats.
Most of the people responsible for cutting the checks for the people on welfare are Democrats.
Most of the people behind the brilliant idea to put daycares in highschools so we can get even more people on welfare are Democrats.
You want me to keep going?
Pointing and laughing at the Republicans.
Seriously? You think you're qualified to lead? I don't think you can find a room big enough for the egos. Local government is about service, not celebrity. I miss Chuck Sigerson.
Independent in Omaha
Anon 8:53: Lighten up, Francis.
I will have to say that this whole recall thing is very entertaining, especially since it doesn't affect me.
anon 2:42. Ever hear of corporate welfare? You know when they get money to take jobs from Americans to give to people over seas. That is the biggest welfare scam of all time. Not that nickel and dime stuff that is less than 1% of the federal budget that gives kids food to eat and a roof over their heads. Those scammers for the most part are republicans. I bet you be shocked how many republicans are picking up food stamps right now.
Dave Phipps is an honest man serving in a non-partisan position as Douglas County Election Commissioner.
It was non-partisan when Carlos Castillo was election commissioner a couple years ago before leaving to become Dave Heineman's campaign manager, then go onto an even better non-partisan/non-political postion as head of the Department of Administrative Services for the State of Nebraska.
The Republicans would never appoint one of their political insiders to such a position where he could have that much authority of vote counting.
I don't think anyone would accuse Dave of dishonesty. I know many, however, who would accuse him of gross incompetence.
All of this has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats. It is all smoke blown up our collective asses by our corporate masters.
In another sign of the collapse of the Lancaster County Republican Party, their very own Senator Colby Coash has become the very first person awarded a "Bold Badge" from Jane Kleeb's Bold Nebraska.
Tell us Colby do you accept this honor that Bold Nebraska has bestowed upon you?
NNN: Part Deux
More slime and sleaze from NNN this week--nothing new there.
But still not many commenters--only 22 posts on Vile's five articles.
Even the libs are tired of Kyle bile.
The winter weather must be keeping people, and trolls, off the net.
A question though for you all. How is it that Arian Smith is on the ways and means committe?
Off topic, Obama's federal goverment clamping down on school bake sales should make Democrats happy. Hitler and Stalin never thought of that one.
Can we expect gulags full of bake sale mommys or just throw them in the ovens with the bake sale cookies?
Wonder how many dead people voted for Obama in 2008. Looks like we need to throw that election out too...eh?
Why doesn't some UNO Student in the Public Administration department as Professor Paul Landow how Omaha got into such a mess with the police and fire pensions>?
If my state senator was given an award by Bold Nebraska I'd be voting for a Tea Party candidate.
Colby Coash + Jane Kleeb = B.F.F.
This site is a cesspool.
You all think you all clever.
Suttle was elected with a clear majority of the vote taken. Maybe there could be a more effective communicator in office, maybe he could have have been smarter with his "first impression" then he was.
He beat Hal Daub. He got more votes in a public election then Hal Daub did.
That doesn't mean anything to you guys does it?
I have a thought: Move. Please. Just go. Take Dave Nabity and Hal Daub with you. Maybe you can start your own city and pay no taxes. We will be better off with out you - and I know that's true because we can afford to eat out - even with the 2.5% tax on "eating out". Apparently you can't so you must be a drag on Omaha anyway.
Just move. City limits aren't far away.
2:08 p.m. Jane K. was gushing all over Tony Fulton too over something his asking questions about the pipeline and agreeing with them. So it's not just Colby. Guess Republicans can't help it if Bold Nebraska uses them to shamelessly try to draw conservatives into their web. Colby and Tony could say thanks but no thanks Jane, just to draw the distinction that while they may support a certain issue that doesn't mean they support Jane/BN and their antics.
@2:17 Be careful what you wish for. Take a look at Kansas City and St. Louis. Cities where the democrats and their machine has been in power a long time. People moved out of those cities. The core of those cities is dead. The cities are a mess and the outlying areas where people moved are doing much better. With the massive investment in Midtown Crossing, AksarBen Village, and the River Condos, you shouldn'tbe telling complainers to move. You should be working to include them in finding solutions.
Go check out Colby's facebook page, he has the "Bold Badge" displayed proudly. I don't see anything like that on Fulton's.
What the heck is going on in Lincoln? Republicans are getting beat up in elections and their existing state senators are becoming socialists?
Why doesn't Colby come on here and defend himself? Oh yeah, he's in China right now. I wonder who paid for that trip. Was it a lobbyist or the Young Socialists of America paying for Colby to go to their version of Mecca.
China may be socialists. But they sure are making money. They own the USA Courtesy of the GOP. Maybe we should do what they are doing. It seems to work! But then they are very anti union. So maybe we are doing things their way.
Paul Landow for mayor. He would have the most experience of being mayor since he really was one under the Fahey administration.
Notice how Suttle's face disappears and the "recallers" faces appear instead. And how names are now being floated for who will be the next mayor. That's all due to Suttle's stupidity.
Suttle had a recall election won until he decided to fight voters voting.
Political ineptitude is what it is. If he is that stupid when his own butt is on the line, he probably is too stupid to be mayor.
Are there similarities between Suttle and Obama? I mean as far as political capabilities that is.
Dave Nabity and Jim Suttle have the same leadership styles. God help us if we have Nabity as mayor
Brad Assford for Mayor!!
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