We contacted Jim Esch and offered space on our blog to explain why he recently switched his voter registration from Democrat to Independent.
Here is his response: Basically, I never have been a big fan of either party. Not from a local sense, but nationally. So, I feel truer to myself by going back to being an independent.
Furthermore, the VOICE group is my top political goal right now. But in order for it to be legit, it needs to have more Republicans involved. I hope by making this switch, it will at least demonstrate my commitment to that principle.
However, one danger for VOICE is for it to come off as a “let’s get Jim Esch elected” sort of ploy. So I need to stay behind scenes as much as I can. I’ve come to realize I can get much more done behind the scenes than I probably ever could as an elected official anyway.
Never say never, but I am very content and happy with doing what I’m doing now, I’m still in the fish bowl to a great extent but at least I don’t have your blog ripping me to shreds everyday. (Smiley face deleted by Editor.)
Lastly, I don’t see the need for parties at the local level. I’m a big believer in [former New York] Mayor La Guardia’s statement, “There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets.”
I believe there exists a pragmatic third political base, but they are disenfranchised by the current system. Now nationally this thought is nearly impossible, but at the local level I think they can be reached.
That’s when real change will occur, in my opinion. Thanks Jim.
Why, you may ask? Well, you're not the only one asking. So have many of his over 3,000 (three thousand?) Facebook friends (including Jane Fleming Kleeb, whose husband Esch did NOT endorse in the Dem Senate primary).
Well, so far, Jim's not saying why.
We've already heard speculation about various office runs (or end-runs, as an "I") that Jim could/would make.
Maybe the "cool kids" table isn't what he thought it would be? I guess we just won't know for a while.
***
And the Democrat exodus continues.
Former Esch Democratic primary opponent, and later Lee Terry supporter, Richard Carter, has also formally switched his registration to the GOP.
Maybe Bellevue resident Carter can help Esch to make his switch complete.
***
New Yorker, Cosmic Bob Kerrey demands, "Trust me".
That's his email subject line and request in his fund raising letter out to Tom White potential donors in his run against Congressman Lee Terry.
Greenwich Village's Kerrey says that he knows "a thing or two about what it takes to be an independent voice in Washington."
You see, Cosmic Bob once called Bill Clinton "an unusually good liar". Oh and he also bought you a bridge to a field in Council Bluffs. So there ya go.
And speaking of those interested in the 2nd District Congressional seat, Matt Sakalosky was on Scott Voorhees KFAB show Friday morning.
In his interview he said "absolutely supports" Lee Terry in the job he's doing now.
Um....well. There you have it.
***
Research 2000 did a recent poll for the leading ultra liberal website, Daily Kos.
Basically it tells you that Nebraskans don't like the Obamacare bill, are glad Ben Nelson is trying to defeat it, and wouldn't have a big problem with him if he filibustered it.
Of course, they try then to spin that Nelson would be in big trouble in a close race -- like he was in 2000! -- if he didn't have Big Democrats supporting him.
Of course...why they glossed over his 2006 win is unknown to us.
Oh wait, yeah, it's because liberal Dems like the Kosites and the Post's Ezra Klein are unrealistic rubes.
One of the main debates going on in the City/County Building, and around Omaha, is how many firemen should be on each truck.
Currently, the city contract with the fire union says four. Some have suggested that only three are needed and that having three instead of four would save a huge amount of money in a city strapped for cash.
One group, the Omaha Alliance led by Mike Simmonds and Dave Nabity, has a TV ad out calling fire union's position of four men on a truck an, "extreme staffing demand".
Well, the Omaha Professional Firefighters Association has fired back with the following powerful, and professionally produced TV ad.
Take a look:
(For those of you too lazy to watch the 30 second ad, ) it features firefighter Josh Goessling, son of deceased firefighter, Capt. John Goessling. John Goessling died fighting a fire in 1996.
Here's where things get a bit murky, and pure politics has come into play.
Josh Goessling, sporting red suspenders and a scarred forehead, says in the ad:
"There have been fifty-five firefighters in Omaha who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
Our father was one of them.
We understand the risk it takes to go into a burning building, and we accept that.
We also understand what it takes to fight a fire.
There are a lot of armchair quarterbacks who THINK they know how many firefighters belong on a truck.
But if it means saving your family faster, who would you trust for the right answer?"
Now...
Let's be clear about this:
John Goessling did not die because there weren't enough men fighting the fire at the Family Dollar Store back in 1996. And that's not our determination. Or Dave Nabity's.
The Fire Department's Safety Analysis Committee came to the conclusion that Goessling died because of shortcomings in the Fire Department's command and communications systems, "which kept firefighters from coordinating their efforts and learning what firefighters were seeing," (according to an OWH story on this, posted by KFAB's Tom Becka here).
And Goessling was on a four man truck.
And this was a four alarm fire and at least three engine crews were on the scene when a roof collapsed on Goessling.
So in case there was any mistake or possible misdirection provided by this political ad, Goessling's death was not because there were only three men on his truck.
And that's where this ad has some shortcomings.
There are many good arguments to be made for having four men on a truck. Unfortunately, none were made here, other than "we're firemen and we know best." Well, maybe. But people are also going to assume that firemen are looking out for their jobs.
So when a fireman gets on screen and points out that firemen die in the line of duty, and then swoop into an argument about staffing, there should be some relationship between the death referenced and the point they're trying to make. Instead, it's misdirection, and emotion, and the argument being made just got less persuasive.
And frankly, in these tense budget times, people are tired of hearing the emotional argument that is tinged with inaccuracy.
It's a short term gain -- up until people hear the whole story.
***
Congressman Lee Terry and his officially unofficial (but really, official) Democrat challenger state Senator Tom White continue to chip-chip-chip away at each other. Basically it's White saying Terry's health care plan is no good, and Terry telling White to put up or shut up.
So, aside from all that, here's a question for you:
At what point do people already get tired of this race?
And by "people", we're not really talking about YOU, because YOU obviously get a kick out of year-round politics -- otherwise you probably wouldn't be reading this in the first place.
No, we're talking about your neighbor, the Husker fan, who decides who to vote for during the drive to the polls. At what point does that person say, "a pox on both of them", and then vote for Mort Sullivan again.
Can a candidate win by just staying positive until, say, January? (Even telling people he's going to do that?)
Maybe that's too risky in this day and age. Just wondering.
Former State Senator and new director of the new state Office of Violence Prevention, Mike Friend, and Jon Slattery of "Mad Men":
(Btw, would you believe that the OWH found four Democrats who don't like the idea of Republican Friend being appointed to this gig? Whoda thunk it?)
***
There is a new political TV ad out on your screens. This one comes from a group that formed a while back, known as the Nebraska Alliance (as opposed to, you know, Alliance, Nebraska) for the Private Sector.
The group has sort of a sub-group called the Omaha Alliance. The President of the group is local restaurateur (he of BK, Taco Johns and Jimmy Johns) Mike Simmonds. The Treasurer and spokesperson is former gubernatorial candidate Dave Nabity.
Nabity has been making his presence known at City Council hearings, mainly on the firetruck staffing issue. That is what the current ad is on now.
Take a look.
Nabity talked about the issue further on KPTM, as well.
(Hey, and when did Dewey from "Malcolm in the Middle" end up on KPTM?)
The gregarious Nabity is a good face for this group and they can also have a little heft in the community. He recently wrote an OpEd in the OWH on this issue as well. Could Nabity be a guy who is interested in taking things further as well? There has been an awful lot of talk about recalling the current Mayor (whether that has any legs or not remains to be seen).
If -- IF -- Suttle was kicked out, it would be interesting to see if Nabity is someone who would be interested in picking up the reins.
***
And on the video front, we noticed that Omaha's KETV Channel 7 has entered the digital age and has their own YouTube channel -- which we applaud.
We happened across a couple City Council vids, and noted that Councilwoman Jean Stothert has been modeling the Michelle Obama sleeveless look.
And we'd just like to note that, no Chuck Sigerson, you can not get away with that fashion. ***
President Obama has decided that the way to sell you on Nationalized Health Care is with a logo. So the ol' PR team put the Obama campaign logo together with the medical caduceus to form the Prez's own, personal Health Care logo:
Is this extremely narcissistic, presumptuous and weird? Yes, yes it is.
But what it does do is put the disaster that ObamaCare will be, squarely in his lap. There will be no question on where to look when your request for kidney dialysis has been rejected because you're too old.
So on that note, we here at Leavenworth Street figured that if Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle really wants to "sell" his budget plan, he needs a good solid logo. One that lets you know that it's his plan, and what the point of the plan is.
So here is what we've come up with: It's Candidate Suttle's logo. It's the basis of the plan: your cash. And then we threw in the Mayor's Durango, to give the logo a little "action", and of course to personalize it a little more.
The Mayor and his gang should feel free to use this in all future ad blitzes.
(If you really have some Mad Men-esque ads skills and can come up with a better logo, send them to us and we'll put up the best ones.)
Remember when all this was promised by Omaha's new Mayor during the campaign?
You remember. He said he would raise your property taxes, lay off city workers, and provide much less police protection. Wait...what?
Ohhhhhhh yeah. He never said ANYTHING during the campaign. Right, right. But he wasn't Hal Daub, and that was good enough for a majority of voters.
But, harking back, you will remember that candidate Jim Suttle's excuse for not providing a single detail about what he wanted to do if elected was because he wanted to hear what THE PEOPLE wanted, and then implement that plan.
So, after all the meetings the Mayor had with the citizens of Omaha, did he get any ideas from The People? The answer by Hiz Honor, on KFAB's Scott Voorhees show...uh, no.
And, from Voorhees, has Mayor Suttle looked to any other cities for suggestions on how to deal with a budget shortfall? Uh, no.
But the Mayor has decided that the way to shore up things in the city budget is to go with his initial plan -- raise taxes.
Hmm.
***
And the Mayor would like you to show your support for raising taxes.
Come support preserving City services at the public hearing on the budget, Tues. the 11th, 7 p.m., Legislative Chambers, City Hall.
So there you go.
Are you ready for the next PR blitz from Ron Penzkowski? Well, you say you want to have your city services. So you've confirmed you want your taxes raised.
Interesting tactic. Passive-aggressive, but interesting.
People should be cool with that...
***
Hey kids, since this is an all-Omaha post, feel free to open it up in the comments section and bring up whatever political issues you like -- local, state or national.
And then have yourself a cool lemonade out on the porch.
**UPDATE 11:30am**
"PAID FOR BY NELSON 2012"
The Benator puts up his first ad of the campaign season -- the three year season, that is.
No sense letting that campaign War Chest go to waste!
Ben Nelson's summer skirmish with The Left keeps us chuckling.
We like how The Lefties are coming into Nebraska screaming, "You know what? That Ben Nelson? Your Senator? He's CONSERVATIVE!"
(Of course they don't note that he's voting FOR Sotomayor...)
Did Nelson pay them off for these ads?
Let's see. Nelson says, "Whoa, slow down on this whole gotta solve one sixth of the economy by next week, plan."
And then The Libs run a one minute (!) TV ad with a guy with a problem with his health care, where The Leftists essentially shout,
"There you go! It's time to shut down the EVIL insurance industry! It's time for Socialism. And it needs to be finished yesterday! And Ben Nelson is standing in our way, Nebraska!"
Say slow down on crushing the economy and upturning your current health care system (to a Goverment that can't handle Cash For Clunkers);
Stick up for the Nebraska Insurance industry and all its employees;
Get a Nebraska Republican to vouch for him;
Have everybody think the Health Care plan runs through him.
How is this not a win-win-win-win-win for The Benator?
***
And then we continue to chuckle at our comrades over at another Nebraska blog who are getting pummeled by their Lefty coastal bloggers because they are perceived as Yes Men for E. Benjamin Nelson.
And the kids over there are shocked (SHOCKED!) to see the Liberals putting up ads that are cheap, unfair and tell half truths.
Guess what? That's known as the Progressive (or Lefty or Liberal or whatever it is that you're calling yourselves these days) Playbook.
Weird to see it thrown at one of YOUR guys (or YOU), huh?
***
We were remiss last week in not referring you to Don Walton's review of UNO Prof Adkin's book about the NE-2 2008 race.
In it, Adkins gives a nice review of the race and summarizes a number of statistics found after the smoke cleared.
A couple of notes:
1) While Jim Esch benefited greatly from the influx of Obama dollars into the Second District, many Obama voters simply didn't bother to check the box for Esch or Congressman Lee Terry.
And in precincts where that happened at a higher rate, Terry did much better. (Uh oh, you mean Barrack Obama won't be on the ballot in 2010? Wonder what will happen...)
2) Terry's camp put together a field organization that walked the precints where Terry won or lost in 2006 by a very close margin.
So what happened in 2008? Terry increased his average win in those 118 precincts by almost a full percentage point.
In other words, while all you saw back in 2008 were stories about the Obama volunteers, it was the Lee Terry walkers who made the real difference in the 2008 Congressional race.
***
By the way, according to the FEC.gov site, a quick view of Lee Terry's fundraising in the 2008 campaign, and the 2010 campaign, at comparable times:
July 2007 Quarterly filing (for 2008 race): $263,449 July 2009 Quarterly filing (for 2010 race): $295,848
Oh, and let us say again, for those who seem to be all hot and bothered about this race: Barrack Obama ain't on the ballot.
***
He may not be getting the big National press (yet), but the above mentioned Senator Mike Johanns continues to pound away in the Senate.
You can read here about him taking it to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack on the "climate bill".
And our favorite MJ quote from that hearing:
"It’s no consolation to stand with one foot in the campfire and one in the ice bucket and say, ‘on average, I’m in good shape.’"
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