General Discussion

Omaha Steve

(109,229 posts) Sun Oct 30, 2022, 11:18 PM Oct 2022

This is where I asked my friends to put their hard earned money

Carol is my friend running for Governor. Donate to Carol here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/duforblood

Editorial from the states largest news gathering agency: Carol Blood would be constructive leader as Nebraska governor

https://omaha.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-carol-blood-would-be-constructive-leader-as-nebraska-governor/article_df1e3356-56f1-11ed-b741-5b583518a500.html

Nebraska’s next governor will face significant challenges: Overhauling the way our state pays for schools and government services. Ensuring that our workforce is large enough and educated enough to sustain a growing economy. Wrestling with the contentious abortion debate.

Dealing with those thorny issues and much more during the next four years will require leadership. It will take an ability to hear and understand the diverse views of Nebraskans, balance differing interests, and ultimately find ways to bring the state together as it moves forward.

The next governor isn’t going to be just responsible for Nebraskans from one party or one area of this state. With fewer than 2 million people, Nebraska is too small to waste any of its residents’ talents or discourage anyone from living here. Our governor needs to be up to the task of getting all of us pulling in the same direction.

That skill is one of the things we were looking for in making an editorial endorsement in the governor’s race between Republican Jim Pillen and Democrat Carol Blood.

Newspapers, including this one, have long made such endorsements. But we don’t do this to tell people what to think. Our readers are too smart for that.

The reason we endorse is to provide helpful input to voters. We feel an obligation to share with our readers what we’ve learned over many years of observing and reporting on public affairs. We hope to offer some nonpartisan information and perspective in an electoral process filled with many influences, some of them aggressively partisan.

The World-Herald’s news articles about campaigns and candidates strive to be evenhanded. In contrast, an editorial endorsement necessarily takes a stand. Still, we want our editorial opinions to be grounded in facts and thoughtful context, so we meet with the candidates themselves to take the measure of their ideas and temperaments, to see how they defend their policies and respond to alternative ideas.

Blood met with us. But Pillen rebuffed us, something that major candidates rarely have done. His no-show wasn’t entirely surprising, given that Pillen also refused to debate with Blood or, before the May primary, with his fellow Republican candidates.

We said in the primary that Pillen was wrong to shun debates or other forums where his positions could be scrutinized and, yes, sometimes challenged. If you’re not able to stand up for your ideas, except in safe spaces like small groups of friendly voters or scripted campaign ads, how do Nebraskans know that you are prepared for this important job?

His campaign told us that he wasn’t going to meet with our editorial board since we had endorsed Blood in the primary (we hadn’t) and criticized him in the past (a bit). As a result, they felt it was inevitable that we would endorse Blood in the general election.

Far from it. Before this year, The World-Herald had endorsed Republican candidates for governor in 10 of the last 11 races — including the past six straight elections. We endorsed Pillen’s top supporter, Gov. Pete Ricketts, twice, even though we had criticized him from time to time. We had an open mind about Pillen, who met with us via Zoom in April when we were considering our Republican primary endorsement.

A former Husker football player, Pillen should have been willing to take the field this fall and show Nebraskans, through debates and endorsement interviews, what he was made of. Instead, he’s chosen to forfeit in those situations. And we’re disappointed about that.

But we’re pleased to endorse Carol Blood, a state senator from Sarpy County. We were impressed with her knowledge of issues, her thoughtful perspective and her commitment to bringing people together to solve problems.

As a Democrat in a legislative body dominated by Republicans, Blood has by necessity learned how to work with others to get anything done. She understands that successful solutions come from keeping the focus on people and policy, not party.

She’s right that Nebraska needs to go beyond rhetoric and platitudes to make progress on things like workforce development. Nebraska leaders have talked for decades about the trends that now have helped leave the state short of workers, yet failed to create a comprehensive, effective plan to fill those jobs.

Part of her plan is a PK-14 approach to education, ensuring that children get a good start in life with pre-kindergarten and are able to get up to a two-year degree in college that prepares them for jobs in the trades, information technology, health care or other fields.

She also touts another lawmaker’s proposal in the Legislature that would have used a 1-cent increase in the sales tax to fund schools and reduce property taxes.

She makes sense in talking about the changes needed in criminal justice and the state’s overcrowded prisons. She recognizes that it’s wasteful to try to solve the overcrowding solely through building more and more prisons. Instead, the state needs to improve its rehabilitation programs so that fewer former inmates wind up reoffending.

And Blood recognizes the burden that is placed on local governments through state and federal mandates.

Do we think she has all the best answers for Nebraska? Not necessarily. Would she have trouble winning broad support for everything she talks about? Probably. If she wins, we would expect that Republican state senators would push back on some of her ideas and have different proposals of their own. She would have to compromise.

But Blood understands how government works. She is informed about the issues. She is willing to engage with people she disagrees with. She would be a constructive leader.