Why Was Heath Mello Thrown Under the Bus? - The Nation

[flamingdem]

Was the candidate for mayor of Omaha held to a different standard than other Democrats?
By D.D. Guttenplan

https://www.thenation.com/article/why-was-heath-mello-thrown-under-the-bus/


Omaha—On my first morning here in Nebraska, I walked right into a glass wall. “Wow! Didn’t see that coming,” I thought, as the blood poured down my nose. So I have some sense of what it must have been like for Heath Mello, the young Democrat trying to get elected mayor of the biggest city in one of the country’s deepest-red states, when Tom Perez and the Democratic National Committee threw him under the bus last week.

Mello, who finished three points behind Republican incumbent Jean Stothert in the five-way, nonpartisan primary on April 4, has been attracting national attention—and support—from progressives for months now. Our Revolution first endorsed Mello on March 9 as one of two dozen candidates the group is backing in 2017. Daily Kos jumped in after the primary, pointing out that in addition to offering the chance to flip City Hall (Omaha makes up most of Nebraska’s Second Congressional District, which the Democrats lost by just over one point), “a good showing” in the race “will energize progressives and encourage strong candidates to run” in 2018.

An Omaha native first elected to Nebraska’s unicameral legislature in 2008 at the age of 29, Mello successfully led the fight to overturn Republican Governor Pete Ricketts’s veto of a bill permitting young people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to obtain a driver’s license. Last year, he again put together a coalition that managed to reverse another of Ricketts’s vetoes—this time of a bill allowing young undocumented immigrants to apply for professional or commercial licenses. In Nebraska, which resettled more refugees per capita in 2016 than any other state, that kind of leadership stands out. As does Mello’s outspoken emphasis—unusual in a state dominated by Big Agriculture, and which still gets most of its energy from coal—on fighting climate change and protecting the environment. Likewise his record on LGBTQ issues, including a call for a law to ban discrimination in housing and employment. With strong union support from firefighters, teachers, and city workers, the Sierra Club’s enthusiastic endorsement, and the backing of an array of Democratic heavyweights, from former senator Ben Nelson to former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, Mello was beginning to look like the party’s best chance for a win after disappointments in Kansas and Georgia.

Especially since his opponent, Stothert, ousted her Democratic predecessor in 2013 by promising to repeal an unpopular restaurant tax—and never kept her promise. With registered Democrats in the city actually outnumbering Republicans—while Donald Trump won nearly 60 percent of the vote in Nebraska, Hillary Clinton carried Douglas County, which includes Omaha, by over 5,000 votes—the arrival of the Democratic “Unity Tour” on Friday was supposed to provide a final burst of enthusiasm to carry Mello across the finish line on May 9.

Instead, on April 19, The Wall Street Journal ran a story noting that Mello, a practicing Catholic, is pro-life. The story also falsely claimed that Mello had co-sponsored a bill “requiring women to look at an ultrasound image of their fetus before receiving an abortion.” A similar error was made by The Washington Post, which claimed that Mello had “previously backed a bill requiring ultrasounds for women considering abortions,” and then again the following day by David Nir, political director of Daily Kos, who announced the site was withdrawing its endorsement of Mello—a move applauded by Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, who’d launched a 12-part Twitter storm linking to the WSJ article and accusing Sanders and Perez of kicking off their tour with the message “shame women; we’ll support u anyway.”

[radical noodle]

1. I believe this should answer any questions about how he votes

https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/103098/heath-mello#.WQAqS4grLIU

One can click on the bills and see the details.

[Vesper]

2. Thank you for the link!

In case anyone doesn't want to sift through the legislative history, here are the objectionable bills that he's voted for, which somehow all those people spinning for him, including D.D. Guttenplan, seem to be totally blind to somehow. The more egregious ones are the ones he sponsored himself.

LB 22 - Prohibits Insurance Coverage of Abortion - Key Vote

LB 1103 - Prohibiting Abortions After 20 Weeks of Pregnancy - Key Vote

LB 594 - Abortion Screening Requirements - Key Vote

LB 521 - Requires Physician Presence During Abortions - Key Vote

LB 521 - Requires Physician Presence During Abortions - Key Vote

LB 675 - Establishes Procedures for Ultrasounds Performed Prior to Abortions - Key Vote

[Egnever]

3. Those are pretty heinous

What about the person he is running against?

[Vesper]

5. She doesn't seem to be on the frontline of the war on women and doctors.

[PoliticAverse]

7. So you prefer the Republican win that race then? n/t

[Vesper]

8. Can you please point out where I stated that opinion? I answered a question.

And it seems like a Republican will win that race no matter what, it's just that one of them seems to be fervently against women's basic rights and has a history of introducing legislation that seeks to harm women.

Do you prefer the guy who has the same legislative history as Trent Franks and Ted Cruz?

[PoliticAverse]

9. By indicating Mello was "on the frontline of the war against women" and that the Republican...

was not you seemed to imply you preferred the Republican candidate. So I asked specifically (thus the question mark
I used). Since you didn't answer the question I'll ask it again. Who do you prefer to win that election, the Democratic
candidate Mello, or the Republican candidate Stothert?

[Vesper]

11. Yes. If you see above I provided the links to back up that assertion, but

I did not state that "I wanted the Republican to win" so that was an incorrect inference you made, I implied no such thing, and it would take a great deal of contortion and imagination to squeeze that from the direct question I answered in a single line.

I did answer the question, what's the difference, they're both anti-choice Republicans? That was a direct answer, look at the words and not the imaginative inferences to see it.

Again, I have no preference, I'm just glad I'm not in Omaha about to be ruled by right wing or right winger.

What I'd like to know is what asinine idiot thinks that a rabid right winger is a "true progressive" and why DNC time, attention and funds are being wasted on a candidate that is the equivalent of Sheriff Clarke.

I prefer neither, both suck and they're both right wingers.

[MountCleaners]

13. What about my right not to have MY health destroyed

by climate change and deregulation? And I'm a woman so don't give me that "I don't understand" bullcrap.


Environmentalism is about not wanting my body violated by the effects of blindly pro-corporate policies. I'm pro-abortion rights, too, but I don't call someone a Republican if they're willing to take on corporations.

Sadly, there are a lot of people in the "pro choice" camp who do absolute ZERO about deregulation and the environment. They certainly don't have a lot of women's backs on that one.

Sorry, some of us remember when the corporate "choice" crowd was known as the DLC. Screwing unions and being nice to polluters doesn't help women, either.

[Vesper]

14. Was this meant for me?

I don't see how this man is willing to take on corporations, in Omaha.

Oh, so women can be forced to go without healthcare due to this guy's attack on telemedicine, and women 20 weeks pregnant with problem pregnancies can't get an abortion unless they're about to die in the next 5 minutes, but that's okay, because the mayor of Omaha is going to fix Climate Change and deregulation and take on corporations that you imagine are somehow violating your body more than an transvaginal ultrasound that anti-choicers would like shoved into women's bodies?

I call someone a Republican when they walk like one, talk like one and introduce policies with Republican language that seek to advance Republican attacks on women's health. I have no idea what your gender is, so don't give me that bullcrap of asserting something on the internet to evade responsibility for a poor argument that's all bluster and zero substance.

I honestly don't understand what this rant was about, and why you think a mayor of a town in Nebraska CAN do anything at all about deregulation or the environment.

Oh, by the way this champion who you think has your back on the environment is pro-Keystone, signed onto a letter to Kerry about how that nice corporation should be allowed to build whatever they want, without much regulations, cause those 33 jobs are so very important.

Is it okay if the rabid anti-choice right winger who can do ZERO about anything and has shown no inclination to support the environment or fight corporate anything is the one doing the violating of women's bodies in the manner you think is important (the esoteric sense and not the literal one he's been pushing?)

Sadly there are lot of people in the "environmentalism, climate change and corporate something" camp who know absolutely ZERO about what they're talking about, and they seem to be just fine with stabbing a lot of poor women in the back because they didn't do their homework and were blinded by vague and meaningless slogans and biased articles that spin like crazy and conceal the truth.

[Demsrule86]

34. Oops, I would not count on Mello to protect the environment.

"...And in March, more than two-thirds of Nebraska’s lawmakers – 34 of 49 – signed a letter urging the feds to approve the project.

The bipartisan support for Keystone XL from lawmakers was surprising — 25 Republicans and nine Democrats signed, including prominent Democrats like Appropriations Chairman Heath [font color="red" size="4" face="face"]Mello[/font]
and Omaha senators Steve Lathrop and Jeremy Nordquist."

http://watchdog.org/141722/keystone-xl-2/

[Demsrule86]

21. It is a mayor's race also...no need to have even gotten involved...Georgia 6

is where we should put money and time...the House, Senate, Governors and legislature is where we need to concentrate. And what about Perriello...he is in a primary.

[radical noodle]

4. Happy to help!

Thanks for doing the hard work of sorting it all out.

[Vesper]

6. It's amazing that the editor of the Nation didn't bother to do his homework, so much for

journalistic integrity I guess.

[killbotfactory]

10. All pre-2012

As the article says, since then he has been with planned parenthood. Is the article wrong? Any reason to doubt his pledge to respect women's reproductive rights as mayor? Or why Omaha democrats are wrong for supporting him? Is the republican better?

[Vesper]

12. Please point to something other than his say-so that he's with Planned Parenthood.

I do have reason to doubt him and the article is clearly biased, his history and his consistent record of anti-choice votes and SPONSORSHIP of bills that attack reproductive rights is reason to doubt his pledge to the exact opposite of what he's done.

Omaha Dems may do as they wish, they will have to suffer under this man. Bernie and the DNC are wrong for supporting him since his right wing legislative record is the antithesis of the core principles of this party, and they chose to waste time, money and attention on a divisive and deeply offensive sponsorship of a mayoral race, while attacking the House race with actual importance.

I see no difference between this right winger and his Republican opponent.

This is a man who has chosen to write on his own, bills that target women in his state, by objective standards that's a pretty legitimate reason to state that they're wrong for supporting such a man, and believing the spin his desperate campaign is generating.

Have you evidence that he's a changed man since 2012? That date seems really important for some reason, I'd love to see why anyone should believe his words rather than his record. That ultrasound bill was something he cooked up as well, with all those right wing made up terms. The links are above, perhaps click them to see how the article was wrong and biased? Lots of reason to doubt his pledge,

[Kentonio]

15. They almost certainly won't have to 'suffer' under this man

They'll get to suffer under a Republican because you folks just torpedoed his campaign and handed the job to the Republicans.

I'd rather us not pick candidates who don't share our pro-choice beliefs, but once they're selected and running for office its despicable to pull this kind of crap. You just helped ensure a guy who agrees with you on probably 90% of issues will lose to someone who likely disagrees with you on 90% of issues.

Good work.

[Vesper]

16. That's so nice that you fervently believe this, but I asked for evidence, not statements of faith.

Again, he's a pretty rabid right winger and we didn't torpedo anything. Bernie made a bad decision to draw attention to a candidate that was calculated to be disgusting to the Democrats who he's been attacking and dividing. You folks need to stop blaming us for the bad decisions made by Bernie and his failure to do his homework or his deliberate decisions to create havoc and piss people off.

It's despicable to create this crap over a mayoral race with a terrible candidate WHILE attacking a guy who's an actual progressive and actually pro-choice and actually stands a chance to win a HOUSE SEAT.

No. I did nothing. That was all Bernie, and he chose to diss a guy who agrees with me on probably 99% of issues and who would be a vote against Trump in CONGRESS, to promote a rabidly right wing dude who had no business getting the attention that he was gifted by the egos that make Bernie's poor decisions.

He literally attacked the guy who was a progressive in a HOUSE RACE, and if he loses that race thanks to the idiotic attacks, blaming me for Bernie and his supporters massive fuck up is something won't cut it, you can take credit for your own excellent work, or praise Bernie for whatever, since that's how that works out.

Blaming me personally and those of us expressing the obvious antipathy for this moronic move is just pathetic, this is all Bernie and his supporters and that desperate spin for a mayoral candidate in Nebraska.

Helluva job there. Projecting that complicit crap when the facts indict you folks who refuse to accept reality fails yet again.

You've twisted yourself into knots trying to defend this crap and now you're blaming us because the infallible one failed so spectacularly and pissed off so many women, for a crap candidate in a mayoral race in Nebraska.

Awesome job you did there, that emoji is an excellent depiction of what you're doing here, and it's only going to hurt you.

[Vesper]

17. Also that 10% he disagrees with me on is my basic right as a human being to bodily integrity.

Kind of a biggie there, Kentonio. Perhaps if it was YOUR bodily integrity, your health, your life and your human rights that was at stake here you'd be less willing to pretend that this kind of crap is acceptable, and find it as despicable as the rest of us Democrats do.

Your guy just helped bring this idiot to national attention, a mayoral candidate in OMAHA for goodness sake, after pulling just this despicable crap in a HOUSE RACE.

Great work, just super. Handing HOUSE seats to Republicans based on the adherence of progressives to Bernie's ego is just so great! Thanks Bernie!

[Kentonio]

18. He's running against a Republican for christs sake!

How much do you think that Republican is going to respect your basic rights?

Bernie didn't do propel this guy to national prominance, the purists did that by making what would have been a nothing line in a local paper into a national conversation piece which yet again creates a big divide in our party.

You want someone to blame for handing house seats to Republicans, then take a look in the frikkin mirror.

[Vesper]

19. But I thought we shouldn't just vote for people because they have a D next to their name?

Given that the right winger running with the D doesn't respect my basic rights all, what's the difference between them?

Bernie took his dog and pony show to Omaha, because one of his purist devotees begged him to come, the whole point of Bernie's show was to get as much attention as possible, thus it making the claim that he would have snaked in the dead of night, leaving behind a single in a local paper is laughable at best.

He messed up and created this mess by deliberately following up his national interview where he insisted that we must not be rigid about basic human rights for women by endorsing a candidate that had a proven track record of attacking women, while also attacking Ossoff. He created this mess himself, the divisiveness is due to his own antics, and it seems to be something he delights in.

You keep attacking me for the actions YOU defend, the divisiveness YOU engage in and which was created by Bernie, whom you refuse to blame for HIS OWN actions.

Gaze into your own "frikkin mirror" to see where all that divisive desperation is coming from, all because it seems you cannot be honest about the colossal blunder your guy made here.

It's sad how much you're twisting yourself to excuse Bernie's mistake here, and how desperately you engage in ad hominems to defend the indefensible. The reason you keep failing so badly here is that literally everyone is seeing what Bernie did, what he said and why his attack on Ossof was as mind blowingly stupid as endorsing the rabid right winger.


Attacking me won't make you any less wrong, or Bernie any less a divisive factor whose true colors have been revealed by his own words and actions.

[Kentonio]

20. So now you're moving on to plain lying?

Bernie took his dog and pony show to Omaha, because one of his purist devotees begged him to come

Bernie was in Omaha as part of the Democratic Unity tour. You're not defending the party, you're attacking it and doing your small part to sow division and discord. Spare me the faux outrage.

[Demsrule86]

23. Jane Kleeb is the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

She is a supporter and on the board of Our Revolution...if you read the articles. Sen. Sanders was the one who wanted to go to Nebraska...it is a Mayor's race...not worth the time or money when we need to take back more important seats.

[Vesper]

30. She's also the owner of Bold Nebraska which supposedly fought against the Keystone Pipeline,

but she's working hard here on behalf of Mello, who was in support of it and who is a rabid right wing extremist.

Bernie didn't do his homework here, he caved to the ego flattering requests of a fan and stepped in it big time, and decided to go full Republican by doubling down on his error rather than admitting it.

There seems to be nothing else behind this than proving that he has no actual interest in unifying or working with the party he scorns and has been attacking. He has given the GOP ammunition and created a whole news cycle about the supposed division among Democrats.

His acolytes here have been twisting themselves into various contortions trying to defend his poor judgment and the inability to do so with any credibility has rendered them frustrated and lashing out with TOS violating levels of personal insults and divisive abuse.

It's sad, but many are waking up to what millions saw in Bernie, a guy who talks a good talk but is not as pure as he claims to be and is willing to compromise on core principles if his ego is stroked enough. A deep disappointment, and one that his fans apparently can only handle by attacking those who point out facts.

[Demsrule86]

31. I agree...and Sen. Sanders needs to vet those he endorses.

Perriello in Virginia is not a good endorsement and not just because of reproductive rights either...I called Sen. Warren's office this morning about her endorsement and asked her to rescind it..

[Vesper]

32. I have read that his attacks on Ossoff in Georgia are due to his failure to use Bernie's chosen

vocabulary. He didn't say "income inequality" or tout Single Payer, so that's why he said he wasn't a progressive.

Mello, however, sponsored bills that literally targeted poor women in rural areas, introduced (not just voted for) 20 week bans, and coverage of elective procedures under health insurance, requiring all women to either pay more for riders, or pay out of pocket for procedures.

"Elective" just means it's not emergent. As in, even if your pregnancy is non viable, and you choose to schedule a procedure, and it's not being done to save your life from imminent death, it's elective, and thus your insurance won't cover it, even if you could get an appointment and afford all the other obstacles the right wing anti-choicers have thrown in the way of access.

What I cannot figure out if this is just plain old blind stupidity or a deliberative attempt to destroy the party by planning to be as divisive and destructive as possible after creating a lot of damage and division that he never corrected. The fact that he remained silent when he co-"unity" tour member was booed speaks to something malignant going on here.

[Demsrule86]

24. It is not a lie.

"Yet after the backlash, Mr. Perez retreated. He conducted some quiet diplomacy, telephoning Ms. Hogue and Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, according to Democrats briefed on the calls. Casting aside their efforts at unity, Mr. Perez’s aides blamed Mr. Sanders for the event, putting out word that it had been the senator’s idea to include the rally on the tour and criticizing him for not vetting Mr. Mello."

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1002&pid=8980449

[Vesper]

28. I guess when the facts don't back you up, ad hominems are the way to go, this is one in a series.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/20/dnc-unity-rally-heath-mello-anti-abortion-237403

Bernie was asked by Jane Kleeb, who is a member of the "Our Revolution" group that asked Bernie to come, this was not a part of the "Unity Tour", as planned by the DNC, this was a Bernie thing, in response to a Bernie person asking him to come.

A DNC spokesman said that Perez has made support for state parties a high priority, adding that Sanders aides and Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb — who is also set to appear with Sanders, Mello and Ellison on Thursday — asked that the Omaha event with Mello be added to the party's "unity tour" schedule.

Jane Kleeb by the way was a Sanders supporter and is a board member of Our Revolution.


When the facts are so easy to discover, one wonders why the need to not only lie, not only post willfully ignorant things, but why to do so in the most aggressively divisive and discordant manner possible.

When you have to resort to ad hominems you know you've already lost the point. I guess when the goal is to be as divisive as possible, to sow actual discord, projection of one's own dishonesty and one's own "faux" outrage is the only tactic left. Sadly it fails every time, so you can spare me the hypocrisy and the projection and educate yourself. There is no need to lie or to attack me personally when the facts do not support you.

[betsuni]

25. +1

[brer cat]

27. You have been spot on in this thread, Vesper.

[Vesper]

29. Thank you!

It seems to have really brought out the anger and the abuse from the group that seems to be all about the divisiveness and the discord. I don't know there is such a need to lie or to be so unpleasant, but personal attacks seem to be the only things left with this group of people who seem to be running around blaming everyone else for their own actions here.

I guess they need to look into their own "frikkin mirrors" and see the cause of the toxicity they keep ascribing to others, and the bothsiderists need to open their eyes and see which side is behind the nastiness here.

These were articles posted here, and which these posters were commenting on, so there is no legitimate excuse that they simply didn't know. There is malignancy afoot, and the actors are not very good at concealing themselves. What a ridiculous hill to die on.

[Demsrule86]

22. Since then he has not been in a position to vote on such things...and

NARAL certainly is not pleased. Also this...

"PPVN, the political arm of the family-planning organization, pushed back on the claim that it gave Heath Mello a 100 percent rating. The group’s scorecard from 2011 shows Mello “voting against Planned Parenthood’s position on three votes ― all abortion related.”

“Planned Parenthood Voters of Nebraska has never endorsed Heath Mello for public office nor has Planned Parenthood Voters of Nebraska given Heath Mello a 100% rating, as some media outlets have erroneously reported,” the group said in a statement."

[Demsrule86]

35. The support for Keystone was in 2014...this is a bad endorsement.

Hey,I would vote for Mello if I lived there...vote Democratic, but he should not be endorsed.

http://watchdog.org/141722/keystone-xl-2/

[Progressive dog]

26. Thanks

It's nice to be able to see Mello's actual record without all the omissions and distortions.

[Vesper]

33. Those were just the abortion related bills.

He's also on board with the Keystone Pipeline, writing a letter to Kerry to approve it for the supposed jobs. The analysis of these jobs has been dismal, with only a handful (30 something) that would be permanent, as similar pipelines have been leaking left and right.


There is literally nothing progressive about this guy Bernie is going to the mat for, in a Mayoral race in Omaha. I don't mean to denigrate Omaha, but what about this race elevates it to a level that requires national attention that Bernie has brought here? It seems to be a deliberate or completely oblivious blow to the unity he was supposed to be promoting, but that he kept failing at, with all the attacks on the party and the embrace of Trump voters and rabid right wing anti-choicers.