April 9, 2026 • 41 mins
Jean Stothert is the former Omaha Mayor and just started a new radio show on 1110 KFAB. She talks about her entry into public service and politics and some of the more notable things she's noticed in recent years in that world. She also talks about shifting into her new job hosting a call-in show on the radio.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
It is the Emory Songer Podcast, and we are happy
to have you with us here on the feed today.
I am, of course Emory Songer and our esteemed guest
of this show today is a new member of the
kfab family, but a longtime member in the public in
the public eye in the city of Omaha. Former Omaha
(00:30):
mayor and current talk show host on KFAB, Gene Stothart,
you aren't in the studio with me face to face.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I imagine that I am here and I just finished
my show and it's just a lot of fun. I
love doing this. You know. I have been in this
studio many many times being interviewed, and it's really fun
to be the interview er rather than the interview e.
And I'm having a ball with this. You know. When
they kfab approached me, I wasn't out there looking for
(00:59):
a Joe and they approached me about doing this show.
And at first I said, why me? I mean, why
do you want me? I remember I said I'm not funny,
and I remember Scott vorhe said, yeah, You're really funny,
and I said, but that's probably not a compliment because
he's talking about what I was like as mayor. Maybe
I was funny, and I shouldn't have been. But anyway,
(01:20):
you know, there's no doubt I know a lot about Omaha,
and I keep up with it, and I know a
lot about what's going on in the state. And I'm
having a lot of fun. So it's fun.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It's interesting, right, because a lot of people make the
transition from politics or from previous jobs and get into
media with their different backgrounds, and I think that's what
makes this space so unique, right, because you're going to
see things and say things from a completely different perspective
than Scott Vorhe's or Gary Satlmeyer or Chris Baker or
somebody like me. And I want to kind of talk
(01:50):
about politics because you were not a politician. Until you
were a politician. It wasn't like you were an eighteen
year old and the young Republicans and we're like, my
dream one day is to be the mayor of a
big city or to be the president of the United States.
What was the decision that you made and at what
point in your life did you say, you know, maybe
(02:11):
I should run from well.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
You know, I mean, you are right, there was no
ambition in Jean Stothard to be a politician or to
ever be a mayor. And let me just say, I mean,
I kind of it started out way a long time ago.
It started out when I was in high school. I mean,
I always thought we all had a civic responsibility to
give back to our community. And you know, I did
(02:33):
things even in high school, like as a class officer,
because I felt like I have something I need to
give back to the community I live in my As
far as my career, I was a critical care nurse
and I think a lot of people don't realize that.
And you know, I quickly became a head nurse, and
you know it again, it was that leadership role. I
(02:53):
wanted to be able to do something that made a difference.
When I was a head nurse of a critical care unit,
you know, I did all the staffing, I did the hiring,
I did the budget. I managed a lot of nurses
and a lot of surgeons, and that, you know, those
skills I learned back then I used as mayor. And
you know then when we moved here, we were living
(03:15):
in Texas, my husband, I have two little kids. We
moved here from Texas in nineteen ninety three to Omaha, Nebraska,
and I thought, well, I could go back and work
as a nurse, but it would be you know, probably
midnights on the weekends because I'm new here, and I
just thought my kids at that time are grown now,
(03:35):
but they were going into kindergarten in second grade, and
I thought, well, I'll just get really involved in the
schools in Miller Public schools. And that's kind of how
it started. I had no ambition that I would end
up doing what I actually did, but I decided then
after a couple of years to run for the school board.
There was an open position, and actually there was an
(03:56):
open position because somebody resigned and they had to appoint
somebody to finish a term, and they ended up appointing me.
There were thirteen people that applied for that and they
appointed me, and I loved it. I loved being on
the school board. And then I ran for a couple
more terms, and I ended up serving eleven years on
the Millard's school Board. I loved it. Never thought of
(04:17):
anything else to do afterwards. But after about you know,
three terms or so, I thought there's something else calling
my name out there, somewhere else I could serve the community.
And in two thousand and six I ran for the
Nebraska legislature, and that was one of the races I lost.
And you know, I walked the whole district and I
thought I kept up with what was going on in Lincoln,
(04:38):
and I thought I could probably serve my school district
better in Lincoln than I could of doing another term
on the school board. And if people recall, that was
we had a whole one city, one school district issue
going on in Lincoln, and I thought I could really
serve the community in the legislature. Well I lost that race.
And that's a race I lost by fourteen votes on
(04:59):
a recount. Can you imagine. I know, And I thought, well,
it just wasn't meant to be. And so I finished
the school board term that I had and I decided
to run for city council and I thought, here's something else.
And with the school board, although I loved it, after
three terms, I felt like, been there, done that, time
to move on. I know a lot of people are
(05:20):
on school boards that are on Millard's school board that
were on when I was on. They're still on. A
lot of people stay on school boards a long time.
But I felt like it was time to move on,
and I ran for city council. Never did I ever
think of running for mayor when I was on and
I won the city council race District five in Omaha,
that's southwest Omaha. Love that too. I loved being on
(05:43):
the city council. But as I was probably in the
city council term three years or so, honest to goodness,
I did not like the way the mayor was running
the city. It was Mayor's Jim Subtle at the time,
and I thought, I have two choices. I could either
run for city council again, probably get re elected with
not much problem. Or I could do the hardest thing
(06:04):
I've ever done in my entire life, and that was
run for mayor of Omaha. And there had never been
a woman, you know, And I knew this was going
to be an uphill battle. And I remember my husband
at the time, who my husband has passed away, but
I remember at the time coming home and I said,
I think I want to run for mayor and he
said I wouldn't do it, and I go, okay, I'm running.
(06:25):
I was just like, all right, whatever, and I thought, no,
this is going to be really hard, and this is
going to be a battle. And it was. It was
a battle.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
But I want but this is something I've learned about you.
You love the challenge of the campaign. The campaigning became
kind of a way that it was part of the
job that didn't feel like a job to you.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I loved it. I mean I loved campaigning. I loved
it more than my campaign staff did. In fact, I
walked door to door so much, and I would, you know,
I would always have a group with me and I'd go,
all right, we're gonna have fun today. And they were like,
oh my gosh, you know, I'm so tired and it's
raining outside or it's snowing, and I would go, no,
this is going to be fun because I knew that's
(07:08):
how I had to win that race. I had to
get out there and I had to knock on doors,
and it was it was so difficult at first because
I would have people, I mean I had doors slammed
in my face. I had if you could believe it,
in this day and age, people say, honey, why don't
you go back and run for school board again, because
that's what girls do, and this day and age, this
(07:32):
is a man's job down at city hall. And that
just made me want to do it even more, and
it's funny walking door to door too. My campaign staff
would go, if they have your opponent's sign in the
yard and there are on your r list to knock
on their door, don't do it. Don't even bother. And
I'd go, that was a real challenge to me, and
I'd do it anyway because I thought, who knows why
(07:52):
they have my opponent sign in the yard. Maybe their
kid brought it home, or maybe one adult favors that
person and maybe the other one might favor me. And
there's a lot of research on knocking on people's doors,
and they will say that if you not, if they
are favoring your opponent, but you knock on the door
and your opponent doesn't, you're gonna get their vote. And
(08:12):
so I just made it fun. And you know, when
I first ran for mayor, I announced in April I
was going to run for mayor of Omaha. I started
knocking on doors in May and I knocked on doors
till the next May for a full year. I did
it for a full year. You're still on city council
at that time, I was still on city council. Would
(08:33):
no matter what the weather, we were out there and
knocking on doors, and I they figured out that I
myself knocked on at least twenty thousand doors. Wow, but
that's that's the way I thought I was going to
win it.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Well, then you won, huh.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And I won, and I beat the incumbent mayor. And
I won by you know, a good eighteen points the
incumbent mayor, which is really hard to do. Oh yeah,
And so now I should say because I was the
incumbent mayor and just got defeated, and try to be
the mayor of Omaha. But still I did really, really
good in that race. And that was in twenty thirteen.
(09:07):
I beat the incomment mayor. Then I ran for a
second term in twenty seventeen. Then I ran for a
third in twenty twenty one. And you know, I loved
what I was doing. I really I loved being mayor.
I really did. But I love being a city council member.
I love being on the school board, but I really
loved being mayor. We we were progressing, Omaha was doing great.
(09:27):
I knew how to budget, I had good control of
the budget. Our crime was down, Omaha was a safer city.
Development was just booming in Omaha. I had assembled a
great team, and I thought, you know what, I can
do this again. I could do a fourth term. I
could do it again. And in hindsight, I'm thinking sixteen
years as mayor. That's a lot.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I mean, twelve was a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Twelve was a long time, and I was willing to
do sixteen. But you know, there was multiple factors that
I think contributed to my defeat this time. I could
talk about him if you want to, but I will
say this, It just it wasn't meant to be well.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And I'll say this as somebody who moved to Omaha recently.
You know, you know, you learn about a community, and
I generally love the vibe in Omaha. It feels very
similar to des Moinne, where I came from, just a bigger,
kind of more advanced version of that. And there was
something about, you know, when I was hosting this show,
(10:27):
I could really feel the difference politically in not just Omaha,
but kind of just the surrounding area. You have a
lot of people who seem to be Blue voters, and
they talk about the blue dot, yet they have regularly
voted Don Bacon, a Republican, to be their representative. In
you know Washington, DC, and for three straight terms voted
(10:51):
you who identified as a Republican. I don't know if
you know. You say you're a Republican, but every time
you talked.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I didn't am a Republican.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
You are, but at the same time, you're the kind
of republican that didn't turn off Democrats right Like to me,
it was like you were you were welcoming to anyone
who wanted to be in Omahan, yes, and wanted to
learn about the city, and you weren't kind of throwing
conservative viewpoints at everyone. You were kind of like, Hey,
this is for everybody. This city that we're building is
(11:20):
for everybody. And it really felt like it's the politics
in general since you got involved as the mayor to
the time now where you're a talk host on KFAB,
politics has changed so much.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
It has and you know, to your point, I was
going to say that it has changed this vibe you
were talking about, or this feeling in Omaha, the political feeling,
it has changed my twelve years of mayor, every year
it has changed. And you know I did do that.
I am I'm a conservative, I'm a Republican, and I'm
not going to change who I am to get a vote.
I'm not going to change that. And I think everybody
(11:55):
in Omaha knows that I am conservative. I I believe
in the tenets of the Republican Party. But when I
became mayor, I said I will be the mayor for everyone,
and I meant it, and I meant that I will
serve democrats as well as independents. I didn't care the
color of your skin, your gender. I would be your mayor.
(12:16):
And I never did come out and trash the other
side like some politicians do, because I meant what I said.
And you know, I bring this up a lot because
my even my son, God love him, very very smart
kid obviously takes after his dad, has his PhD. He
(12:37):
used to be Republican. He's very very liberal. Now. I
don't hate the kid. I mean I enjoy talking to him,
and I enjoy saying why do you feel this way?
I enjoy talking to him and figuring out why he
has this point of view. But I don't come out
there and say you're evil, you're wrong because you are
now a Democrat. I just don't feel that way at all.
(13:00):
And I felt like that's how what kind of mayor
I wanted to be plus. It is true. Omaha is
a blue dot. Omaha is not purple, Omaha is blue.
And I thought, you know, there is not going to
be another Republican conservative mayor elected to the city of Omaha.
If they take a hard heard right, they're just not right.
(13:21):
And that that really showed with this last race that
I was in. I think the blue dot did play
a big role and one of the one of the
reasons I didn't win was it is a blue dot,
and the Democrats wanted the mayor of Omaha's seat and
this time they got it.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah. I think the interesting development in that your race,
but also it happening like six months after the presidential race,
is that they had all this activation right.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
It did, and that Trump derangement syndrome is real.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
They see a Republican, they see are Even though you
run technically as a nonpartisan, people know you to be
a conservative in town by association, I feel like it
rubs into your race even though you aren't. And Don
Bacon isn't or deb Fisher isn't Donald Trump. You are
all different people.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I had people you know in forums say do you
talk to Donald Trump every day? I'm like, I don't
talk to Donald Trump ever. Well, do you have a
hotline that goes right into the West Wing. No, I don't.
I've met Donald Trump three times, but it's not you know,
I just really didn't understand it. But you know that
Trump derangement syndrome is true, is real, and I think
(14:38):
there are people that love the president and people that
hate the president that have Trump derangement syndrome. I've met
Donald Trump in person, Honest to gosh, he was delightful
in person. I met him once before he announced he
was running for president, and that was over at an
event that the Republican Party and Patawatamie County and I
(15:01):
met him over there, and then he hadn't announced yet.
And then I've met him twice since he's been president,
when Air Force one landed down at the base. And
you know, I found him to be funny, witty, tongue
in cheek, very nice to talk to. But people are
I mean, right now, after the last election of the presidency,
(15:21):
I mean, people really really have an issue with the
current president and they did use that against me. They
use another thing they used against me, which I don't understand,
is something that's called voter fatigue, and it is so real,
(15:42):
and I brought it up before you know, it doesn't
happen in DC. They keep on electing those congressmen un
till they're one hundred and ten years old, for gosh theake.
But there were a lot of people that said, oh,
you've done a good job, that you've been mayor for
twelve years, three terms. Give somebody else a chance, maybe
they can do better. That's true. I mean that is
(16:02):
a real thing.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, and it's a real thing because you're in you know,
and the controversy. A lot of people are like, well,
she's always out of town or everything else.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Which is not true.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You were in town. I saw you in town a lot.
But but you are seen. Yes, the cronies in Washington
are not seen by their people all the time. So
I don't know if they get as tired of them.
Because for the average person, and this isn't to say
people don't pay attention to the news, but I don't
think as many people pay attention to the news as
some people think. So you see or hear from your
(16:35):
representative or your senator about every two to six years,
depending on when their elections coming up, that you're oh, Yeah,
that's my person. I'll vote for them again. They seem
like they're doing a good job. Whereas you you're out
in the community, you're being seen in the community. People
are aware of what you look like, they're finding you
at grocery stores, and eventually it's just like, yeah, you know,
(16:56):
maybe we're ready for something else. It percent think that
that's a factor for somebody like you that.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Had a lot to do with it, and then that
brings us up to the evils of social media.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh gosh, where do you guys start on that.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I mean, I'm telling you there when you have a
position of mine and Omaha is you know, we're the
thirty ninth largest city in the country. We're right under
five hundred thousand people, so it is a big city
right now. But every year I was mayor, I took
a lot of pride into using social media to have
it interactive, to let people comment on it, which the
(17:31):
current mayor, up until a lawsuit was filed, would not
allow any comments. New Mayor Ewing of Omaha would not
allow any comments or feedback on his social media I did.
People would always say, oh, you have a whole team
answering those people. Uh, Uh, it was me or my
communication director. There were two people that had access to
my Facebook. We were the ones answering people. But it
(17:53):
got worse year after year after year. And I mean,
I'm a pretty good person to evaluate myself. There are
people that liked what I was doing. There are people
that hate me, and they still do and you know,
for whatever reason. I mean, they hate you and they
let you know. And I mean they sometimes they would
(18:14):
hate me because I was a woman. Sometimes they'd hate
me because I have blonde hair and blue eyes. I
don't know. I mean, they would just come up with
anything and they would hate me for it, and you
just have to deal with that. When you are in
an elected office anymore. It's too bad because people do
get they get more and more angry, and the things
(18:34):
on social media. For example, this thing started as a
total lie on social media that I didn't live here.
They kept on saying I lived in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, it was everywhere, and and it's still.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I mean, I have people right in about this show
and say, well, I'm surprised you're not in Saint Louis.
Do you know I lived in Saint Louis for less
than ten years of my entire life. I was born
and raised in Illinois. I moved to Saint Louis after
I got out of a nursing school because my first
job was at Saint Louis University, and I lived there
less than ten years. I have not lived in Saint
(19:08):
Louis since the early nineteen eighties. And then they will say, well,
your husband lives in Saint Louis, and so you're living
there most of the time. My husband hasn't lived in
Saint Louis because I got remarried after my husband died.
He hasn't lived there since the nineteen seventies. He's never
owned property there. He went to medical school there at
(19:28):
Saint Louis. When he got out of medical school, he
moved to the East Coast and has lived there for
fifty years. He doesn't live in Saint Louis, but social
media insists that he lives there and insists that I do,
and they will not stop.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Well, and so, how do you like as a politician,
he has to be careful about how you address certain things. Yes,
as a talk show host you don't have to be
as careful. But I, as a younger person in this sphere,
and this isn't a woe is Me story, but it's
kind of like I was not prepared for the kind
of vitriol that I also would see on social media.
(20:04):
If I said one thing that was disagreeable to a
certain contingent of people who listen, you could see how
toxic that could be if you were paying close attention
to the social media on a day to day basis.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
It's not good for your mental health, not at all.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
But and I think the thing that would bother me
the most, more than anything, was that I couldn't verify
that a lot of these are even real people. There
are some people with real names and their real picture
right commenting, and I respect those people.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Are somebody named Susie Q and you look at their
Facebook and there's a picture of a.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Cat exactly, and that was most of it, right. And
it's the same thing with x and the same thing
with Instagram is when people have really hot things to
say and they think they're being really edgy, more often
than not they are hiding behind anonymous profiles and there
is no accountability to them. They feel like they can
say that and there'd be no skin off of them whatsoever.
(20:55):
And you are not anonymous, and yeah, I can't do that.
Did you ever fear for your safety? Because I guess
maybe it's me being naive, but it's just like, man,
I'm afraid people are gonna show up at my house
if they're mad enough at me.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, and they and they they can. That's why when
I first became mayor, I was gonna be I was
gonna be real, a brave soul. And I told the
police chief, I don't need security. I'm gonna drive myself around.
Don't need it. I quickly found out that I did
as mayor because people will. I mean, they do recognize
you as mayor. You're out and about and you know,
you're a visible figure. You're on the news a lot.
(21:28):
But oh yeah, I mean I I had and I
didn't want to hide. I felt like, you know, I
have security with me when I'm out and about and
do an official business all the time. But I thought,
you know, I'm not going to let this destroy me
being out in the community. You know, I'm gonna go
to the College World Series and I'm going to sit
behind home plate. And but if somebody wants to get me,
(21:50):
they're gonna get me. It's just that's the way it is,
and you just have to kind of accept it because
I'm not gonna I wasn't gonna let the job cause
me to be afraid or want a high. And so
I did have security with me when I was doing
official business. So they picked me up in the morning.
It was a police officer, and then they took me
around everything I needed to do during the day and
(22:11):
brought me home. They never traveled with them. You know.
I would just love on the weekends to go to
the grocery store by myself or go to Target by myself,
because you sometimes you just need to be out on
your own and be free of the security. But I
ran into some situations that were that were pretty dicey,
and people just screaming and yelling at me. And one
(22:34):
I got to tell you one story which made me
really want to have security. It was at the College
World Series, right after I became mayor, and I did
not have security with me, and I decided that I
needed to use the restroom. So I walked up the aisle.
We were sitting in seats down behind home plate, and
I walked up and I'm sitting there in that crowded
(22:55):
area that It's at the ballpark in Omaha, and all
of a sudden, these arms came from behind me and
wrapped around my waist and I turned around and some
guy I didn't know who he was, and he goes,
you're the new mara In. I said yes, and he said,
every picture that has ever been in the newspaper of you,
I have wallpapered my walls with them. And he goes,
I really, I have like a shrine about you in
(23:18):
my house. And I was like, oh my goodness, this
is I got myself into a bad situation. Now this
guy apparently liked me. There are others that's a positively,
it's a kind of a positive story, but I thought
a little a bit very creepy.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
But at the same time, there are people that feel,
I mean, they feel very very negative towards you. And
I'll tell you just another little example. So one day,
and I can't even remember the issue, but the Omaha
Police Department put up a post on their Facebook Omaha
Police picture, and they were getting all these comments that were, oh,
you guys are great, we love you, which I do.
(23:57):
I love the Omaha Police Department. You guys do a
great job. My communication director and I said, let's do
a little test. We took the same post exactly, verbatim,
the same picture, and we posted it on the mayor
of Omaha's Facebook page, and all the comments were negative.
How could you do this? You know this is not right.
You should not do that the same post. Yeah, it
(24:17):
just depended who posted it. I will say this, one
of the best days of my life wasn't when I
lost the election, because I really did want to win
that last election, but when we took my public Facebook down.
Because you are as an elected official. I don't know
how you are in the radio. I haven't tested it,
but as an elected official, and this has even been
the federal court with Donald Trump, you cannot take things
(24:41):
off your public Facebook. If it's an official public Facebook,
you cannot, or the ACLU will be down crawling down
your neck just like that. You have to leave those
things up there.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Well, I can tell you there are no such rules.
But you want to have interactive posts, even if it
is disagreeable, because that's good for attention, and it's for
hits and you get people arguing in the comments and everything.
But it's just not who I am. I don't. I
don't like that. Now. I am blessed not to be
a woman because I don't have the creepy interactions that
(25:12):
you know you especially right you know who knows. But
I don't think like I would be flattered more so.
But I like, I don't see that happening.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I looked at it as as a positive.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
But you know what, I was creepy though, Like that
could have been dangerous in a different way.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yes, And what I was going to say is the
one of the best days I had was when we
took down my public Facebook and I had over forty
four thousand followers, and I swear each one of them
said something negative every day. It was just the way
it was. Now what we did do because I got
really worried that my public Facebook got so vile, racist,
(25:52):
vulgar comments on there, and I talked to my city attorney,
and the city attorney wrote a use that we put
on the homepage of my Facebook, and it basically said,
if you write a comment that is vulgar, that has
profane language, that is racist, that is whatever. We had
a whole list of things, your comment may be deleted.
(26:16):
And so it covered us because we had a warning
on it, but most comments, whether they were you know,
if they didn't have those issues going on with it,
we had to leave them up.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Tough.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah. So I want to kind of talk a little
bit now about the transition into being a talk host,
because we kind of talked about this like I don't
you don't you don't want to follow the social media
because a little different. It's it is different, but the
like the first month since you've been really doing the show,
a lot of the comments that we see on social
(26:48):
media are really the same. It's still an extension of oh, well,
this is the former mayor, and I see her as
the former mayor, and they're not talking about you as
like a person. You're just the former mayor that they would.
You know. Now now I can't comment on her Facebook
page with my anger and now so now I'm going
to hold that against her when she's just doing a
talk show, which, by the way, the talk show I
(27:09):
love the premise. You're basically answering questions, right, Yeah, you're
just informing people from the knowledge that you have from
your position.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
They should have a lot of knowledge. I was mayor
for twelve years for SA and you're well.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Connected to people who are in government at different levels,
and I think those are really positive conversations for people
curious about what the government is doing for them. But
for you personally, has that been a challenge for you
to be like, wow, I'm still getting a lot of
this or do you feel a bit of relief that
you know you have an outlet now to kind of
speak your mind without having to worry about an election
(27:42):
coming up.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, And I'm not you know, I would never treat people,
you know, unkindly even now. I mean, I don't feel
like now I could have this loose tongue and say
whatever I want because it's not me at all. But
I you know, I kind of welcome it. I really do,
because people will call in about the street car, or
they will call in about the streets and Elcorn today,
for example, And then I have a chance in a
(28:05):
platform now that I can say, no, that is not correct.
Here is what is correct. And you know, like there
was one time, for instance, that somebody wrote to the
World Herald and they said, I don't want any of
oh tax dollars or state dollars, are federal dollars being
spent on that street car. I hate the street car,
(28:26):
and you know she wants the street car, but I
don't want any of my tax dollars go into it.
And I was able to get on the air and say,
there isn't any there is no local, there is no state,
there is no federal tax dollars going on the street car.
It's being funded a completely different way. Or they'll say
somebody wrote in how we're funding the street cards by
using tiff tax increment financing, and they said, well, but
(28:49):
it still is a taxpayers because the taxpayers pay off
the tiff. No, they don't. The taxpayers don't pay off
the tiff. The developer pays off the tiff. So the
developer is paying for the street car. So it gives
me an opportunity now to answer those questions, the same
questions about well you live in Saint Louis. No, I
don't live in Saint Louis. And I could prove that
(29:10):
I don't live It's so easily proven that I live
in Omaha and not in Saint Louis. But people keep on.
They like it, They like to keep that going.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
People are just generally angry and like to be angry.
It's it's kind of my feeling. Do you find yourself
now being able to go to the store a little
bit more frequently, at least for the last few months,
that because people still recognize you.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Oh, yeah they do. Yeah, And you know what it's actually,
it's it's more fun because now that I'm not making
decisions anymore, when I see people, they'll say to me, oh,
you did a really good job, or oh, it's good
to see you, and are you enjoying retirement, And they're
very kind. When you're still out there making decisions all
(29:52):
the time, they have something to say about it. Now.
A couple of the callers, even yesterday, we had a
caller that said, well, what are you going to do
about this? What are you going to do about the
roads on Maple Street? And well, there's not a lot
I could do about it right now. Yeah, and I could.
I always refirm to the Mayor's hotline. And I mean
I know that those numbers. Here's what you do. You
(30:13):
call the Mayor's hotline. Hopefully they will take care of it.
It is frustrating to me, I will be honest with
you that the current mayor is just doing whatever I did.
I mean, he kept the entire staff that I had.
He kept all the directors, and I don't blame them
at all. I mean, they're excellent, they're talented people. I
hired every one of them, the directors, with the exception
(30:36):
of police chief and the public works director. Hired them all,
worked with him for twelve years, had a good relationship
with them, and you know, I don't fault them at all.
But the mayor, the current mayor, Mayor John Ewing, kept
them all on and is basically saying, just keep on
doing what you're doing. Do what she did. And this
(30:57):
is a person that criticized me my team during the
campaign over and over and over for just about everything
we did, and then once he's elected, it's just keep
on doing what she was doing.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, let's talk about that just for a second here.
And you know, we work together now, so I feel
like we'll be able to do this a lot in
the future, colleague. Yeah, yeah, we get to we'll get
a chance to chat after.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
I could. I could wear a sweatshirt and blue jeans
and a baseball hat just like you whenever I want.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, why don't you. I think it looked good on him.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Somebody told me the other day, the guy doing the
news he goes. For God's sakes, Jean, it's radio. You
don't have to dress I'm not dressing up. I wear
jeans here every day. I just don't ever want to
look like an old hag when I come in.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I don't think that's going to be a problem. I've
looked a lot worse than what you're seeing me now.
You know, the hoodie and the ball cap. Yeah no,
so so I think the interesting thing about John Ewing,
and this is as an observation, not necessarily as a critique,
but early in the campaign, and I had you, I
had him, I had McDonald, I had Jasmine, I had
(32:02):
everybody on my show, and the week before the election
of the primary, and he came in. He's a very
nice guy, and he has been in public service for
a long time. You know, he's a police officer. He
was the county treasurer for a while. And I found
him to be a very nice guy, pretty quiet for
a politician, but a nice enough guy. And then after
(32:23):
the primary, and it was you and he who advanced.
When he advanced, I got him on the phone just
like I talked to you again as well, and talked
to him the next day and talked about what he
was feeling and what he saw and why he thought
that he finished in the top two, and it was
I thought it a productive conversation. And then a couple
of weeks later, as I wanted to re kind of
(32:45):
stack everything before the general election, all of a sudden,
I couldn't get to him. I wasn't it. I couldn't
get to him. The conversation of the campaign seemed to change.
You would hear there were a lot more attacks being
made on you and your your tenure as mayor, and
it made me wonder. I don't know who was doing
a lot of the strategizing for him, but it really was,
(33:07):
like you mentioned, they wanted a person who identified as
a Democrat in that seat. Absolutely, and there hasn't been
a lot you mentioned the personnel. If you're paying really
close attention to Amaha, it's basically just kind of like,
so all, y'all, you remember what was going on, Like,
let's just keep doing what we were doing before. So
how do you kind of observe that as far as
(33:29):
the campaign was last year, because it did feel like
there was a tone shift when it got from just
trying to make it to the top two for him
to all of a sudden, now it's you versus me,
and I want to be the mayor.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
And there absolutely was. And I noticed it too because
I was in so many forums, not really debates, but forums.
Before the primary, when all of us were there, he
didn't have a lot to say. He was very quiet.
But after the primary, Holy cow, did they change. And
I think, you know, the Democrat Party got very very
involved this date party got very very involved to the
(34:03):
point do you remember. I don't know if you saw it,
but election night, the night I was defeated, John Ewing
was on MSNBC saying I will fight Donald Trump, and
I will fight Ice and I will not allow ice
in this city. And I'm like, whoa, this is really
changed from the kind of quiet guy that used to be,
(34:24):
you know, the Douglas County treasurer to this position. And
I think, you know, there was a lot of push
for this from all over the country to get him
elected into this position, and he really changed his approach
to things. You know, I saw, for example, so many
times I was standing there next to him before the
(34:46):
election of him saying things like, you know, the roads
are falling apart because the recipe for concrete is wrong,
and I'm going to come out with a new recipe,
and this is the problems with our roads. I mean,
he was just making this because there is no different recipe.
But let me go back to something that happened. Because
(35:06):
we poll a lot in the primary, we polled a
lot in the general election, and we never share a
polling with anybody. It's just to be used internally for
us to know where we were at. What we saw
as it got up into the primary election is it
was me number one, John Ewing number two, and Mike
McDonald was always a distant third, and if he was
(35:30):
doing good polling like we were, he saw that and
he saw that it was going to be me against him.
And so that's why I think they started the attacks
on me early on, because Mike McDonald was never close. Now,
I will say this, Mike McDonald came out, if you recall,
and said a big splash, we did polling and I'm
(35:51):
number one.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Yeah, I'm going to win.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Well, I would suggest they get a different pollster next time,
because that's not what I was seeing at all, and
that's not what I am assuming John Ewing saw either.
Because Mike McDonald made his campaign focused on me against him,
like he already got through the primary. Mike McDonald should
have been focused on John Ewing. Yeah, And that's just
the way it is, because I knew I was I
(36:15):
would get through the primary. Incumbents usually do.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Did you find it to be interesting? You know, obviously
he had more of a Democrat background. I know you
guys are all nonpartisan.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Did he was just like the legislatures non sure?
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah. But that's the interesting thing about him, right, is
he was very vocal and he made the street car
kind of the the crux of his campaign, even though
it was made very clear across multiple fronts that that
really wasn't an issue that he was going to be
able to fix even if he became the mayor.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Now he's all in support of it.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Well, of course he is, because things things changed. And
he came in and he brought me this huge stack
of papers because he heard my interview with you, and
he was like, well, yeah, it was a very friendly
interview with the mayor. To make sure you're gonna be
fair to us too, And I was, And I looked
at all this stuff. It was very tiff oriented as
far as the street car goes, but I didn't want
to talk about that because I just knew that is
(37:10):
that the thing that we're voting on in omahas like
this streetcar thing. I found his participation quite interesting, especially
with his background not being a traditional Republican. And he,
you know, he.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Very critical of the streetcar. He called it the folly
trolley and the streetcar to nowhere, very very critical. He
kept on saying I would have put it to a vote,
and then right after he was elected he understood more
about the streetcar and he is one hundred percent for it.
He understands it wasn't put to a vote because there
(37:43):
wasn't anything to vote on because the taxpayers weren't paying
for it. You know, if people in Omaha remember when
the Arena Convention Center was being going to be built,
it was on the ballot because there was a tax
increase to pay the bonds. There was no tax increase,
there was nothing. You don't put something on the ballot
to get people's opinion if you're going to go ahead
(38:03):
and do it anyway. And so he understands there was
really nothing to vote on. So he's kind of just
all those campaign issues that he kept on bringing up
about the street car are not issues anymore needs one
hundred percent for it, So you know it. I think
it bothers everybody. It bothers me with this election what
happened with me. I think it bothers everybody when people
(38:24):
that are renting for a political office actually tell you
lies to get elected, and then once they're elected, it's, oh,
we're going to go in a different direction. Now, that's
what makes people so angry with politicians.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Well, and it's just like, how do you fact check?
And it depends on who you listen to and who
you read. And that's the unfortunate reality that we have
when you have a free press. And I think it's
good to have a free press first of all, but
I also know how challenging it can be to like
know what it looks like. You know, we work together.
We should do this more often.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Means it's fun. Let's hot in here.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
It is so hot in here.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
And and the the other studio that we do the
morning show, and the Gary Settlemeyer studio is like a
meat locker over there.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
It's so I would have the space heater on in
there when I was doing shoo and here, like I'm
just I'm sweating bullets every single day. But you know
what it's like, It builds character and it's something that
I can grow from. I do a little workout here,
You'll only make us stronger, exactly. I can do some
yoga in here, like hot yoga in here, that'd be great.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
You know. One other thing I want to mention, though,
is one thing that John Ewing said during the campaign
multiple times is I am not a politician. I am
a public servant. Well, you better be a politician if
you're the mayor of Omaha. I'm telling you every single
day the issues that you deal with are political, and
you better understand the politics of being mayor, and you
(39:53):
better understand the politics of the citizens that you serve.
And so I hope that is one thing else he
has learned since he's been mayor is quit saying I'm
not a politician, I'm just a public servant. No, you
better be a politician if you have a position like
mayor of the thirty ninth largest city in the country.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Very good point. It's interesting to talk to you when
you're not the mayor. I'm gonna think we're gonna have
a lot of fun listening to your show in the morning.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
I hope I'm not as uptight as I used to be.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
I didn't find you to ever be uptight.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
People told me that. People will say, wow, you look relaxed,
and I'm like, wow, how uptight did I look before?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
I think it comes with the word that was before
your name. Before that, I think people just assumed you
were uptight because you had to put on a face.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Or what about the names they gave me, like mean Gene.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Oh, mean Geene.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Yeah, that was a name that they gave me. A
nice I'll say, Hey, I wear that with pride, so
that doesn't bother me at all. But I was called
mean Gene quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
But you're not too mean.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
No, I'm not mean. It just rhymed or something.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah, nice Gene doesn't roll off the tongue.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
It doesn't sound I said, hey, I earned mean Gene.
You can call me that whenever you want.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Well, let's talk again sometimes soon. I appreciate you coming
in here.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Thanks for having me on all right.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
That is Jean stouthor you can hear her at ten
o'clock every single morning on news radio eleven ten kfa
B and Omaha on the Free iHeart radio app and
you can hear this podcast, the Emory Songer Podcast, throughout
the week, all week long, throughout every week, all month long.
You can just search Emery Songer as you're listening right
now on the free iHeartRadio up and follow me Emery
Songer Radio on Facebook and we will talk to you
(41:25):
in this feed coming up in a few days. We
appreciate you being a part of the show.
It is the Emory Songer Podcast, and we are happy
to have you with us here on the feed today.
I am, of course Emory Songer and our esteemed guest
of this show today is a new member of the
kfab family, but a longtime member in the public in
the public eye in the city of Omaha. Former Omaha
(00:30):
mayor and current talk show host on KFAB, Gene Stothart,
you aren't in the studio with me face to face.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I imagine that I am here and I just finished
my show and it's just a lot of fun. I
love doing this. You know. I have been in this
studio many many times being interviewed, and it's really fun
to be the interview er rather than the interview e.
And I'm having a ball with this. You know. When
they kfab approached me, I wasn't out there looking for
(00:59):
a Joe and they approached me about doing this show.
And at first I said, why me? I mean, why
do you want me? I remember I said I'm not funny,
and I remember Scott vorhe said, yeah, You're really funny,
and I said, but that's probably not a compliment because
he's talking about what I was like as mayor. Maybe
I was funny, and I shouldn't have been. But anyway,
(01:20):
you know, there's no doubt I know a lot about Omaha,
and I keep up with it, and I know a
lot about what's going on in the state. And I'm
having a lot of fun. So it's fun.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It's interesting, right, because a lot of people make the
transition from politics or from previous jobs and get into
media with their different backgrounds, and I think that's what
makes this space so unique, right, because you're going to
see things and say things from a completely different perspective
than Scott Vorhe's or Gary Satlmeyer or Chris Baker or
somebody like me. And I want to kind of talk
(01:50):
about politics because you were not a politician. Until you
were a politician. It wasn't like you were an eighteen
year old and the young Republicans and we're like, my
dream one day is to be the mayor of a
big city or to be the president of the United States.
What was the decision that you made and at what
point in your life did you say, you know, maybe
(02:11):
I should run from well.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
You know, I mean, you are right, there was no
ambition in Jean Stothard to be a politician or to
ever be a mayor. And let me just say, I mean,
I kind of it started out way a long time ago.
It started out when I was in high school. I mean,
I always thought we all had a civic responsibility to
give back to our community. And you know, I did
(02:33):
things even in high school, like as a class officer,
because I felt like I have something I need to
give back to the community I live in my As
far as my career, I was a critical care nurse
and I think a lot of people don't realize that.
And you know, I quickly became a head nurse, and
you know it again, it was that leadership role. I
(02:53):
wanted to be able to do something that made a difference.
When I was a head nurse of a critical care unit,
you know, I did all the staffing, I did the hiring,
I did the budget. I managed a lot of nurses
and a lot of surgeons, and that, you know, those
skills I learned back then I used as mayor. And
you know then when we moved here, we were living
(03:15):
in Texas, my husband, I have two little kids. We
moved here from Texas in nineteen ninety three to Omaha, Nebraska,
and I thought, well, I could go back and work
as a nurse, but it would be you know, probably
midnights on the weekends because I'm new here, and I
just thought my kids at that time are grown now,
(03:35):
but they were going into kindergarten in second grade, and
I thought, well, I'll just get really involved in the
schools in Miller Public schools. And that's kind of how
it started. I had no ambition that I would end
up doing what I actually did, but I decided then
after a couple of years to run for the school board.
There was an open position, and actually there was an
(03:56):
open position because somebody resigned and they had to appoint
somebody to finish a term, and they ended up appointing me.
There were thirteen people that applied for that and they
appointed me, and I loved it. I loved being on
the school board. And then I ran for a couple
more terms, and I ended up serving eleven years on
the Millard's school Board. I loved it. Never thought of
(04:17):
anything else to do afterwards. But after about you know,
three terms or so, I thought there's something else calling
my name out there, somewhere else I could serve the community.
And in two thousand and six I ran for the
Nebraska legislature, and that was one of the races I lost.
And you know, I walked the whole district and I
thought I kept up with what was going on in Lincoln,
(04:38):
and I thought I could probably serve my school district
better in Lincoln than I could of doing another term
on the school board. And if people recall, that was
we had a whole one city, one school district issue
going on in Lincoln, and I thought I could really
serve the community in the legislature. Well I lost that race.
And that's a race I lost by fourteen votes on
(04:59):
a recount. Can you imagine. I know, And I thought, well,
it just wasn't meant to be. And so I finished
the school board term that I had and I decided
to run for city council and I thought, here's something else.
And with the school board, although I loved it, after
three terms, I felt like, been there, done that, time
to move on. I know a lot of people are
(05:20):
on school boards that are on Millard's school board that
were on when I was on. They're still on. A
lot of people stay on school boards a long time.
But I felt like it was time to move on,
and I ran for city council. Never did I ever
think of running for mayor when I was on and
I won the city council race District five in Omaha,
that's southwest Omaha. Love that too. I loved being on
(05:43):
the city council. But as I was probably in the
city council term three years or so, honest to goodness,
I did not like the way the mayor was running
the city. It was Mayor's Jim Subtle at the time,
and I thought, I have two choices. I could either
run for city council again, probably get re elected with
not much problem. Or I could do the hardest thing
(06:04):
I've ever done in my entire life, and that was
run for mayor of Omaha. And there had never been
a woman, you know, And I knew this was going
to be an uphill battle. And I remember my husband
at the time, who my husband has passed away, but
I remember at the time coming home and I said,
I think I want to run for mayor and he
said I wouldn't do it, and I go, okay, I'm running.
(06:25):
I was just like, all right, whatever, and I thought, no,
this is going to be really hard, and this is
going to be a battle. And it was. It was
a battle.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
But I want but this is something I've learned about you.
You love the challenge of the campaign. The campaigning became
kind of a way that it was part of the
job that didn't feel like a job to you.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I loved it. I mean I loved campaigning. I loved
it more than my campaign staff did. In fact, I
walked door to door so much, and I would, you know,
I would always have a group with me and I'd go,
all right, we're gonna have fun today. And they were like,
oh my gosh, you know, I'm so tired and it's
raining outside or it's snowing, and I would go, no,
this is going to be fun because I knew that's
(07:08):
how I had to win that race. I had to
get out there and I had to knock on doors,
and it was it was so difficult at first because
I would have people, I mean I had doors slammed
in my face. I had if you could believe it,
in this day and age, people say, honey, why don't
you go back and run for school board again, because
that's what girls do, and this day and age, this
(07:32):
is a man's job down at city hall. And that
just made me want to do it even more, and
it's funny walking door to door too. My campaign staff
would go, if they have your opponent's sign in the
yard and there are on your r list to knock
on their door, don't do it. Don't even bother. And
I'd go, that was a real challenge to me, and
I'd do it anyway because I thought, who knows why
(07:52):
they have my opponent sign in the yard. Maybe their
kid brought it home, or maybe one adult favors that
person and maybe the other one might favor me. And
there's a lot of research on knocking on people's doors,
and they will say that if you not, if they
are favoring your opponent, but you knock on the door
and your opponent doesn't, you're gonna get their vote. And
(08:12):
so I just made it fun. And you know, when
I first ran for mayor, I announced in April I
was going to run for mayor of Omaha. I started
knocking on doors in May and I knocked on doors
till the next May for a full year. I did
it for a full year. You're still on city council
at that time, I was still on city council. Would
(08:33):
no matter what the weather, we were out there and
knocking on doors, and I they figured out that I
myself knocked on at least twenty thousand doors. Wow, but
that's that's the way I thought I was going to
win it.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Well, then you won, huh.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And I won, and I beat the incumbent mayor. And
I won by you know, a good eighteen points the
incumbent mayor, which is really hard to do. Oh yeah,
And so now I should say because I was the
incumbent mayor and just got defeated, and try to be
the mayor of Omaha. But still I did really, really
good in that race. And that was in twenty thirteen.
(09:07):
I beat the incomment mayor. Then I ran for a
second term in twenty seventeen. Then I ran for a
third in twenty twenty one. And you know, I loved
what I was doing. I really I loved being mayor.
I really did. But I love being a city council member.
I love being on the school board, but I really
loved being mayor. We we were progressing, Omaha was doing great.
(09:27):
I knew how to budget, I had good control of
the budget. Our crime was down, Omaha was a safer city.
Development was just booming in Omaha. I had assembled a
great team, and I thought, you know what, I can
do this again. I could do a fourth term. I
could do it again. And in hindsight, I'm thinking sixteen
years as mayor. That's a lot.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I mean, twelve was a long time.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Twelve was a long time, and I was willing to
do sixteen. But you know, there was multiple factors that
I think contributed to my defeat this time. I could
talk about him if you want to, but I will
say this, It just it wasn't meant to be well.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
And I'll say this as somebody who moved to Omaha recently.
You know, you know, you learn about a community, and
I generally love the vibe in Omaha. It feels very
similar to des Moinne, where I came from, just a bigger,
kind of more advanced version of that. And there was
something about, you know, when I was hosting this show,
(10:27):
I could really feel the difference politically in not just Omaha,
but kind of just the surrounding area. You have a
lot of people who seem to be Blue voters, and
they talk about the blue dot, yet they have regularly
voted Don Bacon, a Republican, to be their representative. In
you know Washington, DC, and for three straight terms voted
(10:51):
you who identified as a Republican. I don't know if
you know. You say you're a Republican, but every time
you talked.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I didn't am a Republican.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
You are, but at the same time, you're the kind
of republican that didn't turn off Democrats right Like to me,
it was like you were you were welcoming to anyone
who wanted to be in Omahan, yes, and wanted to
learn about the city, and you weren't kind of throwing
conservative viewpoints at everyone. You were kind of like, Hey,
this is for everybody. This city that we're building is
(11:20):
for everybody. And it really felt like it's the politics
in general since you got involved as the mayor to
the time now where you're a talk host on KFAB,
politics has changed so much.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
It has and you know, to your point, I was
going to say that it has changed this vibe you
were talking about, or this feeling in Omaha, the political feeling,
it has changed my twelve years of mayor, every year
it has changed. And you know I did do that.
I am I'm a conservative, I'm a Republican, and I'm
not going to change who I am to get a vote.
I'm not going to change that. And I think everybody
(11:55):
in Omaha knows that I am conservative. I I believe
in the tenets of the Republican Party. But when I
became mayor, I said I will be the mayor for everyone,
and I meant it, and I meant that I will
serve democrats as well as independents. I didn't care the
color of your skin, your gender. I would be your mayor.
(12:16):
And I never did come out and trash the other
side like some politicians do, because I meant what I said.
And you know, I bring this up a lot because
my even my son, God love him, very very smart
kid obviously takes after his dad, has his PhD. He
(12:37):
used to be Republican. He's very very liberal. Now. I
don't hate the kid. I mean I enjoy talking to him,
and I enjoy saying why do you feel this way?
I enjoy talking to him and figuring out why he
has this point of view. But I don't come out
there and say you're evil, you're wrong because you are
now a Democrat. I just don't feel that way at all.
(13:00):
And I felt like that's how what kind of mayor
I wanted to be plus. It is true. Omaha is
a blue dot. Omaha is not purple, Omaha is blue.
And I thought, you know, there is not going to
be another Republican conservative mayor elected to the city of Omaha.
If they take a hard heard right, they're just not right.
(13:21):
And that that really showed with this last race that
I was in. I think the blue dot did play
a big role and one of the one of the
reasons I didn't win was it is a blue dot,
and the Democrats wanted the mayor of Omaha's seat and
this time they got it.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah. I think the interesting development in that your race,
but also it happening like six months after the presidential race,
is that they had all this activation right.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
It did, and that Trump derangement syndrome is real.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
They see a Republican, they see are Even though you
run technically as a nonpartisan, people know you to be
a conservative in town by association, I feel like it
rubs into your race even though you aren't. And Don
Bacon isn't or deb Fisher isn't Donald Trump. You are
all different people.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I had people you know in forums say do you
talk to Donald Trump every day? I'm like, I don't
talk to Donald Trump ever. Well, do you have a
hotline that goes right into the West Wing. No, I don't.
I've met Donald Trump three times, but it's not you know,
I just really didn't understand it. But you know that
Trump derangement syndrome is true, is real, and I think
(14:38):
there are people that love the president and people that
hate the president that have Trump derangement syndrome. I've met
Donald Trump in person, Honest to gosh, he was delightful
in person. I met him once before he announced he
was running for president, and that was over at an
event that the Republican Party and Patawatamie County and I
(15:01):
met him over there, and then he hadn't announced yet.
And then I've met him twice since he's been president,
when Air Force one landed down at the base. And
you know, I found him to be funny, witty, tongue
in cheek, very nice to talk to. But people are
I mean, right now, after the last election of the presidency,
(15:21):
I mean, people really really have an issue with the
current president and they did use that against me. They
use another thing they used against me, which I don't understand,
is something that's called voter fatigue, and it is so real,
(15:42):
and I brought it up before you know, it doesn't
happen in DC. They keep on electing those congressmen un
till they're one hundred and ten years old, for gosh theake.
But there were a lot of people that said, oh,
you've done a good job, that you've been mayor for
twelve years, three terms. Give somebody else a chance, maybe
they can do better. That's true. I mean that is
(16:02):
a real thing.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Well, and it's a real thing because you're in you know,
and the controversy. A lot of people are like, well,
she's always out of town or everything else.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Which is not true.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
You were in town. I saw you in town a lot.
But but you are seen. Yes, the cronies in Washington
are not seen by their people all the time. So
I don't know if they get as tired of them.
Because for the average person, and this isn't to say
people don't pay attention to the news, but I don't
think as many people pay attention to the news as
some people think. So you see or hear from your
(16:35):
representative or your senator about every two to six years,
depending on when their elections coming up, that you're oh, Yeah,
that's my person. I'll vote for them again. They seem
like they're doing a good job. Whereas you you're out
in the community, you're being seen in the community. People
are aware of what you look like, they're finding you
at grocery stores, and eventually it's just like, yeah, you know,
(16:56):
maybe we're ready for something else. It percent think that
that's a factor for somebody like you that.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Had a lot to do with it, and then that
brings us up to the evils of social media.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Oh gosh, where do you guys start on that.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I mean, I'm telling you there when you have a
position of mine and Omaha is you know, we're the
thirty ninth largest city in the country. We're right under
five hundred thousand people, so it is a big city
right now. But every year I was mayor, I took
a lot of pride into using social media to have
it interactive, to let people comment on it, which the
(17:31):
current mayor, up until a lawsuit was filed, would not
allow any comments. New Mayor Ewing of Omaha would not
allow any comments or feedback on his social media I did.
People would always say, oh, you have a whole team
answering those people. Uh, Uh, it was me or my
communication director. There were two people that had access to
my Facebook. We were the ones answering people. But it
(17:53):
got worse year after year after year. And I mean,
I'm a pretty good person to evaluate myself. There are
people that liked what I was doing. There are people
that hate me, and they still do and you know,
for whatever reason. I mean, they hate you and they
let you know. And I mean they sometimes they would
(18:14):
hate me because I was a woman. Sometimes they'd hate
me because I have blonde hair and blue eyes. I
don't know. I mean, they would just come up with
anything and they would hate me for it, and you
just have to deal with that. When you are in
an elected office anymore. It's too bad because people do
get they get more and more angry, and the things
(18:34):
on social media. For example, this thing started as a
total lie on social media that I didn't live here.
They kept on saying I lived in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, it was everywhere, and and it's still.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I mean, I have people right in about this show
and say, well, I'm surprised you're not in Saint Louis.
Do you know I lived in Saint Louis for less
than ten years of my entire life. I was born
and raised in Illinois. I moved to Saint Louis after
I got out of a nursing school because my first
job was at Saint Louis University, and I lived there
less than ten years. I have not lived in Saint
(19:08):
Louis since the early nineteen eighties. And then they will say, well,
your husband lives in Saint Louis, and so you're living
there most of the time. My husband hasn't lived in
Saint Louis because I got remarried after my husband died.
He hasn't lived there since the nineteen seventies. He's never
owned property there. He went to medical school there at
(19:28):
Saint Louis. When he got out of medical school, he
moved to the East Coast and has lived there for
fifty years. He doesn't live in Saint Louis, but social
media insists that he lives there and insists that I do,
and they will not stop.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Well, and so, how do you like as a politician,
he has to be careful about how you address certain things. Yes,
as a talk show host you don't have to be
as careful. But I, as a younger person in this sphere,
and this isn't a woe is Me story, but it's
kind of like I was not prepared for the kind
of vitriol that I also would see on social media.
(20:04):
If I said one thing that was disagreeable to a
certain contingent of people who listen, you could see how
toxic that could be if you were paying close attention
to the social media on a day to day basis.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
It's not good for your mental health, not at all.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
But and I think the thing that would bother me
the most, more than anything, was that I couldn't verify
that a lot of these are even real people. There
are some people with real names and their real picture
right commenting, and I respect those people.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Are somebody named Susie Q and you look at their
Facebook and there's a picture of a.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Cat exactly, and that was most of it, right. And
it's the same thing with x and the same thing
with Instagram is when people have really hot things to
say and they think they're being really edgy, more often
than not they are hiding behind anonymous profiles and there
is no accountability to them. They feel like they can
say that and there'd be no skin off of them whatsoever.
(20:55):
And you are not anonymous, and yeah, I can't do that.
Did you ever fear for your safety? Because I guess
maybe it's me being naive, but it's just like, man,
I'm afraid people are gonna show up at my house
if they're mad enough at me.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, and they and they they can. That's why when
I first became mayor, I was gonna be I was
gonna be real, a brave soul. And I told the
police chief, I don't need security. I'm gonna drive myself around.
Don't need it. I quickly found out that I did
as mayor because people will. I mean, they do recognize
you as mayor. You're out and about and you know,
you're a visible figure. You're on the news a lot.
(21:28):
But oh yeah, I mean I I had and I
didn't want to hide. I felt like, you know, I
have security with me when I'm out and about and
do an official business all the time. But I thought,
you know, I'm not going to let this destroy me
being out in the community. You know, I'm gonna go
to the College World Series and I'm going to sit
behind home plate. And but if somebody wants to get me,
(21:50):
they're gonna get me. It's just that's the way it is,
and you just have to kind of accept it because
I'm not gonna I wasn't gonna let the job cause
me to be afraid or want a high. And so
I did have security with me when I was doing
official business. So they picked me up in the morning.
It was a police officer, and then they took me
around everything I needed to do during the day and
(22:11):
brought me home. They never traveled with them. You know.
I would just love on the weekends to go to
the grocery store by myself or go to Target by myself,
because you sometimes you just need to be out on
your own and be free of the security. But I
ran into some situations that were that were pretty dicey,
and people just screaming and yelling at me. And one
(22:34):
I got to tell you one story which made me
really want to have security. It was at the College
World Series, right after I became mayor, and I did
not have security with me, and I decided that I
needed to use the restroom. So I walked up the aisle.
We were sitting in seats down behind home plate, and
I walked up and I'm sitting there in that crowded
(22:55):
area that It's at the ballpark in Omaha, and all
of a sudden, these arms came from behind me and
wrapped around my waist and I turned around and some
guy I didn't know who he was, and he goes,
you're the new mara In. I said yes, and he said,
every picture that has ever been in the newspaper of you,
I have wallpapered my walls with them. And he goes,
I really, I have like a shrine about you in
(23:18):
my house. And I was like, oh my goodness, this
is I got myself into a bad situation. Now this
guy apparently liked me. There are others that's a positively,
it's a kind of a positive story, but I thought
a little a bit very creepy.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
But at the same time, there are people that feel,
I mean, they feel very very negative towards you. And
I'll tell you just another little example. So one day,
and I can't even remember the issue, but the Omaha
Police Department put up a post on their Facebook Omaha
Police picture, and they were getting all these comments that were, oh,
you guys are great, we love you, which I do.
(23:57):
I love the Omaha Police Department. You guys do a
great job. My communication director and I said, let's do
a little test. We took the same post exactly, verbatim,
the same picture, and we posted it on the mayor
of Omaha's Facebook page, and all the comments were negative.
How could you do this? You know this is not right.
You should not do that the same post. Yeah, it
(24:17):
just depended who posted it. I will say this, one
of the best days of my life wasn't when I
lost the election, because I really did want to win
that last election, but when we took my public Facebook down.
Because you are as an elected official. I don't know
how you are in the radio. I haven't tested it,
but as an elected official, and this has even been
the federal court with Donald Trump, you cannot take things
(24:41):
off your public Facebook. If it's an official public Facebook,
you cannot, or the ACLU will be down crawling down
your neck just like that. You have to leave those
things up there.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Well, I can tell you there are no such rules.
But you want to have interactive posts, even if it
is disagreeable, because that's good for attention, and it's for
hits and you get people arguing in the comments and everything.
But it's just not who I am. I don't. I
don't like that. Now. I am blessed not to be
a woman because I don't have the creepy interactions that
(25:12):
you know you especially right you know who knows. But
I don't think like I would be flattered more so.
But I like, I don't see that happening.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I looked at it as as a positive.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
But you know what, I was creepy though, Like that
could have been dangerous in a different way.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yes, And what I was going to say is the
one of the best days I had was when we
took down my public Facebook and I had over forty
four thousand followers, and I swear each one of them
said something negative every day. It was just the way
it was. Now what we did do because I got
really worried that my public Facebook got so vile, racist,
(25:52):
vulgar comments on there, and I talked to my city attorney,
and the city attorney wrote a use that we put
on the homepage of my Facebook, and it basically said,
if you write a comment that is vulgar, that has
profane language, that is racist, that is whatever. We had
a whole list of things, your comment may be deleted.
(26:16):
And so it covered us because we had a warning
on it, but most comments, whether they were you know,
if they didn't have those issues going on with it,
we had to leave them up.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
That's tough.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Tough.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah. So I want to kind of talk a little
bit now about the transition into being a talk host,
because we kind of talked about this like I don't
you don't you don't want to follow the social media
because a little different. It's it is different, but the
like the first month since you've been really doing the show,
a lot of the comments that we see on social
(26:48):
media are really the same. It's still an extension of oh, well,
this is the former mayor, and I see her as
the former mayor, and they're not talking about you as
like a person. You're just the former mayor that they would.
You know. Now now I can't comment on her Facebook
page with my anger and now so now I'm going
to hold that against her when she's just doing a
talk show, which, by the way, the talk show I
(27:09):
love the premise. You're basically answering questions, right, Yeah, you're
just informing people from the knowledge that you have from
your position.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
They should have a lot of knowledge. I was mayor
for twelve years for SA and you're well.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Connected to people who are in government at different levels,
and I think those are really positive conversations for people
curious about what the government is doing for them. But
for you personally, has that been a challenge for you
to be like, wow, I'm still getting a lot of
this or do you feel a bit of relief that
you know you have an outlet now to kind of
speak your mind without having to worry about an election
(27:42):
coming up.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, And I'm not you know, I would never treat people,
you know, unkindly even now. I mean, I don't feel
like now I could have this loose tongue and say
whatever I want because it's not me at all. But
I you know, I kind of welcome it. I really do,
because people will call in about the street car, or
they will call in about the streets and Elcorn today,
for example, And then I have a chance in a
(28:05):
platform now that I can say, no, that is not correct.
Here is what is correct. And you know, like there
was one time, for instance, that somebody wrote to the
World Herald and they said, I don't want any of
oh tax dollars or state dollars, are federal dollars being
spent on that street car. I hate the street car,
(28:26):
and you know she wants the street car, but I
don't want any of my tax dollars go into it.
And I was able to get on the air and say,
there isn't any there is no local, there is no state,
there is no federal tax dollars going on the street car.
It's being funded a completely different way. Or they'll say
somebody wrote in how we're funding the street cards by
using tiff tax increment financing, and they said, well, but
(28:49):
it still is a taxpayers because the taxpayers pay off
the tiff. No, they don't. The taxpayers don't pay off
the tiff. The developer pays off the tiff. So the
developer is paying for the street car. So it gives
me an opportunity now to answer those questions, the same
questions about well you live in Saint Louis. No, I
don't live in Saint Louis. And I could prove that
(29:10):
I don't live It's so easily proven that I live
in Omaha and not in Saint Louis. But people keep on.
They like it, They like to keep that going.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
People are just generally angry and like to be angry.
It's it's kind of my feeling. Do you find yourself
now being able to go to the store a little
bit more frequently, at least for the last few months,
that because people still recognize you.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Oh, yeah they do. Yeah, And you know what it's actually,
it's it's more fun because now that I'm not making
decisions anymore, when I see people, they'll say to me, oh,
you did a really good job, or oh, it's good
to see you, and are you enjoying retirement, And they're
very kind. When you're still out there making decisions all
(29:52):
the time, they have something to say about it. Now.
A couple of the callers, even yesterday, we had a
caller that said, well, what are you going to do
about this? What are you going to do about the
roads on Maple Street? And well, there's not a lot
I could do about it right now. Yeah, and I could.
I always refirm to the Mayor's hotline. And I mean
I know that those numbers. Here's what you do. You
(30:13):
call the Mayor's hotline. Hopefully they will take care of it.
It is frustrating to me, I will be honest with
you that the current mayor is just doing whatever I did.
I mean, he kept the entire staff that I had.
He kept all the directors, and I don't blame them
at all. I mean, they're excellent, they're talented people. I
hired every one of them, the directors, with the exception
(30:36):
of police chief and the public works director. Hired them all,
worked with him for twelve years, had a good relationship
with them, and you know, I don't fault them at all.
But the mayor, the current mayor, Mayor John Ewing, kept
them all on and is basically saying, just keep on
doing what you're doing. Do what she did. And this
(30:57):
is a person that criticized me my team during the
campaign over and over and over for just about everything
we did, and then once he's elected, it's just keep
on doing what she was doing.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, let's talk about that just for a second here.
And you know, we work together now, so I feel
like we'll be able to do this a lot in
the future, colleague. Yeah, yeah, we get to we'll get
a chance to chat after.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
I could. I could wear a sweatshirt and blue jeans
and a baseball hat just like you whenever I want.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, why don't you. I think it looked good on him.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Somebody told me the other day, the guy doing the
news he goes. For God's sakes, Jean, it's radio. You
don't have to dress I'm not dressing up. I wear
jeans here every day. I just don't ever want to
look like an old hag when I come in.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I don't think that's going to be a problem. I've
looked a lot worse than what you're seeing me now.
You know, the hoodie and the ball cap. Yeah no,
so so I think the interesting thing about John Ewing,
and this is as an observation, not necessarily as a critique,
but early in the campaign, and I had you, I
had him, I had McDonald, I had Jasmine, I had
(32:02):
everybody on my show, and the week before the election
of the primary, and he came in. He's a very
nice guy, and he has been in public service for
a long time. You know, he's a police officer. He
was the county treasurer for a while. And I found
him to be a very nice guy, pretty quiet for
a politician, but a nice enough guy. And then after
(32:23):
the primary, and it was you and he who advanced.
When he advanced, I got him on the phone just
like I talked to you again as well, and talked
to him the next day and talked about what he
was feeling and what he saw and why he thought
that he finished in the top two, and it was
I thought it a productive conversation. And then a couple
of weeks later, as I wanted to re kind of
(32:45):
stack everything before the general election, all of a sudden,
I couldn't get to him. I wasn't it. I couldn't
get to him. The conversation of the campaign seemed to change.
You would hear there were a lot more attacks being
made on you and your your tenure as mayor, and
it made me wonder. I don't know who was doing
a lot of the strategizing for him, but it really was,
(33:07):
like you mentioned, they wanted a person who identified as
a Democrat in that seat. Absolutely, and there hasn't been
a lot you mentioned the personnel. If you're paying really
close attention to Amaha, it's basically just kind of like,
so all, y'all, you remember what was going on, Like,
let's just keep doing what we were doing before. So
how do you kind of observe that as far as
(33:29):
the campaign was last year, because it did feel like
there was a tone shift when it got from just
trying to make it to the top two for him
to all of a sudden, now it's you versus me,
and I want to be the mayor.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
And there absolutely was. And I noticed it too because
I was in so many forums, not really debates, but forums.
Before the primary, when all of us were there, he
didn't have a lot to say. He was very quiet.
But after the primary, Holy cow, did they change. And
I think, you know, the Democrat Party got very very
involved this date party got very very involved to the
(34:03):
point do you remember. I don't know if you saw it,
but election night, the night I was defeated, John Ewing
was on MSNBC saying I will fight Donald Trump, and
I will fight Ice and I will not allow ice
in this city. And I'm like, whoa, this is really
changed from the kind of quiet guy that used to be,
(34:24):
you know, the Douglas County treasurer to this position. And
I think, you know, there was a lot of push
for this from all over the country to get him
elected into this position, and he really changed his approach
to things. You know, I saw, for example, so many
times I was standing there next to him before the
(34:46):
election of him saying things like, you know, the roads
are falling apart because the recipe for concrete is wrong,
and I'm going to come out with a new recipe,
and this is the problems with our roads. I mean,
he was just making this because there is no different recipe.
But let me go back to something that happened. Because
(35:06):
we poll a lot in the primary, we polled a
lot in the general election, and we never share a
polling with anybody. It's just to be used internally for
us to know where we were at. What we saw
as it got up into the primary election is it
was me number one, John Ewing number two, and Mike
McDonald was always a distant third, and if he was
(35:30):
doing good polling like we were, he saw that and
he saw that it was going to be me against him.
And so that's why I think they started the attacks
on me early on, because Mike McDonald was never close. Now,
I will say this, Mike McDonald came out, if you recall,
and said a big splash, we did polling and I'm
(35:51):
number one.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Yeah, I'm going to win.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Well, I would suggest they get a different pollster next time,
because that's not what I was seeing at all, and
that's not what I am assuming John Ewing saw either.
Because Mike McDonald made his campaign focused on me against him,
like he already got through the primary. Mike McDonald should
have been focused on John Ewing. Yeah, And that's just
the way it is, because I knew I was I
(36:15):
would get through the primary. Incumbents usually do.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Did you find it to be interesting? You know, obviously
he had more of a Democrat background. I know you
guys are all nonpartisan.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Did he was just like the legislatures non sure?
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Yeah. But that's the interesting thing about him, right, is
he was very vocal and he made the street car
kind of the the crux of his campaign, even though
it was made very clear across multiple fronts that that
really wasn't an issue that he was going to be
able to fix even if he became the mayor.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Now he's all in support of it.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Well, of course he is, because things things changed. And
he came in and he brought me this huge stack
of papers because he heard my interview with you, and
he was like, well, yeah, it was a very friendly
interview with the mayor. To make sure you're gonna be
fair to us too, And I was, And I looked
at all this stuff. It was very tiff oriented as
far as the street car goes, but I didn't want
to talk about that because I just knew that is
(37:10):
that the thing that we're voting on in omahas like
this streetcar thing. I found his participation quite interesting, especially
with his background not being a traditional Republican. And he,
you know, he.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Very critical of the streetcar. He called it the folly
trolley and the streetcar to nowhere, very very critical. He
kept on saying I would have put it to a vote,
and then right after he was elected he understood more
about the streetcar and he is one hundred percent for it.
He understands it wasn't put to a vote because there
(37:43):
wasn't anything to vote on because the taxpayers weren't paying
for it. You know, if people in Omaha remember when
the Arena Convention Center was being going to be built,
it was on the ballot because there was a tax
increase to pay the bonds. There was no tax increase,
there was nothing. You don't put something on the ballot
to get people's opinion if you're going to go ahead
(38:03):
and do it anyway. And so he understands there was
really nothing to vote on. So he's kind of just
all those campaign issues that he kept on bringing up
about the street car are not issues anymore needs one
hundred percent for it, So you know it. I think
it bothers everybody. It bothers me with this election what
happened with me. I think it bothers everybody when people
(38:24):
that are renting for a political office actually tell you
lies to get elected, and then once they're elected, it's, oh,
we're going to go in a different direction. Now, that's
what makes people so angry with politicians.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Well, and it's just like, how do you fact check?
And it depends on who you listen to and who
you read. And that's the unfortunate reality that we have
when you have a free press. And I think it's
good to have a free press first of all, but
I also know how challenging it can be to like
know what it looks like. You know, we work together.
We should do this more often.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Means it's fun. Let's hot in here.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
It is so hot in here.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
And and the the other studio that we do the
morning show, and the Gary Settlemeyer studio is like a
meat locker over there.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
It's so I would have the space heater on in
there when I was doing shoo and here, like I'm
just I'm sweating bullets every single day. But you know
what it's like, It builds character and it's something that
I can grow from. I do a little workout here,
You'll only make us stronger, exactly. I can do some
yoga in here, like hot yoga in here, that'd be great.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
You know. One other thing I want to mention, though,
is one thing that John Ewing said during the campaign
multiple times is I am not a politician. I am
a public servant. Well, you better be a politician if
you're the mayor of Omaha. I'm telling you every single
day the issues that you deal with are political, and
you better understand the politics of being mayor, and you
(39:53):
better understand the politics of the citizens that you serve.
And so I hope that is one thing else he
has learned since he's been mayor is quit saying I'm
not a politician, I'm just a public servant. No, you
better be a politician if you have a position like
mayor of the thirty ninth largest city in the country.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Very good point. It's interesting to talk to you when
you're not the mayor. I'm gonna think we're gonna have
a lot of fun listening to your show in the morning.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
I hope I'm not as uptight as I used to be.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
I didn't find you to ever be uptight.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
People told me that. People will say, wow, you look relaxed,
and I'm like, wow, how uptight did I look before?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
I think it comes with the word that was before
your name. Before that, I think people just assumed you
were uptight because you had to put on a face.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Or what about the names they gave me, like mean Gene.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Oh, mean Geene.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Yeah, that was a name that they gave me. A
nice I'll say, Hey, I wear that with pride, so
that doesn't bother me at all. But I was called
mean Gene quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
But you're not too mean.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
No, I'm not mean. It just rhymed or something.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah, nice Gene doesn't roll off the tongue.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
It doesn't sound I said, hey, I earned mean Gene.
You can call me that whenever you want.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Well, let's talk again sometimes soon. I appreciate you coming
in here.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Thanks for having me on all right.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
That is Jean stouthor you can hear her at ten
o'clock every single morning on news radio eleven ten kfa
B and Omaha on the Free iHeart radio app and
you can hear this podcast, the Emory Songer Podcast, throughout
the week, all week long, throughout every week, all month long.
You can just search Emery Songer as you're listening right
now on the free iHeartRadio up and follow me Emery
Songer Radio on Facebook and we will talk to you
(41:25):
in this feed coming up in a few days. We
appreciate you being a part of the show.
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