Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Continuing our coverage of the city primary and particularly the
Omaha mayor's race, as we if you are a voter
in the city of Oma, go to the polls in
the primary, and she was among the five candidates on
April first. And we are joined this morning by a
former Nebraska governor, Dave Heneman, who is a supporter of
(00:22):
the incumbent, jean'st author Dave, good morning, Good to have
you on, Gary.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning to you. It's great to be with you
and Jim, or I should say at least it's great
to be with you.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You know, that's how it usually goes. Yeah, be careful.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
He tries to imitate me, and then I usually get
in trouble.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
I got fifty thousand wattson when I start doing you,
people think it's you, and I can assign all sorts
of things to you that might really mess up your afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
That's very true. And I get those phone calls.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, let's dig into this. An interesting assortment of folks
have lined up behind what I think is probably fair
to say is Jean Stouth's primary rival, Mike McConnell. Mike McDonald, you,
on the other hand, are supporting me on mayor.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Why I'm supporting Mayor Jean Southern because she's an outstanding mayor.
She loves the city of Omaha. She cares about the citizens,
whether you live in South Omaha, downtown, North Omaha, Central Omaha,
or West Omaha. She's passionate about being the mayor of Omaha.
I feel that every time I talk to her, especially
(01:27):
when I was governor working with her. She's energetic, she's smart,
she's an outstanding leader. And here's the key. She's focused
on the issues that the voters care about. That's public safety, jobs,
economic development, the quality of life. And I think Jim
Rose mentioned yesterday, by any objective measure, she's doing an
(01:49):
outstanding job and the city is better off today than
the first day she took over as mayor.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
It's not perfect, nobody is, but largely in Rosie's made
this point a lot. These elections involving in incumbent are
typically a referendum on the incumbent. Right, there's not so
much about the other individuals.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
That's exactly right. When you have an incumbent mayor, it's
going to be about their record, and when you look
at the Stothard record is certainly a very good one.
Take a look at jobs. Unemployment rate's gone from four
percent to two percent. She's doubled the number of new
jobs in the city of Omahalla over the last ten years.
And the one thing that I think the citizens of
(02:32):
Omaha ought to really be proud of is Omaha is
a safe community. And it's such a safe community compared
to other communities. You've got mayors and police chiefs from
all across America calling Mayor Stouthard, police chiefs, Todd Schmater
and asking them how do they do it? What have
you done in Omaha to make omah such a safe community?
(02:56):
Because at the end of the day, the citizens want
to make sure that the the city is safe for
their kids. If they can play outside, they can walk
to the local elementary school, and you can do that
in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Yeah, Well, it's because they actually arrest criminals and prosecute
a miir gov the street car if you were advising
her on how to defend this, because look, anecdotally, there
are a lot of people who are not in favor
of this project. It is the largest public works project
(03:28):
in the history of the state of Nebraska. It's one
hundred percent publicly financed. If you were advising her on
how to politically navigate this, what would it be.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well, First of all, Jim, long before I became governor,
I served on the Fremont City Council and I always
remember that I didn't appreciate the governor telling me how
to run the city of Fremont. And I don't think
the governor or a former governor on a local issue
want to tell the mayor how to run the city.
And again, I'll go back to the issues that really count.
(04:02):
The streetcar is an important issue, but it's not the
pivotal issue. The issues that are going to decide the
election are the ones I mentioned before, public safety, jobs,
economic development, quality of life. That's what I would focus
on if I were mayor of Southward, and that's what
she's been doing, except.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
That the streetcar is the issue, though, gov this is
the pivotal issue, public pivotal issue in this campaign. Mike
McDonald has said, if it were me, I would have
let the people vote on it. If it were me,
I would have had other funding sources rather than tax
increment financing.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So yeah, you're right.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
I believe that these civic elections are about mayoral competence,
it's not political ideology.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
At the same time, this thing has traction.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I'm not sure it has as much traction as you think.
But let me just say one thing about voting on issues.
It's interesting that Mike McDonald wants the citizens' omahall to
vote on that issue. But you know, in twenty three
when he introduced LB seventy nine, the epic tax, which
would have been a new consumption tax on all sorts
(05:07):
of things in state Nebraska, I didn't hear him say, well,
I think the citizens ought to vote on it, because
if we'd had the opportunity vote on it, we would
have voted no.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Just before we run here you are, I think it's
fair to say a political operative and I don't and
I don't say that in a negative way. So with that,
with that knowledge and background and experience governor when it
comes to elections, is the primary focus now to be
successful if you're running against them incumbent, to drive up
(05:38):
their negatives? Is that the strategy?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, I think that's what certainly our opponents are trying
to do. I don't think they're having any success at
that particularly. And again, you know, when you've got a
mayor doing a good job. You want to keep her.
And I think that's what the voters see. They know
that Omaha has momentum, that Omaha is a growing community,
(06:03):
that it's a safe community. And yeah, if you're on
the other side running against a popular incumbent and incumbent
is doing a good job, that's really hard to defeat her.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Governor. Thanks, always good to chat, appreciate the time.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
There you go, Former governor Nebraska Dave Heinemann. Here I
have AB's morning news
Continuing our coverage of the city primary and particularly the
Omaha mayor's race, as we if you are a voter
in the city of Oma, go to the polls in
the primary, and she was among the five candidates on
April first. And we are joined this morning by a
former Nebraska governor, Dave Heneman, who is a supporter of
(00:22):
the incumbent, jean'st author Dave, good morning, Good to have
you on, Gary.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning to you. It's great to be with you
and Jim, or I should say at least it's great
to be with you.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You know, that's how it usually goes. Yeah, be careful.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
He tries to imitate me, and then I usually get
in trouble.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
I got fifty thousand wattson when I start doing you,
people think it's you, and I can assign all sorts
of things to you that might really mess up your afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
That's very true. And I get those phone calls.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, let's dig into this. An interesting assortment of folks
have lined up behind what I think is probably fair
to say is Jean Stouth's primary rival, Mike McConnell. Mike McDonald, you,
on the other hand, are supporting me on mayor.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Why I'm supporting Mayor Jean Southern because she's an outstanding mayor.
She loves the city of Omaha. She cares about the citizens,
whether you live in South Omaha, downtown, North Omaha, Central Omaha,
or West Omaha. She's passionate about being the mayor of Omaha.
I feel that every time I talk to her, especially
(01:27):
when I was governor working with her. She's energetic, she's smart,
she's an outstanding leader. And here's the key. She's focused
on the issues that the voters care about. That's public safety, jobs,
economic development, the quality of life. And I think Jim
Rose mentioned yesterday, by any objective measure, she's doing an
(01:49):
outstanding job and the city is better off today than
the first day she took over as mayor.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
It's not perfect, nobody is, but largely in Rosie's made
this point a lot. These elections involving in incumbent are
typically a referendum on the incumbent. Right, there's not so
much about the other individuals.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
That's exactly right. When you have an incumbent mayor, it's
going to be about their record, and when you look
at the Stothard record is certainly a very good one.
Take a look at jobs. Unemployment rate's gone from four
percent to two percent. She's doubled the number of new
jobs in the city of Omahalla over the last ten years.
And the one thing that I think the citizens of
(02:32):
Omaha ought to really be proud of is Omaha is
a safe community. And it's such a safe community compared
to other communities. You've got mayors and police chiefs from
all across America calling Mayor Stouthard, police chiefs, Todd Schmater
and asking them how do they do it? What have
you done in Omaha to make omah such a safe community?
(02:56):
Because at the end of the day, the citizens want
to make sure that the the city is safe for
their kids. If they can play outside, they can walk
to the local elementary school, and you can do that
in Omaha.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Yeah, Well, it's because they actually arrest criminals and prosecute
a miir gov the street car if you were advising
her on how to defend this, because look, anecdotally, there
are a lot of people who are not in favor
of this project. It is the largest public works project
(03:28):
in the history of the state of Nebraska. It's one
hundred percent publicly financed. If you were advising her on
how to politically navigate this, what would it be.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well, First of all, Jim, long before I became governor,
I served on the Fremont City Council and I always
remember that I didn't appreciate the governor telling me how
to run the city of Fremont. And I don't think
the governor or a former governor on a local issue
want to tell the mayor how to run the city.
And again, I'll go back to the issues that really count.
(04:02):
The streetcar is an important issue, but it's not the
pivotal issue. The issues that are going to decide the
election are the ones I mentioned before, public safety, jobs,
economic development, quality of life. That's what I would focus
on if I were mayor of Southward, and that's what
she's been doing, except.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
That the streetcar is the issue, though, gov this is
the pivotal issue, public pivotal issue in this campaign. Mike
McDonald has said, if it were me, I would have
let the people vote on it. If it were me,
I would have had other funding sources rather than tax
increment financing.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
So yeah, you're right.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
I believe that these civic elections are about mayoral competence,
it's not political ideology.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
At the same time, this thing has traction.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I'm not sure it has as much traction as you think.
But let me just say one thing about voting on issues.
It's interesting that Mike McDonald wants the citizens' omahall to
vote on that issue. But you know, in twenty three
when he introduced LB seventy nine, the epic tax, which
would have been a new consumption tax on all sorts
(05:07):
of things in state Nebraska, I didn't hear him say, well,
I think the citizens ought to vote on it, because
if we'd had the opportunity vote on it, we would
have voted no.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Just before we run here you are, I think it's
fair to say a political operative and I don't and
I don't say that in a negative way. So with that,
with that knowledge and background and experience governor when it
comes to elections, is the primary focus now to be
successful if you're running against them incumbent, to drive up
(05:38):
their negatives? Is that the strategy?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, I think that's what certainly our opponents are trying
to do. I don't think they're having any success at
that particularly. And again, you know, when you've got a
mayor doing a good job. You want to keep her.
And I think that's what the voters see. They know
that Omaha has momentum, that Omaha is a growing community,
(06:03):
that it's a safe community. And yeah, if you're on
the other side running against a popular incumbent and incumbent
is doing a good job, that's really hard to defeat her.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Governor. Thanks, always good to chat, appreciate the time.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
There you go, Former governor Nebraska Dave Heinemann. Here I
have AB's morning news
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