Upsets, and Upset People, Post-Primary

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here with Craig Evans, Lucy Chapman, Jim Rose. I'm Scott Voorhees.
This is Nebraska's Morning News News Radio eleven ten KFAP.
All right, Jim. Yesterday I asked you who's going to
win the Democratic primary for Nebraska's second congressional district and
will that candidate go on to be the next representative

(00:21):
from Nebraska in the US Congress out of the blue
dot district too? And you said, first of all, Denise
Powell would take down John Cavanaugh. It's still officially too,
it has not officially been called, but every new update
that comes out shows her widening that league. The Omaha

(00:45):
World Herald is phrasing it as Denise Powell is poised
to be the Democratic nominee to take on Brinker Harding
for Nebraska's second district taken over for Don Bacon. A
Brinker by the way, joins US at seven thirty five
this morning to preview that race. Should it be against
Denise Power or John Cavanaugh? Right now it looks like Powell,
doesn't it. Yeah, And you still think that she will

(01:07):
be elected in November.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I do. I think it will be a very tight race.
But there are a couple of things about last night
that I think you probably got to think a little
bit about before you make a final decision or judgment
about being happy or sad. The first thing is that
there were very few high profile Republican competitive primaries, and
that I think really tend to tap down Republican turnout

(01:32):
last night. Now that's not meant as an excuse for
poor performance by Republicans, but I think that's a factor,
and that won't or shouldn't be a factor in November,
because it'll be a competitive race with a Democrat against
a Republican in many cases, and that'll drive them out.
That was certainly the case in District two. In the
congressional race, Brinker Harding had no opponent and there were

(01:55):
a lot of competitive Democrats, and as I predicted yesterday,
Denise Powell would prevail, and it appears as though she will.
As of this morning, there were still about nine thousand
uncounted ballots. But if you just apply the metrics of
those who voted in person or the ballots that have
been counted, she's probably going to win by one and
a half to two percentage points over John Kavanaugh. The

(02:18):
other concern I think you might want to have if
you're a Republican. Is what happened in some of these
legislative races, and in particular Brad von Gillern. Brad von
Gilern got beat by Democrat Cindy Maxwell Osti in the primary. Yeah, okay,
it's only halftime in District four. But this is a
guy who was forecast to be Speaker of the Unicamerl
next year and still could. He's going to have a

(02:40):
problem unless he if he doesn't get people to turn
out in November. In District thirty six, Rick Holdcroft down
there in Bellevue, incumbent Republican, he got beat but three
hundred votes. Now again, you have to temper this by
recognizing that a lot of Republicans probably worked in the yard,
cleaned out the vote and raked leaves their garden the

(03:00):
flower beds, which is pretty common for Republicans in spring
elections around here, asked Jane Stother. So much of this
probably needs to be tempered by that. But I would
also say that when you look at a race like
District ten, which was Cindy Amaderis's district, she's the Republican
who's seeking Christy a big air Amma Deritz, who did

(03:22):
not seek re election. She said, I can't keep doing this.
I don't make enough money. Cindy Johnson beat Rebecca Runs
by twelve hundred votes.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
I thought armand Daries was no. She's district tenth.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
District eighteen is Jess Goldini against Taylor Royal, and Taylor
Royal did Goldoni.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
She did not have to be here to correct you
all morning. Hey, look, people not talking about yet are
a lot of names.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
But Taylor Royal got clocked by nine percentage points last night.
And this is a guy who's run a lot. This
is a guy who ran a lot of commercials, and
Jess Goldoni was very successful in getting the vote out again.
Taylor is a Republican. Taylor is a known Republican. Taylor
is a staunch Republican and Douglas County Republicans are not

(04:08):
very reliable on election days. So our good friend Mary
Jane Trumper has a lot of work to do between
now an election day and November. She has to go
door to door and make sure that Republicans get to
the polls. Because this across the country has been a
theme Scott, and that is Democrats are a lot more
excited about this year than a Republicans and Trump is

(04:30):
not on the ballot.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
A couple of things. First of all, in that race
out there in northwest Omaha where now just Goldoni, more
Democrat leaning, will take officially non partisan race, Republican Taylor
Royal from Bennington. Yeah, Royal got beat by Goldoni because
Royal faced a fellow Republican in this race in Derek Schwartz. Correct,
So they divided up that he got sixteen votes, right,

(04:54):
so you expect those votes from Schwartz to go to Royal.
Un think you would also, to your points, say well,
I think a lot more Republicans might come out and
vote in November than did in this primary because in
some of the big races you didn't have challengers. Well,
you did in one race that we talked about, and
we'll look at the numbers here for votes that went
to Rickets, Pilling evnin or didn't go to evnin one

(05:19):
hundred and fifty five thousand plus votes. Those are the
ones that went in a crowded field for Republican Pete
Ricketts in the Senate race across Nebraska, hundred and fifty
five thousand crowded there were four other people vying for
this nomination among the Republicans for Ricketts.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, but they were political door knots.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Yeah, well they might be nice people. I don't know them.
But I point that out because there's Ricketts with one
hundred and fifty five thousand, and then and you look
statewide here for race for governor where there were five
people other than Jim Pillen in this race. Pilling got
one hundred and thirty eight thousand, not as many as

(06:03):
Pete Ricketts. Is it significant? Yeah, I don't know. There
are a number of people went out there voted for
Pete Ricketts, voted for I mean in things like all right,
I'll fill in the blank here for Mike Hilgers or
Joey Spellberg. These guys aren't running against anyone in the
primary for ag or state treasurer.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Respect look at.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
All right, let's look at people the state autumor fully
got about one hundred and sixty thousand votes. But then
you look at the Secretary of State ricks Bob Evnen
very competitive. The Republican incumbent for Secretary of State, Let's
bring it, Nebraska got seventy seven thousand votes at last count.

(06:50):
It's about half what Pete Ricketts did. Scott Peterson has
won this race. Scott Peterson has come out of for
what a lot of people is political obscurity. He was
behind the scenes as a local party operative and decided
to run for this race. Was very competitive, asked a
lot of questions, got a lot of support. He will

(07:13):
take on the Democrat in this race, Sarah Slattery. In November,
Bob Evnan had to post on his website and Secretary
of State and the official which is right now not
quite official election results that he lost.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
This race by ten points. This is a great upset
in the conventional world of GOP politics in Nebraska, because
Bob had been elected twice secretary of State had I
don't know what kind of a campaign he ran. I
was not on his campaign team. It was a pretty
busy season for him with an election coming up. But

(07:50):
that's the way it is for every state secretary. But
Scott Peterson had some sort of grassroots support across Nebraska.
I thought he would be effective in Douglas County. Bob
Lincoln guy. I thought that, you know, Scott Peterson's well
known in Republican circles in Douglas County. He was the
Douglas County GOP chair for a number of years. But
I found once you got west of Wahoo, it was

(08:11):
all Bob Evnon and that's just not so. He must
have had significant grassroots support from county GOP leaders across
the state for a race that really did not have
an issue Scott. Quite candidly, if you start nitpicking about
what it is that Scott Peterson was asking, it was like,
wait a minute, you don't think we're transparent enough, or

(08:34):
you think we're not modern enough, or you know, you
think we have a thirty five. None of these things
had anything to do with Bob Evnon because he's simply
executing law that had been passed by the Unicameron signed
into law by the governor. But what is the other
thing here with Evnon? And I'm going to come right
out with it. There's a national movement right now. There's

(08:56):
a national narrative of anti Semitism in this country right now.
And I'm not saying that that's what happened here, And
I'm not suggesting that Scott Peterson is a Jew hater
at all. You brought it up, well, I brought it
up because there some of his proxies have posted things
online that many might consider Addie semitic, and maybe there
was some of that across the state.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
I don't know that there was. But what was the
key issue in this race? I'll tell you, And it's
not that. Okay, and see you've given me you boxed
me into a corner. I can't make a snarky five
second comment and then throw it to sports. We're gonna
have to have this conversation coming up after the news.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
All right, don't leave first, Let's get the eleven to
ten kfab certified transmission sports free here with Jim Rose.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Usker's got a big lead on Creighton last night at
schwab Field eight to nothing and then coasted to an
eight to four victory.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Coach will Bolt, our guys feel comfortable and confident. We've
had a lot of good moments in this park, and yeah,
I was good to see us kind of set the
tone for this one. I mean, we we got up
to it ain't nothing lead and there were some maybe
some some moments in the game where we had to
make some pitches to get off the field and as
as today, but we just we just kind of set
the tone so much and they were chasing too many

(10:08):
runs and we were able to finish it off.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, he was able to fight off the Creton University
drum line there. In the postseason conversation that he our
postgame conversation he had with media members last night at
schwab Field. Great night for Cooper Katski. This is a
former weekend starter who was sent in the midweek because
of ineffectiveness. He allowed just two hits over almost six
full innings through eighty five. He was happy with it.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
Feeling, you know, all the emotions, you know, taking it
all in, but you know, really just trusting my process
and feeling like you know, I'm at you know, just
just going out there and being a competitor, because at
the end of the day, that's all I can do,
that's all I can control. So feeling like I was
giving my best every pitch, you know, regardless of the outcome,
just bringing it in.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Huskers had one more regular season series. It begins tomorrow
at dinky Town up there in Minnesota against the Golden
Gophers on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and then the Big
Ten Conference Tournament thereafter. As Nebraska tries to load up
some wins and make a case to host an NCAA
regional Major League Baseball yesterday afternoon and last night, the
White Sox got to win over the Royals, final score

(11:07):
six to five. Seattle ten two over Houston, Tampa Bay
beat the Blue Jays, Yankees over Baltimore, and Cleveland beat
the Angels. National League winners were San Francisco and Milwaukee,
Atlanta Pittsburgh and the Nationals. Iter League winners were Saint Louis, Texas, Minnesota,
the Mets, and Philadelphia. Omaha bombs Toledo. Final score nineteen
to one. State soccer boys Class A yesterday Southwest Lincoln

(11:30):
Southwest Winnover Elkcorn South in overtime four to one, West
Side be Prep three to one. These are first round games.
Papio South over Lincoln East two to one, and Omaha
South defeated the Southeast Nights three to one. We have
Class B today. Sports's news on Nebraska's News weathern Traffic station.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Let's get back into this. Before we went to sports,
Jim seemed to be suggesting that anti Semitism in Nebraska's
Secretary of State race.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
I have might have been a factor.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Primary battle between incumbent Bob Evnen, who is Jewish.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
I asked that as a question because I think if
you go to Nebraskans across the state and say what
religion is Bob Evnen, you would find approximately zero point
zero eight percent who would even know that they've been
just slightly lower than those who'd be able to pick

(12:25):
them out of a lineup. Maybe Okay, I'm justility right.
Republican primary voters across Nebraska, these are the same people
that you would see. Are these the ones that travel
to New York and Los Angeles and DC and waive
Palestinian flags maybe and chase Jewish students off campus and

(12:49):
decide they're taking over the quad at Columbia University until
they divest from Israel. We need, we need Palestinian to
be a state from the river to see. Those are
the people who yesterday here in Nebraskaby went out in
a primary election and said, oh, I'm not voting for
Bob Evnon. He is a You might have been organized

(13:12):
you all right. Look, I'll give you credit for early
call on Denise Powell, Nebraska's first Democratic primary.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
I did that a year ago.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
You were right on target. You couldn't be more off
target in this.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Look I'm not suggesting it was the deciding factor. I
just lay it out there. But let's but I am
confused because typically when an incumbent is defeated, especially by
ten points, it's because they did something really really bad publicly.
They are caught breaking laws, or there was a major

(13:49):
issue that divided the people. There was there was something,
and I don't know what that major issue is. Now,
maybe you do it. Okay, yeah, you're in the back.
You're in the back. What do you got?

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Thank you, mister. I'd like to suggest that President Trump
going out for the better part of the last six
years and saying the twenty twenty election was rigged and
that elections do not have integrity across this country and
we need people like Scott Peterson. Now Trump did not
specifically say that last part, but he has said several

(14:21):
times all this stuff about you know, the drop boxes
and mail and voting and all this this's all got
to go away. Now, who was repeating some of these
comments from President Trump, Scott Peterson was now Bob Efton.
I would argue that Evanon didn't say anything wrong in
that respect, But all Scott Peterson had to do is

(14:42):
ask the questions, just say like, well, do you feel
like there's integrity in elections? Do you feel good about
how votes are counted? Do you think we can do better?
All he had to do is ask those questions. All
he had to do was plant the seed and let
Trump go out there and water it as he always
does there. When it has to do with election integrity,
and when you've got people in a Republican primary, who

(15:04):
are Trump people going to vote? They're the ones who
are activated and ready to go out and vote, You're
going to see a Scott Peterson take out Bob Epnell.
It has nothing to do with anyone's religious persuadon. I
think you're spot on. I think that's probably what it was.
But I guess how can I be spot on? But
that's probably what it was. You've given yourself wiggle room

(15:25):
to be right.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
I think why you just admit that I'm probably writing
you might be spot on? Bottom line is this, Scott,
I give Nebraska voters more credit than that. I think
Nebraska's are brighter than that. And I think people take
their vote seriously here and they research the candidates, and
I think that they are not necessarily so vulnerable to
conspiracy theories. Number one. Donald Trump has come out in

(15:49):
favor of mail in ballots and early balloting. It's what
won him the Nebraska race in twenty twenty four. We
had two hundred and sixty thousand mail in ballots Republicans
in twenty twenty four. He won the state by one
hundred and ninety four thousand votes.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
So that's not what he said. That's what he said then,
because those are the rules, he'd like to change the
rules to where you vote.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
At elections military I've been I agree with that too,
Bob Evan, And the secretary of state is not a
legislative position. It's not a policy position. It is a
do what you're told position. And if you want the
thirty five day window for early battlet you to disappear
in Nebraska, call one of your forty nine senators and

(16:29):
the governor. They make those decisions. The secretary of State
just executes the laws, executes the election. He doesn't make decisions. Now,
maybe it's possible, Bob, and I again, I'm not on
his campaign team. Maybe he decided to mail this one
in a little bit. Maybe he said, you know what,
I'm fine and I don't have to get out in
campaign in the third district, and I don't have to

(16:50):
get out in campaign very hard. Maybe he did at
the end, but did not for the last six months,
like Scott Peterson has I give Scott Peterson credit. This
guy knew what he was doing. This guy was able
to organize grassroots support for him. And to your point,
make a case that if you give me the gig,
I'll be damn sure this thing is secure. Well, okay,

(17:10):
that'll be the next thing. What happens now in four years,
presuming Scott Peterson is successful in November, what happens then
in four years from now, where people are like you
said that, this wouldn't mean how much power is he
going to have? He and I would I can't wait
to ask him here in four years, Hey, you went
into this office thinking you'd be able to do this?

Speaker 1 (17:32):
How'd that go? And certainly he might say, oh, when
Evnan said to your point here, I'm just a tool
of whatever the legislature and the rules are and I
just do it. It turns out that's true. But Peterson
Peterson asked the right questions. Yeah. Evnan's campaign put out
a picture of Scott Peterson photoshopped to look like a clown,

(17:53):
and that did not like, Yeah, that did not resonate.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
I didn't see that.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
That did not resonate with the people in this primary election.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
That's that's kind of dirty pool. The other big race,
the Chris Backameyre now Mike Flood race. Chris Bacameier is
the doge purged State Department diplomat who got pretty much
booted out of DC when Elon Musk came through with
his machete and rebirthed himself in Lincoln as a candidate

(18:20):
for Congress.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Is he from Lincoln or from Lincoln? He looked at
the map and said, maybe he's from Lincoln.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Uh. He went to East High School, which will hurt
him with a lot of people. No, that's fine. Wow.
And then his grandparents actually settled here are great grandparents,
I believe settled here in Cass County a couple of
generations ago. But this is a guy who has a
lot of international experience because he worked in the State

(18:48):
Department for twenty years and actually rose to fairly high levels.
He was a senior advisor to Kamala Harris, which was
a big challenge. Okay, MISSUS Vice President. Let me explain
this to you one more time. Iran and Iraq are
two different countries. He did a lot of that every
morning he was He was a big part. This is

(19:11):
what Flood's going to use against him, I think largely, Scott.
He was a big part of Barack Obama's Iran deal
in twenty fifteen that has been roundly criticized by virtually
everybody in the political class. This was the I'm going
to give you three hundred billion dollars to stop misbehaving,
and all they did was spend the three hundred billion

(19:32):
to misbehave more So, he is going to get illuminated
by Mike Flood with regard to Iran, and most Nebraskans
are probably pretty supportive of Iran not having a nuclear weapon,
and you can say that guys like Chris Bakermeier are
one of the reasons they have a nuclear or they
have enriched uranium and are on the break of a

(19:54):
nuclear weapon.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
If gas prices don't come down between now and November,
most people will be like, I don't care if iron
has a nuclear weapon. I don't want to pay four
point fifty a gallon for gas. Now. Is that going
to be the case? In November. Better not better not
be the case here and the next month or two.
But I'm getting emails here sent to Scott at kfab

(20:16):
dot com, and you can send yours as well. Why
you voted for Scott Peterson over Bob Ebden and the
Secretary of States race love to send we and because
we've all had our opinions as to why this was,
I want to hear yours if you went out there
and cast that vote yesterday. Speaking of Democrats, we got
to talk about this. This Cindy Burbau, My god, the

(20:37):
situation is so embarrassing. That's coming up after seven o'clock.
Brinker Harding at seven thirty five, Jim, if you listen
to the statement from Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleb,
I tell you what, the Nebraska Democratic Party has never
been better, says for the last ten years, we've built
our party at the state and local level to meet

(20:58):
this moment. The enthusiasm as of our base, the blue
dot will deliver a strong nominee Nebraska. All this stuff
and back off on the zantas.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Yeah, I'm looking here saying what Democrat party are you
talking about? Jane?

Speaker 1 (21:14):
I don't see any statement about Cindy Burbank. Can you
explain the Cindy Burbank thing?

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Here?

Speaker 1 (21:21):
What Nebraska just did yesterday.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
This is the most embarrassing moment in the history of
the Democrat Party, in the history of Nebraska, which has
a very checkered history with Democrats over the last generation,
to have a winner literally the next morning, maybe not
even before dawn, say, okay, I just won the Democrat
nomination for the United States Senate, and I'm dropping out.

(21:48):
Rewind that tape.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
One hundred thousand votes for Cindy Burbank.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Shove those and now you know what's the official And
she said before all of this, if I win, I'll
drop out. So who voted for it?

Speaker 1 (22:03):
And then she was up against staunch Democrat William Forbes,
who for years has been posting pro Trump's stuff on
his social media and everyone said he is a plant
from the Ricketts administration to try and get the nomination
to defer votes away from Dan Osborne because Pete Riggins
is afraid of Dan Osborne. So Cindy Burbank wins and

(22:27):
then says, I am dropping out.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Now.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
I don't know if she's officially dropped out yet or
what the heck's going to happen. But the statement here
from the head of the Nebraska Democratic Party, our friend
JFK Jane Fleming Kleb doesn't mention Cindy Burbanks, mentions Pete Ricketts,
says Pete Riggins thought he could buy our Democratic ballot
line for US Senate voters soundly rejected his candidate, William Forbes.

(22:51):
We look forward to sending a mechanic Dan Osborne to
the US Senate to replace Ricketts. The out of touch
billionaire Dan Osborne did get a vote yesterday. Dan Osborne
was not on any ballot yesterday. Dan Osborne has not
officially enshrouded himself in the man told the Democratic Party,
and well, he's rejected outwardly.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
He's rejected it. He said, stay away from me. I
don't want any part of you's.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
He made that until it till it comes to times
to get on the phone with donors.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Oh, donor, that's a whole different class. But to you,
you rank and file democrats, you public democrat, I don't
want anything to do with you. I'm an independent. Now
give me the phone number of people who donate to
you so I can get it on the back end.
But that's that's embarrassing enough that a guy who came
within what seven points of beating deb Fisher, and probably
if she had not woken up in the last month,

(23:41):
might have pulled off that upset. But this race against
Pete Ricketts by an independent renouncing the Democrat party is
embarrassing at a level we've never seen before. That said,
I thought it was not a bad night for Democrats
last night, and the reason I say that is that
many of them did very well in legislative races where

(24:03):
they usually do they do. It was a low Republican
turnout because we didn't have competitive races for governor, for senator,
for Congress in District two, we didn't have any of
those things. And really we didn't have a competitive primary
and district one either for republic for Republicans. So it
seems to me that this is a good time to

(24:26):
feel good if you're a Democrat. But it's only halftime. This, however,
is negative. This is the kind of thing that gives
you a bad national brand and that his people are going,
what in the hell is going on in the bra
This is the state that produced William Jennings, Bryan and
George Norris and some of these other quality Democrats, Bob Kerrey,

(24:46):
Bob Kerrey, Ed Zarinsky, Jim Exon, who is an effective governor,
really actually one of the more fiscally prudent governors we've
ever had. We've elected good people Democrats down through the
years in this date. But this is embarrassing, and this
is the kind of thing that you don't it is.
It's an outrage and it's and Jane Kleb needs to

(25:09):
move on. She's been in charge of this for what
ten fifteen years now, she's been in charge of the
Nebraska Democrat Party, and it has gone south.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
Emailers here to Scott at kfab dot com, and the
Zonker's custom was Inboxer soundly rejecting Jim Rose's assertion that
perhaps the Nebraska Republican Primary Secretary of State's race between
incumbent Republican Bob Evnen and challenger Scott Peterson had anything
to do with the idea that Bob Evnen is Jewish

(25:40):
or any kind of anti Semitism. My assertion that no
one had any idea Bob Evnen was Jewish or that
Jewish party politics would play into the Republican Secretary of
State race. The kind of people I see out there
supporting Palestine aka a Hummas in the streets throwing Molotov

(26:02):
cocktails generally aren't your Republican Party primary voters and a
Secretary of State race just can't rule it out throwing
it out there. I'm ruling it out, as are many
people here in the inbox. Scott atkfab dot com, Angie says, Scott,
you nailed it. I didn't know Bob Ednen was Jewish.
When I looked up Scott Peterson, it said he was
for election integrity. I told my family to vote for

(26:26):
Peterson too. Jim is way off. James says, Scott, You're
spot on. In my case, I was set to vote
for Bob Evnen until Monday when I received the text
from Scott Peterson. I voted for him and then heard
Jim's speech. I had no idea Ednon was Jewish had
nothing to do with my decision. So why did people
vote for Scott Peterson over the incumbent Bob evden Mark says,

(26:50):
I voted for Peterson because he was the only candidate
that had a representative come to my door to say
who he was and why we needed a change.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Here you go.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Rod says, I didn't vote for Edden because I think
he's smug and arrogant. Okay, you know, you know Bob
Evnon pretty well be elected arrogant.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
He's not smugging arrogant. He's very intelligent.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
He's been elected state wide twice to this job. So
you know, I don't know if people had a delayed
reaction to his alleged smugness, but I think it's more Peterson. Obviously,
he had a grassroots campaign that was organized through county
GOP chairs that were very effective for him. And you know,

(27:31):
I think probably your observation, Scott is is probably closer
to what really happened, and that is Scott Peterson was
able to plant a seed that elections in this country
and in this state are not secure, and it's Bob
Evden's fault.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Trump planted the seed, Peterson watered it.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah. But but Trump has backed off from this because
he knows mail in ballots have been very effective for
Republicans in the last two elections in twenty twenty four
and twenty two two, so he hasn't renounced it. I
personally believe we should have a national election day it
should be a twenty four hour deal. And it's the
only day people can vote, and they got to vote

(28:10):
in person unless they live in a foreign country like
a member of the military, or they can demonstrate a
pure physical restriction that keeps them from getting up and
going to the polls. Ballot harvestein Foxes. Yeah, this happened.
This was If you don't think that happened in the
twenty twenty election, then you don't want to believe it.

(28:31):
But it did happen in the twenty twenty election. There
was no security for millions and millions of ballots in
this country.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
COVID changed all the rules the day of the election.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
They allowed COVID to dictate how we operate an election
in twenty twenty and that's a shame. Did it cost
Donald Trump the election? I don't know a lot of
smart people would have what would tell you yes, and
they have evidence, real serious, legitimate evidence to support it.
But we elected him in twenty twenty four. He's gonna

(29:01):
get his two terms. So who cares at this point?
Two of three, yeah, two of three. I hear him talk.
But in this case, you know, you got people that
may not appreciate what the Secretary of State actually does.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
We got the assessment here of many Republican primary voters
who were going out yesterday well, at the same time
keeping an eye on how they were feeling about the
Democratic choices in Nebraska's second district.

Speaker 6 (29:28):
I had three days of diet sweats, a lot of chills,
some mild respiratory, and a lot of fatigue.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
I think a lot of people felt that way. And
so now it looks like that Brinker Harding who emerged
victorious from his win over right hand candidate, and yesterday
is Republican primary, and he too, we'll be taking on
Denise Powell. Brinker, Good morning, Welcome back to eleven to
ten kfab Good morning, Scott, Good morning Jim. Is that
your assessment as well, that it'll be Denise Powell. She's

(29:57):
got a good enough lead right now on John Cavanaugh.
It's not completely called yet, but it looks good for
Denise Powell.

Speaker 7 (30:06):
Well, I certainly have no inside information as to what
the remaining votes are that they need to count will be.
But whether it's Denise Powell or John Cavanaugh, we're going
to be ready.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
And what's your assessment of her? Because we only know
her mostly from her ads where she said she was
po she was ticked off.

Speaker 7 (30:27):
Well, I don't know that I'll be here to assess Denise,
because again I don't know if it's going to be Denise.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Let's assume, let's assume it's Denise Powell.

Speaker 7 (30:35):
Well, actually I can answer whether it's Kavanaugh or Powell.
I'm running to represent the entire District two of Nebraska.
I'm not here just to represent a segment of that.
And by that what I mean is, Look, they've been
running on representing the blue dot, and we had signs

(30:58):
at our event last night that said the Brinker dot,
and I guess the Brinker dot is this. We're representative
of all of District two and we're going to appeal
to everyone with their message and continue to get that
message out that Republicans, Democrats, and independents are all going
to be comfortable with and buy into and not just

(31:19):
be representing one segment and that blue dot. There's more
to the District two than the blue dot. That's what
our message is, and that's what we're going to be
talking about.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
There will be a lot of Republican voters who look
to you here for November who are more inclined to
vote and support you than maybe they have been for
Don Bacon. They felt like Don Bacon was too much
of a purple dot. Now Don Bacon, you can't argue
with his success and getting elected and re elected in
a district that rejected Donald Trump but voted in Don Bacon.

(31:53):
So there are a lot of primary people, especially this
time around, going wait a second, are you talking to
brinker Harding like a on Bacon. You're going to be
fighting Trump and you're going to be telling people that
everything's wrong with whatever Trump's doing here to try and
move to the center here to try and win this election.
What's your response to that?

Speaker 7 (32:11):
Well, my response is like, I appreciate what Don has
done for the district, but I'm not Don. And I
think people know that I've been on Omaha City Council
just started my third term, and they know that I
am a conservative. They know my values, they know my tenants,
they know my philosophies. But they also know I'm going
to sit down and talk with you. As I've said

(32:31):
here on the station before. When I first ran for
the city council, i had four mayors. The current mayor
at the Times Stothart and three others endorsed me. Two
were Republican and two were Democrat. And again, people know
my values, they know who I am, they know my
conservative nature, but they also know I'm going to sit
down and listen to you. And I think that is

(32:53):
something that this district really appreciates, so one who's going
to be open minded, but also as a solid base
from what they're working from.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
This is an issue that Republicans seem to grapple with,
at least most recently, and that has been turnout. Donald
Trump did not do well in your district. In fact,
he's zero for three in this district. And if they
don't turn out for him, if his people don't turn
out for him, what's the problem and how do you

(33:23):
fix it? Because this is a race where there isn't
the energy that the Republican Party has had in presidential elections.

Speaker 7 (33:32):
Well, turnout certainly is part of the issue. I think
from what I heard, I think we had maybe twenty
seven percent turnout yesterday, and typically in the midterm you
have fifty five percent turnout. So there's that. I guess
you have that room to work with. And gosh, first
of all, I think it's unfortunate that we only have

(33:53):
fifty five percent of those who are registered to vote,
and remember that's just register.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
And only seventy five percent of the eligile will people
are registered.

Speaker 7 (34:01):
So certainly making sure that we motivate the base but
also the rest of the voters we want to be
appealing to. But that's certainly going to be something that
we need to work on from here until November.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Omaha City Councilman Branker Harding in here, who also now
is officially the Republican nominee for Nebraska's second congressional district
race he will be taking on in November. It appears
Denise Powell what I am though, is.

Speaker 5 (34:29):
A pissed off working mom.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (34:31):
And everywhere that I go, whether it's at my son's
baseball games or on the campaign trail knocking doors talking
to voters, I hear that people are really worried and
they have lost faith in our government and politics to
do anything to help them.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
So, Brenker, you said that you want to be a
representative for all people here, how do you win over
the people who heard her angry that she was measured
in that her political ads were a bit more angry sounding,
and they voted for her in this crowded Democratic primary
Nebraska second Congressional District. How do you win them over

(35:07):
when you hear people relating to that, because you don't
sound all that ticked off to me.

Speaker 7 (35:12):
No, I think I'm pretty even tempered, pretty common sense guy.
I'm not going to give you my whole playbook here
this morning for the I think we know what it is.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Go ahead.

Speaker 7 (35:24):
Look, I think the people of the second District and
just Nebraska's in general, want someone who approaches things in
a very measured and has said common sense kind of way.
And that's the kind of person I am. It's the
kind of person I've been on Omaha City Council. It's
the kind of person I've been in my private sector

(35:44):
job with the in commercial real estate at Colliers and
when I worked for Hal Dobb as mayor. I mean,
we got a lot accomplished in this city back when
we had a council that was totally against us. So
I think those you know, the way I've been able
to navigate those kind of situations and help grow the city,

(36:06):
help grow the district, or exactly what the people of
the second District want.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Well, we know it's going to be a close race
because it's a divided district politically and culturally. But what
if you get a phone call from the White House
and they say the President wants to come to Omaha
and campaign for you, even though he's zero for three here,
what do you say.

Speaker 7 (36:26):
Well, look, I think the President's done an incredible job
for the country. Look, we've got a secure border, we had,
we've got inflation was getting under control. Look, we had
wages outpace inflation for the first time in over two
years in the fourth quarter of twenty twenty five. But

(36:47):
for I think the war in Iran. I think, look,
we had the ship turning around, sure, and the economy.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Was really starting to interest rates for.

Speaker 7 (36:58):
Going down, as I said, the secure order, wage growth,
and for the President to have to make the decision
for what he did to go into Iran, I think
I don't have any more information than most people, but
that had to be an incredible decision to put our
economy kind of on hold for that.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
But he's zero for three here, and that's that's fine,
But it says that he's not as popular here as
he is in other parts of the country, and wouldn't
if they said the President wants to come and stand
on stage with Brinker Harding, are you going to say yes? Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Yeah. Have you have you received a call from the
White House to congratulate you for being in this race.

Speaker 7 (37:42):
I have not received a call from the White House
on this, but he I think there was a post last.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
You made a call to the White House.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
No, no, no, still on hold. Yeah, he's he has.
It's wonderful hold music. It's the greatest hit of Lee Greenwood,
over and overreak. All right, Breaker, thank you very much
for coming in after a late all.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Right, now you away from here to November, not going anywhere,
all right.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
That's a Brenker Harding here, and he'll be talking with
us a lot between now and November. We hope to
talk to Denise Powell as well. Talked with brinker Harding
in the last half an hour. There were some members
of Kfabe Nation emailing Scott at kfab dot com going,
I don't know, he sounds kind of bacony to me.
Sounded like we got bacon cooking in Brenker's kitchen right there.

(38:34):
Remember Bacon and Don. All Don Bacon ever did was
get elected and then re elected, then re elected, and
re elected and re elected. It's a tough needle to
thread there between being there for the maga Republican base
and then also trying to win in November. I will

(38:55):
also say, though, that Denise Powell's about as popular here
in the inboxes the Hunt of ir Yeah, so we'll
see a long way to go till November. But Jim,
we also had other races besides Secretary of State, well
besides the Nebraska's Democratic primary, and any two.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
A couple other things before we move on to that.
We're going to find out just how inclusive Denise Powell
is the first time we offer her a chance to
come on this radio station. If she is going to
subscribe to the Democrat liberal orthodoxy, she won't come within
fifty yards of the place, because she thinks that this
is nothing but a collection of knuckle dragon maga whack jobs,

(39:31):
right wingers who want to strip everybody of their government benefits,
which of course is patently untrue.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
She's upset about this is a radio stations much.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
This is a radio station of vast influence and a
very motivated audience. So if I were her people, I'd say, okay.
The first chance we have to prove that we'll reach
across the aisle involves Kfab being on the morning show
or the other programs we have here, or both, and
or a debate would brink her herding in this building. Sure, okay,

(40:00):
which I'm sure he would agree to, and she should
agree to. We'll find out, because historically they have been
told stay away from that place, because that's nothing but
a conclave of klansmen and misogynists and you know, islamophobes
and homophobes and everyon phobe fobes. That's what this radio
station has been portrayed in the deep dark Democrats.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
So we don't have we don't have phobe phobes. That
doesn't mean every Democrat believes that. In fact, I know
several that are very big fans of the radio station.
Name three, go on.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
They shall remain anonymous, but many of them on the
hard left art so let's see.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
But anyway, go on, all right, We've got some old
names emerging here from the other races yesterday, names like
Tony Vargas always and where'd he come from? Well, he's
poised to become your next Douglas County treasurer. Because Tim
Kavanaugh who stepped in to be Douglas County Treasurer, But

(41:03):
then the former treasurer now has a new job. He's
the mayor of Omaha, John Ewing. Tim Cavanaugh was running
for a seat on the Metro Board the Metropolitan Utilities
District Board of Directors, so he's not going to be
treasurer anymore. Vargas is whooping a different Democrat running in

(41:24):
that race. Since no other party has put up a
candidate in the race for Douglas County Treasurer, looks like
Tony Vargas, who ran a couple of times against Don
Bacon state Senator, will be your Douglas County Treasurer. Justin Wayne,
former Nebraska state senator, remember of the school board. Now
he's got a big lead over Tom Barrett in the

(41:44):
Democratic primary for Douglas County District Court Clerk, succeeding Crystal Rhadse.
Republicans didn't put anyone up in that race either, so
it looks like Tony Vargas and Justin Wayne just continue
to move around from one political gig to the other. PJ.
Morgan is holding off a challenge from Chris Chapelier. Republican

(42:04):
Party activists as PJ. Morgan will emerge in the Republican
primary and District four for the Douglas County Board, Marianne
Borgson is leaving Colleen Brennan, a former city council person.
She is losing right now to the police chief and
Waterloo and the Republican primary Tim Donahue. And then we've
got Jim Cavanaugh and Whitney Hansen in the District two

(42:29):
race for Douglas County Board, which is south central Omaha
and Ralston. They're kind of neck and neck right now.
And because the Republicans didn't put anyone up, the Democrat
winner will be the county board in a District two.
So here's kind of a little bit of what's going
on with some of those other races featuring some familiar names.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah, and we have the district legislative races that are
a little bit misleading because it was a primary. And
keep in mind that and Brinker side of the numbers
that we actually referenced in the six o'clock hour that
we had about a twenty five to twenty seven percent
voter turnout for this primary, which is deplorable. You can

(43:11):
expect that to double, maybe triple, but probably double, at
least double for the general election. Fifty five percent voter
turnout not great when you consider that means forty five
percent of those registered stay home. You're talking about fifty
five percent hopefully in November November least, yeah, it was
about twenty seven percent. That's the only hope that the

(43:32):
Democrats or the rather the Republicans have to explain some
of these lower numbers. Like Jim Pillon's numbers, he did
not have a serious contender either in his primary, well
not in his primary, and so people said, big deal,
I'll see in November. Same thing with Pete Ricketts. Did
he have a serious contender in his Republican primary? The

(43:55):
answer is.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
No, yes, But let's get back to my butt in
just a moment.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Ishe is this in these Democrat halftime leads largely or
at least very quality showings in these primary races, you
have work to do. If you're Brad von Gillern. Now
he's down four hundred votes by Cindy Maxwell Ostig, and
he didn't beat her by much the last time. In
the general election. Rick Holcroft has a problem down to

(44:20):
Bellevue in District thirty six. These are issues that need
to be addressed by the county Republicans and the state Republicans.
Folks don't stay home.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
Well, maybe my question for you here related to that
Ricketts pillin statewide thing might actually has me to do
with these other races as well. Let's start there in
just a moment. Regarding the Democrats, Monica emails and says
to say we used to elect good Democrats is like
saying we used to be able to buy non GMO

(44:50):
food at the store, but they're voth very different today.
That is from Monica, Thank you very much for that
email sent to Scott at kfab dot com and then
in the talkback mic on our free iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 6 (45:04):
Good morning, gentlemen. I'm listening to the Brinker Herding interview,
and this dude's got about as much of a chance
as a fat girl at dodgeball. He is cast for
milk toast, he's monotone, and he's got no shot. And
I hate saying it. I'm staunchly conservative, but we're not

(45:29):
going to win this election with him.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
So Brinker Harding, welcome to Nebraska politics. Rational standpoint in
case breakers, driving away going, I will remind you we
got nothing besides that kind of assessment of Don Bacon.
Every single time Don then one re election went.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Five for five.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
So it's it's uh, it's kind of how it goes
here in Nebraska's second Congressional District, KFAB nation is angry.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
Well, it's the Trump people, and the Trump people don't
believe that Don Bacon represented their views. Now, I think
MAGA has been badly misbranded by the conventional news media
in this country because when you say make America great
again and you look at the list of things that
they consider important, I don't think that's extreme. I think

(46:19):
that's extremely American, and it's it's extremely constitutional. But there
are those who believe that anybody who does not walk
in lockstep with President Trump is a communist and should
be sent to the bottom of the ocean. So Don
Bacon and Sass they qualified in that place.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
I know you can to do this, but if I
can get you to go one minute on why then
and we're looking at statewide results here mean you can't.
Ricket's got one hundred and fifty five thousand votes people
wrote in here are people you know filled in the
bubble for people like Mike Hilgers, who was unopposed Mike
Foley one hundred and fifty thousand votes. Jim Pillen did

(46:58):
not get over one hundred and fifty thousand vot votes,
one hundred and thirty eight thousand votes. Why didn't some
of those Republicans a certain percentage not vote for Governor
Jim Pillen in his reelection bid? Obviously he's smooth sailines
through the Republican primary, but he didn't get the votes.
Why not?

Speaker 2 (47:14):
Jim has issues. He has made promises that have not
been kept. He has not embraced the business community. There
are those who believe that he has really gone out
of his way to create political enemies, and he's going
to have a little bit more of a piece of
trouble than maybe people think. And it's not because he's

(47:35):
a bad guy, because he's not. He's a great guy.
He's also a smart guy, and he's a great and
loyal Nebraska and he's a staunch conservative. But his political
polish is not very good and it has caused people
to not like him. When you make bold promises like
he did and you don't deliver. I mean, he promised
we will give you property tax reform that has not happened,

(48:00):
and people remember, so can Lynn Walls do it? She's
going to need at least five million dollars to do it.
She's about four million short of that right now. But uh,
if she has a message that says this happened, this happened,
this happened, and Mike Foley unfortunately has been you know,
unfortunately an antagonist to Jim Pillen. She has an angle,

(48:22):
she has a stirrup to step into, and it could
be a little bit closer, I think than many people imagine.
And this primary voter turnout I think is illustrative of that.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Christa emails and the zonker's custom was inbox. Scott at
kfab dot com says, please tell Jim Rose thank you
for telling it like it is for season ticket holders
with postseason ticket purchasing. He cleared up the disgusting plan
to kick out loyal ticket holders for the debdy Warbucks donors.

(48:52):
Christa is very happy with you, and he said, thank you.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Well, I just don't think it's fair for sports like
softball and baseball and track and field and even to
a greater extent, volleyball. I just don't believe that it's fair,
and I don't believe it's appropriate for the Athletic Department
to give football donors priority over season ticket holders for

(49:16):
other sports. They don't need the money that badly. And
if we are at a point now where everything is
so transactive down there, well, if you give me a
bunch of money for football, I'll give you a whole
bunch of opportunities for other sports. If that's how desperate
we are to get support, maybe we need to look
at the product on the field. And when I see

(49:36):
football donors go online and say, I don't think it's fair.
I've never gone to a softball game. I mean, I'm
glad they're winning because I'm a Husker fan, But I
have no business getting a softball postseason ticket just because
I give a bunch of money for football. When I
see that, that says to me, we need a reset
down there. And the first thing Troy Dana needs to
say is for these Olympic sports like softball, track and field,

(50:01):
for any postseason events, season ticket holders for that sport
absolutely get priority.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
It says to me that Krista needs more rich friends
when positions of power, and then she wouldn't have a
problem getting seat.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Well, I will say one there is one episode which
really actually kind of made me feel good this football season.
Tickholder said, Okay, I bought the tickets because there are
three potentially three games, you know, in this regional, minimum
of three games in this regional. If Nebraska wins all
three of them, move on to the Super But he said,
here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go
to the first one. I'm going to find a fan

(50:33):
from South Dakota or one of the other schools and
give them the chance to buy the tickets that I have.
And then I'm going to give a third game to
a Husker softball season ticket holder who got shut out
of this because they didn't give enough money to football.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
I'll put him in touch with Krista. A couple of
other assessments here in the inbox. We had someone not
praising brinker Harding in the talkback mich A moment Ago
Monica is in an email and gives us a different perspective. Says,
my older sister knew brinker Harding in high school and college,
and she told me if I ever had the chance

(51:09):
to vote for brinker Harding, I should do it. She
said he's a good guy with Omaha and Nebraska good
values and that exchange has stuck with me. And on
the other hand, I really believe that we do not
need one more pod politician in this country. I'm tired
of the vitriol. I find Brinker's tone and temper refreshing.

(51:30):
She means from a tempered perspective, not his angry temper.
He's a good guy and he's a good public servant.
He was an administrator under hal Like he said, he's
not been elected three times to the city council. He's
a country club Republican with very typical conservative viewpoints.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
He's a low key guy. He's an operator. He brings
people together, he closes deals. He's not going to stand
up on sellboxes and shake his fist. He's not going
to declare things to be awful. He's going to try
to work behind the scenes to get legislation done if
he's a member of the United States Congress. So if
you're looking for some sort of superman, you're not going

(52:09):
to get it with Brinker. But if you're looking for
a workhorse instead of a show pony, that's what you're
gonna get.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
There's one Trump. There are a lot of people who
tried to be Trump. Brinker. Harding is not going to
try and out Trump Trump. He's done very well and
just being who he is now. As far as Denise Powell,
who is the aforementioned po politician, Danny email says, my
anti Trump buddy who says trust the election process now

(52:34):
thinks the elections are messed up because Denise Powell won.
He said, I think it's funny. So you can send
your message as well to Scott at kfab dot com.
Speaking of the Trump stuff, you had one guy wearing
a suit and a red hat in the Secretary of
States race, kind of like Trump does, and then he had.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
To the titlist hat.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
We need to at least get Scott Peterson to make
America great again. Hatam surprising but as an nil deal
with titleist. Yeah, but Peterson beat Bob Evnen in the
secretary of State's race, big upset. We have a statement
here this morning from Bob Evnen says it's been the
honor of a lifetime to serve the great state of

(53:16):
Nebraska as your Secretary of State, and I'm proud of
all the great work our team accomplished these past eight years.
We secured principled conservative reforms, voter id banning Zuckerbucks and
outlawing foreign money in Nebraska's ballot initiatives. We modernized our
business services to make it easier to own and operate

(53:38):
a business in our state, and we open new markets
abroad to support our farmers and ranchers. While we didn't
get the result we wanted, I look forward to serving
out the remainder of my term, and I will work
to ensure a seamless transition following the general election. Thank you, Nebraska.
That's the statement from Bob Evnen.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
That's Bob's voice right there, but he sounds like and
it's unfortunate for him that the voters just started to
believe Scott Peterson's message that you can't trust elections in
this state. We got to get a new guy, and
I'll be the new election sheriff. But to your point
from an hour or so ago, Scott, let's find out

(54:18):
four years from now what changes were made. One of
the things that Scott Peterson has discussed is modernizing our elections,
and I guess I'd like to hear maybe during the
course of the general campaign, we will what he means
by that. If he means voting on smartphones or voting
on poll screens. I don't think that's a good move,
because putting our elections on the internet, to me, makes

(54:40):
them more vulnerable.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
I didn't get the assessment in my conversations with Scott
Peterson here over the last couple of months that that's
what he was talking about.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Be interested to know what it is.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
I think he and Trump are on the same page
saying we need most every single person themselves voting on
election day. This harvesting of ballots and off boxes and
changing the rules on election day because of whatever pandemic
is manufactured at the time, that all needs to stop,
and we need to have some real hard boundaries so

(55:10):
that various election whether its states or counties, districts, can't
do any of that.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Trump likes mail in ballots, Trump likes early voting. He
has been out front on this. He knows that it
helped him win in twenty four, or wanted that in
twenty four. He doesn't say that now. And I'll tell
you exactly what Scott Peterson thinks about those things. I
just got a text back he'll join me on the
radio here in fifteen minutes, so you can talk with
him too. Come on in, hang out, do some overtime.

(55:37):
Rosie