Christy Armendariz LD 18

This Race is Unique and Troubling

There is no incumbent running. This district was vacated by Senator Brett Lindstrom when he chose to run for governor. This means both candidates are newcomers which leads to a lot of odd influences on the election.

The district also has the Bennington school district which has attracted many parents tired of the Omaha Public School system. Call them Omaha refugees. Yes, the property taxes are high but most parents find the education to be quite good. Education is the prime issue in this district. Nebraska should worry about education as the state does not score very well (https://www.heritage.org/educationreportcard/).

After the primaries, I expected the Armendariz campaign (https://www.christyforne.com/) to put out a bit more explicit set of policies on their website but the site is still filled with the same information it had from the beginning of the primary.

In a tight race, where no incumbent is present, the campaign has to make certain all bases are covered, yet the Armendariz campaign has still not filled out surveys such as this one https://www.voterinformation.org/races/general-2022/legislature-district-18--/.

To make matters worse, the race is still tainted by what happened in the primaries. When I recently did an essay mentioning Clarice Jackson (who was a primary opponent), I received the following anonymous posts promoting a myth:

This type of nonsense was drummed up Nebraskans for Government Overreach (NAGO) when they made the decision to endorse candidates. For example, we now know COVID policies contributed to learning loss among students. In fact, many organizations are mentioning the problem (https://www.savethechildren.org/us/charity-stories/learning-loss and https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/parents-need-choices-to-help-students-overcome-covid-19-learning-losses/ar-AA11OyX0). Clarice Jackson recognized the problem early yet NAGO said this about Clarice Jackson:

Of course, the Armendariz campaign cannot be blamed for NAGO but it would help if the campaign would acknowledge Clarice Jackson’s support for school choice and bring the education issue into the campaign. Unfortunately, the Armendariz campaign seems to be on auto-pilot. I might be completely wrong but it seems so.

The Armendariz campaign could also do more to support Constitutional Carry as her opponent clearly believes in gun control. I know her supporters are for Constitutional Carry but her opponent has yet to suffer for his gun control stance.

Anyways, that is my take.