Omaha Political Chaos Spreading

Narrowing of Discussion

After criticizing Jeremy Aspen for his online comments on his article in the Omaha World-Herald, the paper decided to eliminate public comments on their online
articles. This comes shortly after the Douglas County Commissioners abolished open public comments.

By now, you have heard of Nebraska State Senator McDonnell’s expulsion out of the Democrat Party and into the Republican Party. Is this an actual trend or a fluke? When viewing the Douglas County Party voter registrations, Democrats still outnumber Republicans (see lower right-hand corner https://www.votedouglascounty.com/). There appears to be a general purge of diverse ideas and discussion and it seems to be spreading. The whole point of my newsletter is to provide information and discussion.  

At the same time, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert says she will run for mayor again. Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing says he is running for Mayor as well. Speculation suggests City Council members Pete Festersen and Brinker Harding might run as well. However, with Governor Pillen’s tax plan flaying in the winds of failure (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/04/04/governor-opens-the-door-to-pausing-income-tax-cuts-to-fund-his-property-tax-relief-plan/), the focus on the Mayoral race will be or should be on property taxes (https://andrewlsullivan.substack.com/p/omaha-why-property-taxes). McDonnell is considering running for Mayor, and if he does, his votes for the EPIC option consumption tax in the legislature will matter (https://epicoption.org/).  Yet, a serious discussion on taxes is muted when the City gains more property tax revenues year after year.  Stothert simply has not controlled spending.

There are other things shifting as well. Democrat Douglas County Commissioner Maureen Boyle, daughter of former Mayor Mike Boyle, is not running again. Sean Kelly, a Creighton Prep graduate, is running for the open position (https://kellyforcommissioner.org/). If he is elected, this area will have flipped from blue to red in an area which elected liberal Senators Megan Hunt and Machaela Cavanaugh.  This will be a real test of where the political winds are shifting. 

To top this off, Dan Frei (https://www.frei4nebraska.com/) is running for Congressman Don Bacon. The problem in Omaha is many voters are registered non-partisan and cannot vote in the primaries. Does this help Bacon or Frei? Hard to tell but Omaha is very liberal in many ways, yet there are conservatives who have disdain for political parties, thus registered as non-partisan. Time is running out and I see very little party switching from voters. 

What could put the whole matter into chaos or put pressure on the situation is if national groups such as Club for Growth (https://www.clubforgrowth.org/elections/pac-endorsed-candidates/), Senate Conservatives (https://www.senateconservatives.com/#candidates) of the House Freedom Fund (https://www.housefreedomfund.com/#candidates) enter in on behalf of Frei. These organizations are the most powerful conservative political action committees. Their candidates are solid and worthy of donations.

Frei is important because he is focused on preserving the sustainability of the Republic of the United States of America which is encountering numerous problems. But does Omaha fully understand what those problems actually are? Is there anyone to explain such problems when open forums and discussions are being narrowed?

As for this election year, you can catch up with Nebraska elections at the Voter Information Project Nebraska at https://www.voterinformation.org/