Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / LD-18 Candidate Jess Goldoni

Transcript

LD-18 Candidate Jess Goldoni · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A very good morning to you. Welcome to the KFAB
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Comment Line. I am your host, Jean Stothert, and guess what?
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Peyton Highlock, my producer, is not here today. No, I
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: am not manning the soundboard. Scott Voorhees, the one and only,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: has agreed to stay on.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Scott.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: I figure it's the best place to listen to the
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: show is to sit here and watch it in person.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Listen to it firsthand.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you, and thank you all for being with
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  Speaker 1: us today. We want to hear from you. We want
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to get your feedback, hear your comments, concerns, questions, complaints.
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  Speaker 1: Anything goes, city, state, national, the world. And, of course,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to hear plenty of opinions from me, and
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  Speaker 1: we always have great guests. We've had two weeks of
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of great guests, but it is your chance
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to speak up and sound off. Please send your emails
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to comment at kfab.com. You can call us at 402-558-1110,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: or you can leave us a recorded message on the
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: talkback mic, and we will play it on the air.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: We are very happy that you are with us today,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and I'm very happy that Jess Goldoni is here today.
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  Speaker 2: She is.
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  Speaker 4: Good morning.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Jean. How are you? I'm doing well. How
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: about yourself?
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  Speaker 4: Good, good.
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  Speaker 2: Very good.
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  Speaker 1: She is a Democrat candidate for Nebraska Legislative District 18.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for being with us.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Explain to our listeners who are not in Legislative District
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: 18 what your boundary lines are.
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  Speaker 2: So think of Northwest Omaha and Bennington.
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  Speaker 5: So everything west of about 76th Street out to 192nd
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  Speaker 5: and then north in most places of Ida. We have
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  Speaker 5: the Walmart. We go down to Maple at 156th Street.
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  Speaker 5: But otherwise, it's everything northwest there encompassing all of Bennington
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  Speaker 5: and quite a lot of farmland.
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  Speaker 6: Okay.
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  Speaker 4: All right.
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  Speaker 2: Got it.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, do you know I ran for the
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  Speaker 1: legislature in 2006?
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  Speaker 2: I know what this is like.
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  Speaker 1: And you said before we caught on the air, you
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  Speaker 1: said you're walking the district for the third time, I believe.
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  Speaker 1: Legislative districts are typically small enough that you could do that.
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  Speaker 1: I ran for District 12, which is Ralston and southwest Omaha.
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  Speaker 1: And I know I walked the district at least three times.
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  Speaker 1: These legislative districts, you get to know people and you
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: get to know what the issues are.
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  Speaker 2: So we're going to talk about that today.
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  Speaker 1: But Jess, I wanted to just bring up, first of all,
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  Speaker 1: you said, I've had you quoted in saying this isn't
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: about the right or left. It's about moving forward. And
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  Speaker 1: then you talked about it's about managing budgets. It's about
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: lowering taxes. It's about access to health care. So there's
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: all sorts of things on the table. But I'm just
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: going to, I'm going to really ask you for specifics
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: today because all the candidates are saying the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody is saying, whether it's a legislative candidate or a
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: candidate for governor, we need lower taxes, etc. So I'm
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: going to ask you how you hope to achieve these things.
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  Speaker 1: The three things that I saw, the reason that you
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: said you are running, is to lower the cost of taxes,
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  Speaker 1: strengthen our schools and family, and move Nebraska forward with
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  Speaker 1: discipline and optimism. Let's just jump right in, shall we?
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Because these are the hardest questions. People think that probably
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the easiest question is to say, why are you running?
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  Speaker 2: But you know what?
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  Speaker 1: For the candidate, it's really the hardest because you really
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: got to dig in there and say, I'm running because
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: of this, but here's what I want to do about it.
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  Speaker 1: Let me ask you, Jess, why are you running and
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: what do you hope to achieve?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
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  Speaker 6: I am.
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  Speaker 5: As you said, knocking doors is the best way to
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: be able to talk to voters and actually hear what
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  Speaker 5: matters to them. So I think that's why most people
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: sound the same. My why story is a little bit different.
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  Speaker 5: To be honest, I've never run for office before. I'm
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  Speaker 5: a first timer. I have built businesses for 20 years
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  Speaker 5: in Omaha. And to be honest, I was pretty frustrated
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  Speaker 5: and jaded with politics. Felt like neither side really represented
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  Speaker 5: me well. And I was just tired of all of
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  Speaker 5: the fighting and not getting anything done. And we forgot
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  Speaker 5: something really important, which is the ability to disagree but
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  Speaker 5: still respect each other and still be able to work together.
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  Speaker 5: And especially in a unicameral, that's incredibly important. It's not
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  Speaker 5: just working across the aisle. It's working as a group
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  Speaker 5: and it's also standing up to your own party potentially
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  Speaker 5: on something. I'm definitely more of an independent thinker and
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  Speaker 5: I don't sit on my hands when there's problems to
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  Speaker 5: be solved. So I have a unique set of skills
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  Speaker 5: with communication and then also my tech experience. Business building experience,
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  Speaker 5: I have experience signing both sides of a paycheck. So
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  Speaker 5: managing million dollar budgets and building teams and that sort
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  Speaker 5: of thing, it's right in my wheelhouse. But so is
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  Speaker 5: working together and communicating and actually talking with people and
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  Speaker 5: not being afraid of those hard conversations.
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  Speaker 2: Well, no doubt.
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  Speaker 1: If you can't work with the other side, there's no
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  Speaker 1: doubt you're never going to get anything done. And in
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  Speaker 1: the Nebraska legislature, you would be one of 49. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that's a lot of different people. That's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: different opinions in that group, too. And I know that
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  Speaker 1: the governor has made a lot of attempts to lower taxes.
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  Speaker 1: He even held a special session to try to get
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  Speaker 1: something done. And didn't, wasn't able to. And so we're
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about that a bit today. So let's
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  Speaker 1: just start out with your campaign. Would you consider yourself
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  Speaker 1: a liberal or a moderate?
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  Speaker 5: So I've answered that quite a few times at the door.
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  Speaker 5: And it's interesting because I would consider myself a moderate.
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  Speaker 5: I consider myself left of center. I got the best
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  Speaker 5: compliment the other day from a Republican. And he said
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  Speaker 5: that I am a JFK Democrat. And I think that's
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  Speaker 5: pretty accurate. I'm pro-business, pro-innovation, but also I believe in
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  Speaker 5: small government and get out of our way so that
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  Speaker 5: we can get something done. You said earlier about 49
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  Speaker 5: senators in the Unicameral. I really hope this year that
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  Speaker 5: the 49 senators are united in the one main goal
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: that we need to be focused on, and that is
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  Speaker 5: getting our money right. We have to get the budget correct.
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  Speaker 5: We have to get property taxes. We actually have to
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  Speaker 5: have reform, not just relief. We've been promising relief for years.
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  Speaker 5: So I think it's time to face the fact that
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  Speaker 5: this might be a structural problem and evaluate every solution
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  Speaker 5: that's on the table. So I don't care where it
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  Speaker 5: comes from. I think there's quite a lot of solutions
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  Speaker 5: that have been brought by both sides. I think it
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  Speaker 5: starts with auditing. I think that the current state auditor,
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  Speaker 5: Mike Foley, has done an excellent job, and we need
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  Speaker 5: to continue to have somebody in that role with the
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  Speaker 5: resources needed to audit every tax incentive, every exemption, and
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  Speaker 5: every state agency budget to see how our budget is
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  Speaker 5: being spent and how our tax dollars are being spent.
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  Speaker 5: That's step number one. And then number two, the structural problem,
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  Speaker 5: we're going to have to reevaluate the school funding formula.
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  Speaker 5: So the task force that the governor put together has
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  Speaker 5: come back with some recommendations. We need to evaluate those
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  Speaker 5: and see how do we actually, for once, because as
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  Speaker 5: you know, property taxes are levied at the local level.
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  Speaker 5: They're collected at the local level and they're spent at
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  Speaker 5: the local level. So how do we relieve that pressure
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  Speaker 5: on those local governments? Caps are great in theory, but
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: then that's just capping their revenue. That's not handling the
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  Speaker 5: underlying costs. I also think caps on valuations would be
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  Speaker 5: something that we could look into, but whether or not
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  Speaker 5: it works with the Nebraska Constitution or we don't want
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  Speaker 5: to end up in a situation like California where the
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  Speaker 5: home building business was harmed pretty significantly by their Prop 13.
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  Speaker 5: But yes, I think number one, We need to dive
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  Speaker 5: into the budget and property tax. That's first and foremost,
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  Speaker 5: and we have to grow Nebraska. I mean that is
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  Speaker 5: the only way we get.
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  Speaker 2: Out of this.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's go back and talk about taxes for a
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  Speaker 1: bit because you are very right, and I know this
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  Speaker 1: from a lot of experience, that taxes are levied locally.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 2: You have multiple taxing entities.
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  Speaker 1: So, for example, for the city of Omaha, about 63%
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  Speaker 1: of your total property tax bills goes to public education.
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  Speaker 1: Only about 22% goes to the city of Omaha, 12
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  Speaker 1: 1⁄2 Douglas County. Then there's the other taxing entities, the NRDs,
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  Speaker 1: the Metro Transit, Metro Community College. Okay, so they're levying.
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  Speaker 1: So then what is it, in your opinion, that the
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  Speaker 1: state can do? Now, we have a revenue tax. cap
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  Speaker 1: that is imposed by the legislature a year or so ago.
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  Speaker 2: But that's a revenue cap.
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  Speaker 1: And it is meant that if you get a lot
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  Speaker 1: more revenue than the year before, then you would turn
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  Speaker 1: around and try to lower the levy.
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  Speaker 2: However, that's not happening. And it's not happening with the schools.
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  Speaker 1: The governor gave a $ 1, 500 credit to each student, hoping
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  Speaker 1: that the school districts will lower that levy.
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  Speaker 2: It's not happening. And so now I know that you–
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  Speaker 2: are you supported by the NSCA? I am. Are you
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  Speaker 2: endorsed by the NSA? Okay.
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  Speaker 1: So the NSCA is out there giving a lot of
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  Speaker 1: money to preserve the good life, which runs attack ads
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: against Republican senators. I know they've given $ 25, 000 to Lynn Waltz.
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  Speaker 1: Can you name an issue that you think you would
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  Speaker 1: vote against as far as what the NSCA's union is
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  Speaker 1: lobbying for?
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  Speaker 5: Sure.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, because this issue with the schools is real.
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  Speaker 1: And I will say when I lowered the levy five
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  Speaker 1: times as mayor of Omaha with approval of the city council,
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  Speaker 1: but it was lowered on our 22%. People hardly saw
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  Speaker 1: any change at all. If we are going to see
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  Speaker 1: a change, it's got to be with the schools that
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: levy the most taxes. So tell the listeners and the voters,
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  Speaker 1: you're endorsed by the NSCA. They don't want to mess
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  Speaker 1: with that school state aid formula at all, and they
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  Speaker 1: don't want to be capped on their revenue.
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  Speaker 2: What would you do?
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  Speaker 5: Well, I think that the NSCA endorsed me, first of all.
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  Speaker 5: My bonus dad taught public school for 30 years. I
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  Speaker 5: myself am a graduate from public school. My mom made
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: the choice. to move us into an apartment into District 66.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: So that was the choice that she made so that
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  Speaker 5: we could live in the district so I could attend
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  Speaker 5: public schools. But it comes down to the fact that
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: we have a structural problem with the way that we're
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: currently funding.
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  Speaker 2: You said 62%.
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  Speaker 5: It's anywhere between 62% and 72% coming from property taxes
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  Speaker 5: that are going to public schools.
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  Speaker 2: That's across Nebraska. I just told you what it was
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  Speaker 2: in Omaha.
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  Speaker 6: Right.
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  Speaker 5: And the only way that we're going to be able
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  Speaker 5: to get out of this, from what I can tell,
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: from the fire hose that I've been drinking from and
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: all of the research that I've done and everyone that
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  Speaker 5: I've talked to, the school boards, I sat down with Dr.
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  Speaker 5: Ploss from Bennington School Board. I've sat down with OPS
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  Speaker 5: School Board. I've sat down with the teachers. I've sat
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  Speaker 5: down with local entities, the city of Bennington, the city
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  Speaker 5: of Omaha, and really talked about how can we get
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: into this. The only way we can is by by
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  Speaker 5: reevaluating that formula. The state- The state aid formula?
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  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: The TIOSA?
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: The state will probably have to take on more of
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: that responsibility. The only way we can do that is
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  Speaker 5: if we have the revenue to be able to do
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: that and if we maintain local control.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: And then where's that revenue going to come from is
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  Speaker 2: the big question. Exactly.
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: How are we going to pay for it? And that's
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  Speaker 5: my big question with everybody that says property tax relief.
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  Speaker 5: How are we going to pay for it? We're walking
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  Speaker 5: into a deficit anywhere between $ 200 million to a billion dollars,
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: depending on how you're looking at it. How are we
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: going to pay for property tax relief once and for all?
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: We created a billion-dollar education relief future fund.
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  Speaker 2: We created the property tax relief fund.
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  Speaker 5: And these large investments that the governor has done without
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: the accountability to make sure that the levies are then reduced,
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  Speaker 5: like you said in the beginning.
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  Speaker 2: So how are we going to pay for it? Let
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  Speaker 2: me ask you this.
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  Speaker 1: If the NSCA union opposed a cap on school spending,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: would you oppose that?
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  Speaker 5: Like I've told everybody that has endorsed me, you endorse
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  Speaker 5: me or you support me because my values align with yours.
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: That is not a guaranteed vote. That is not me
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: towing the line. I am going to be an independent
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: thought thinker and an independent voice in the legislature regardless
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: of whose party I am or who has endorsed me.
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  Speaker 1: And your endorsements are– I mean they're pretty strong liberal.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: You are endorsed by Mayor Ewing. You were walking door
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: to door with Denise Powell, correct? And so I mean
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: it seems like a lot of your support is coming
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: from– from liberal thinking um elected officials or groups.
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  Speaker 5: I also have bipartisan support so i've met with a
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  Speaker 5: lot of republicans i have a lot of republican friends
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  Speaker 5: and i have some republican senators that have also supported
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: me as well so i think i can.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Can you name some endorsements of some republicans.
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: I'd prefer not to name them on the radio we
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: have a mailer that's coming out but uh i certainly
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: can i mean uh i have uh uh i would
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  Speaker 5: prefer not to name.
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  Speaker 2: Them Okay, but people can find out. I will let
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  Speaker 2: you know that.
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  Speaker 6: Oh, 100%.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Everybody can find out from the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Let's talk a bit about dark money. It looks like
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: more than $ 100, 000 from Outside Group has been spent backing
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: your campaign. Do you want to name who some of
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that outside money is, or do you want to keep
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: that quiet?
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: To be honest, I don't know.
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: It all comes from one entity on our side in
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: terms of that they have established a way to be
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: able to fund candidates.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Where they put all of the money together. So I
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: don't know that.
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  Speaker 5: I dig as far as I can when I have
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: suspicions and concerns. I don't take donations from anybody that
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: I have knowledge of having any ties, but I don't know. Again,
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  Speaker 5: I value their support, and I think that's the only
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: way in this being one of the most expensive legislative
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: races in the state is the only way that we're
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: going to– elect someone in this district, but I don't
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: presume to know, and again, no one owns me. I
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: don't have a board of directors.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: There is, I know you have said, because I feel
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the same way, I don't like attack ads, but I
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: know I have seen four mailers that are really attacking
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Taylor Royal, largely from the teachers union. So you know
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: where those are coming. I mean, if you don't like
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: attack ads, would you be willing to ask them to
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: stop the attack ads?
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  Speaker 8: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 5: I have no control over that. I have no idea
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: what they're doing. I haven't even seen them. And what's
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: interesting is, you know, you mentioned four mailers from the
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: education side or whoever is funding those, the PAC company.
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: I have six different shell companies or PACs that are
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: attacking me on a daily basis. So they're sending out
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: three to six text messages a day and mailers a day.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Like super PACs, things like that? No, local ones, ones
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: that were recently created.
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: One that is known to be the governor's PAC, Nebraska United,
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: that is sending out videos and text messages and mailers
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: with actual lies as well. I think, honestly, after this election,
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: we need to have a conversation about finance reforms. Because
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: the amount of money that is being spent in these elections,
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: the amount of attacking, the amount of lies, I have
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: never seen it in my entire marketing business building career.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Well, I've seen it, but it's getting worse. I mean,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: they did it against me many, many times. But I
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: think it's getting worse than it was before. It's the
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: issue with if you form a PAC, you know who
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: is supporting it and who's putting money in it. These
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: super PACs, you don't know. Eventually you do, but you
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: really don't know. And boy, I mean, they just come
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: out swinging against you. But I don't know if that
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: will ever really happen. It just seems like people ask
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: or call in on this show a lot and say, well,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: can't you stop that? And at this point in time, no,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: you can't. And it's become just accepted in a political
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: campaign that you're going to get attacked and they're going
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: to say lies about you. And that's why it's so
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: frustrating even to me because I'm not running for anything,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: nor will I ever again. But when I listen to
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: these commercials, some of them are just not true. And
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: they are meant right now to confuse you and to
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: confuse the voter. And now you don't know what to believe.
• 15:43
  Speaker 7: It is.
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: It's voter manipulation. Honestly, I don't care about the tax.
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: I signed up for this.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Bring it. Give me your best shot.
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: What I care about is the fact that I have
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: voters that have supported me that have questions or I
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: have voters that don't want to talk to me. And
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: then once they find out who I am, they realize
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: that what they've been reading are lies, that I am
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: not some radical. I'm not some liberal progressive, that I'm
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: just a normal person who works for a living and
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: has had to work multiple jobs most of my life.
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: And that I'm pretty common sense. And quite frankly, I mean, I...
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: I came to you, Jean, to be on your show
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: because this is exactly what I'm running my campaign on.
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: I am walking into rooms that may disagree with me
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: because that's how we get out of this.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: It's expected.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: This is Jess Galdoni that's with us today who's running
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: for the legislature and Legislative District 18. I want to
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: make sure you know who we're talking to here today. So, Jess,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: let me ask you, do you agree or disagree with
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the governor that says we should have property rights? tax
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: revenue caps. Do you agree with that, that we're imposed
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: on the cities? Do you agree that we should have caps?
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't outright disagree. Let me put it
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: that way.
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: I think that it's important for us to understand what
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: inflation and what the cost of goods does up top to.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Bottom in government.
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: And so when you're putting a hard cap on a
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: municipality like Omaha, for example, are you keeping in mind
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: that costs and goods and resources all increase year over
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: year for everyone.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Who has a business? It is true.
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: So I think it's important that we do it with
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: a surgical scalpel, that we make sure that we do
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: it the right way and that we're talking to those
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: local governments because– Again, I'm not against caps if they're
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: done in the right way and if they fix the problem.
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: I'm tired of this putting caps or doing credits in
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: a future fund or– Shifting taxes from one hand to
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: the other. Let's fix the actual problem, the structural problem
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: underneath everything.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And the question is, this has been going on for
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: a good 15 years. How do we get that done?
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: With the city of Omaha, for example, there's a cap
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: that exists now on revenue, on property taxes. But our
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: biggest source of income is sales tax. And the sales
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: tax in the 2027 budget, which is the first one
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: that Mayor Ewing is doing, they're expecting about $ 24 million
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: more In sales tax, so his budget is going up
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: almost 7%. Now, that doesn't seem like it's spending restraint
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: to me. A 7% increase in budget with a revenue cap,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: hoping that you're going to turn around if you have
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: increased revenue and lower the property taxes. The property taxes
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: are not being lowered. The revenue is up in property tax,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and the revenue is greatly up in sales tax. So
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I guess my point is the system that we have
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: now in those revenue caps, they are not really– serving
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: the purpose that they were meant to serve. And, you know,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: then they do a public safety exemption too. So public
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: safety is out of that cap. So it really proposes
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a lot, still a lot of problems. It hasn't solved
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: the problem yet. Let's just ask you too about the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: state income tax.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Excuse me.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: There was the largest state income tax cut under Governor Pillen.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: In 2027, it's going to be down to 3.99%. A
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: lot of the Democrats in the legislature are blaming this
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: for part of the shortfall. Would you want to raise
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: that income tax level back up? What would you do
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: with the state income tax that is going progressively down?
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: So a couple of things with this.
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: One, Do I think, and also I have heard that
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: the current legislature at the time believed that the rate
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: at the income tax and corporate tax reductions.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Were possibly going to be detrimental to our budget?
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Do I agree with that?
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: But I don't agree with rolling those back. I think
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: that Nebraska needs to be competitive. I think that we
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: need to ultimately grow our state. And so I don't
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: believe that we should be rolling those back and raising
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: any of those taxes. But we have to acknowledge that
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: not only was that part of our deficit, but then
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: also the billion dollar funds that we've been creating.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: We have to grow revenue. We have to.
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: And so if we're not going to touch those income taxes,
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: if we're not going to touch the corporate taxes, how
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: else are we going to get revenue in the state?
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and to attract business and more people into the state.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I'm Jean Stothert, and we're with Jess Galdoni today, who's
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: a Democrat candidate for Nebraska Legislative District 18. You know, Jess,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: just in the break, I was talking to you and
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: said right now the makeup of the legislature, the 49 legislators,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: 33 Republicans, 15 Democrats, one progressive, I guess you would
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: call them. The pressure would be on and the pressure
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: would absolutely be on you to stay and vote with
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the Democrat Party. If elected, do you think you could
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: join a filibuster against property tax relief?
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Or do you think you could?
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, these are questions that I think you got
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: to ask yourself right now, too, because the pressure will
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: be on you. What I'm asking is, could you break
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: from the party?
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: The answer is easy.
• 21:00
  Speaker 8: Yes.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: Because I'm there to represent my district. And District 18,
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: I call it a pink district a little bit because
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: it has a little bit of an independent streak in it.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: But the majority of us, quite frankly, after thousands of
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: doors that I've knocked, we're all in the middle.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: We have views on both sides.
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: And it's important that both sides recognize that there's a
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: growing group in the middle of whether you call them moderates, independents, conservatives. normal,
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: and they're both tired of the loud fringes on both
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: sides that are just gridlocking everything and just fighting over
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: these distractions while we can't get property tax relief, while
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: we can't get lower cost of living. So yes, I'm
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: not afraid to stand up to my own party, another party,
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: another person.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: I'm also not afraid to partner.
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: With somebody that would be completely unexpected or to listen
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: and work together on something. Because quite frankly, that is
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: the only way we're going to make this work. And
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: that's the only way we're going to make our lives better.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Well, like I said before, you have to work with
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the other side or else you will never get anything done.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: And look what's going on right now in Congress, not
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: getting anything done. And I'll agree with you there. I
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: always said there's 10% on the far right, 10% on
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the far left. Everybody else is somewhere in the middle,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: leaning one direction or another or right in the middle.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: And that's who you got to focus on.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: But that vocal minority on each end is the one
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: that I think is really causing a majority of the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: problems and really, really puts the pressure on you. Let
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: me ask you just a couple, maybe rapid fire. And
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: then I want to talk to you about AI because
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: holy cow, has that become a real major issue in
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: all of these campaigns?
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Boys and girls sports.
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: So I believe the legislature decided that and put that
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: into rules. And I think that local control with the
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: NCAA and sports organizations and schools have decided it. Nobody
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: wants predators. Everybody wants to be able to have fairness.
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: And I played sports myself. Everybody wants fairness. But I'm
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: interested to see what the voters decide on the ballot.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Health care for all. How do we pay for it?
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think it's a great idea. I do
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: think that health care should be a right. I don't
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: think that health care bankruptcy should exist. I myself have
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: been without health insurance when I was younger, and it's
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: a scary feeling. But I don't know how we pay
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: for it. And we've got to figure that out before
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: we start selling dreams.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. And we talked about this yesterday when Don Bacon
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: was on. Look on the international scale. Look what is
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: going on in France right now. These riots– and they're
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: not just a socialist state. They're a combination of being–
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: socialist and capitalist, but they have a lot of welfare programs.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: They have free education, they have free healthcare, and they
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: have some of the highest taxes in the entire world
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: to pay for it.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: So maybe it sounds good.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, Denise Powell is out there saying, you know,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: everybody deserves free health care. It's basically a right. How
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: do you pay for that? We are in debt right now.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: The state's in debt. The national government, excuse me, the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: federal government, about $ 40 trillion in debt. How do you
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: achieve these things and then still be able to afford
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: to live here?
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: That's the big issue. Open borders.
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: No, I think we need a strong immigration system. I
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: think no one wants to have criminals here. I believe
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: that it's been broken for a very long time and
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: it's been very difficult to get bipartisan legislation that actually
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: fix the system. But we have to have that. Our
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: immigration system is broken and you can see that.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Both sides. Right.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of talk about what some candidates want
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: to eliminate the Medicaid benefits to those in the state
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: in Nebraska. What I see is they just want to
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: eliminate Medicaid going to those that don't qualify.
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: What's your opinion on that? Let's play by the rules
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: and follow the system. And if you qualify, if you
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: have work requirements, because a lot of, if we're talking
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: about immigrants, a lot of them have work visas and
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: they're authorized legally to work here. And so they should
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: be able to have access to benefits if they are
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: following the system and following the rules.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: And if they're authorized, absolutely. I think those are benefits
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: that should be available. Okay. If they qualify for them
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: is what you're saying.
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Defund, disassemble police.
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: No.
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Good.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: But that is a– from the far left, that is
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: something that is being said. Open borders, defund, disassemble police,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: get rid of the prisons. I mean there's just a
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: variety of different positions that are being taken in this election,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: and I think we're going to all see what happens
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: on November 4th. State regulating– here we go. State regulating
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: big tech. Let's talk about that. You founded an AI company.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Data centers want big state incentives and they want cheap
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: and affordable power. If there was a vote about data centers,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: would you then need to recuse yourself since you have
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: an AI company?
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: No, because it's not actually associated with a data center.
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: I have an AI education company. So I'm teaching business
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: owners and entrepreneurs and teachers and schools and real estate
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: agents how to be able to use AI. That's very,
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: very far from data centers. I've just done the research
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: and the legwork and had conversations with people that have
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: built data centers. I have friends and family that have
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: worked in some of these entities. And so I've done
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: the legwork to understand it. And to be honest, we
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: aren't ready as a state. So we did tax incentives
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: to get them here, and that was before we knew
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: the industry and what was going to be required.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Do you support those incentives?
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: No, in the sense that I think that we have
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: to reevaluate the formula. So you have Iowa, for example,
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: who has negotiated data centers with Google, good actors in
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: their state, and they got a nuclear power plant out
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: of it. So I think we need to have a
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: conversation about these are trillion-dollar companies. So I think bare
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: minimum– Protect our resources. Protect our energy. You build your
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: own infrastructure. You probably take care of your own power
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: depending on making sure that that doesn't affect public power.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: So impact to humans should be nothing.
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: Then on top of that, how are you continuing to
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: invest in our communities? How are you continuing to provide revenue?
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: Because they do pay property tax. They are willing to
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: pay construction tax.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: And they pay for their energy. Then they pay for
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: their energy.
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: They have a reduced rate, but they do pay for
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: their energy and they do pay for infrastructure.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: And that is negotiated through– Here, through OPPD.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: It's not the city of Omaha or the cities.
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: They actually have to go through 15 different agencies to
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: be able to build here. And we need to unify
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: that to make sure that we– that they're holding up
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: their end of the bargain. So to answer your question,
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: I'm not going to evaluate tax incentives until they are transparent,
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: until they tell us what water and energy and power
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: and what they're actually using because we're starting to talk
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: about measuring compute space and compute power and how are
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: we going to charge for intelligence. Right. The conversation around
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: AI and data centers, we could do an entire show
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: about it because it's that complicated.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: It is complicated, and people don't understand.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: No, and most people are afraid because we don't trust
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: who's driving the car. We don't trust big tech to
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: regulate itself. We feel like there needs to be somebody
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: that's knowledgeable, somebody that understands technology, that can ask the
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: right questions and hold them accountable. And questions that we
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: haven't even thought of. How is this going to affect
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: our kids? How is this going to affect our workforce,
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: our economy?
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: Is it going to ruin mankind in a decade? Exactly.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: What is winning this?
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: These scare tactics that are out there now. I heard
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: something the other day that I thought was– I keep
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: on thinking about it because they said anytime– humans are
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: trying to regulate something with a lot more intelligence than
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: they have, it's going to get complicated.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: And that's what's scary about it. Well, it's scary.
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: And it's also, you need to know at what level
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: of government do we need to have these conversations? So
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: regulating AI in general, that needs to be a federal
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: government responsibility.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: How are the models used?
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: How are they priced is a big, important conversation is
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: they're each setting the price differently on each of the
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: different corporations.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: So And then what can we do at the state level?
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: We can't protect us from how– so I have a
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: client that he's a doctor and he had all of
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: his denials of his health insurance claims for his patients triple.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: He called the insurance company.
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: It was because they were using an AI algorithm to
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: review those insurance claims without his knowledge. And so how
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: do we make sure there's a human in that mix?
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: How do we make sure that the appeal process is easy?
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: Because this is going to start to affect very consequential decisions.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: In our life. I mean, the Nebraska government's using AI
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: right now. It seems like everybody's using it. Oh, it's everywhere.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: But me.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Somebody still has to teach me. Okay, Jen Goldini is
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: with us today. Jen, in the primary, we're going to
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: wrap up here, but it was a three-way race. You
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: came out ahead in the primary. But you still have–
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: you had two other candidates. I've been through this myself.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: You've got to gather those votes from Schwartz.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: So what are you doing?
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: Well, first of all, I'm having conversations with everyone. I
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: had a fantastic conversation with a group of men, Republican men,
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: invited me to a driveway party, and it was not
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: easy questions.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: A driveway party?
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: A driveway party. So they had all of their friends over,
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: and I came over and sat down.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: And they were ready.
• 30:29
  Speaker 8: Oh, gosh.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: They were ready. I've been in that situation. They were
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: ready to tear me down.
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: And two and a half hours later, we had talked
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: about every single taboo topic you can. And of the
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: four people that could vote for me, I walked away
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: with four votes and four donations.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Get out there and you got to talk to people.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: That's the thing.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: And let them know who you are and what you're
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: going to stand for. Any last words for the voters?
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: I think that this– we're all pretty tired right now.
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: We're all pretty exhausted and frustrated. Try to clarify what
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: you're reading and what you're seeing.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Make sure it's the facts.
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: Make sure you are researching the candidate and vote for
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: the candidate that you think represents you the best and
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: also the one that's going to be able to help
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: us in the future so that we have somebody that
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: has technology experience or knowledge of what is going to
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: change in our economy. And how are we going to
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: be able to grow Nebraska for the future? It's one
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: thing to balance a budget. Most business owners can do that.
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: But now it's time to fix the structure and actually
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: bring people together and not just talk about it and
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: be willing to stand up to their own side. And
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: let's get back to where we can disagree and still
• 31:32
  Speaker 5: get something done because we need more of us that
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: are in the 80 percent that have worked hard for
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: a living, struggled, so that we can write good policy
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: that helps us.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Jess, for being here with us.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Jeff Goldoni, she's a candidate for Nebraska Legislative District 18.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: And in all fairness, Taylor Royal, who is your opponent
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: in this race, will be on the show tomorrow. I'm
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: going to be asking him the same questions tomorrow. So
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for being with us today. We
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: really appreciate it.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Jean. This is the.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: KFAB Comment Line with Gene Stothert on News Radio 1110 KFAB.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: We didn't have time to take any calls or any emails,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: but Scott, I think we might have a few.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: Let's have them. Let's talk to Jimmer here. He called 402-558-1110. Jimmer,
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: you're on 1110 KFAB with Gene Stothert.
• 32:20
  Speaker 7: Welcome.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: Hi, Gene. I really enjoy your show.
• 32:25
  Speaker 7: I just wanted to point out two comments that I
• 32:28
  Speaker 7: heard your guest say today that were red flags for me.
• 32:32
  Speaker 7: You were very kind to her, and that's wonderful, but
• 32:36
  Speaker 7: you asked her a pointed question about do men belong
• 32:40
  Speaker 7: in girls' sports, and she went on to say that
• 32:42
  Speaker 7: she was an athlete and she didn't like the idea,
• 32:46
  Speaker 7: but she'd listened to her voters.
• 32:48
  Speaker 8: Yes.
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: That just sounded really wishy-washy and double-talked to me. The
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: second thing and the final comment is if she's out
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: there making joint calls with Denise Powell, I don't want
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: anything to do with her. And that's all I have
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: to say.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Well, Jimmer, I appreciate your comment and your call. And
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I did want to bring that out because I look
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: at Denise Powell as definitely a liberal left Democrat. And
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: I know she was out walking door to door with her.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: So that does say something. And so– but I will
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: tell you, I had Don Bacon walking door-to-door with me
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: when I was running. And so a lot of times
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: that candidates will do that, but you got to agree
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: with what their positions are. And I have talked about
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Denise Powell a lot of times on this radio show,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: and the one thing that annoys me the most is–
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Her campaign is coming out and saying things that are
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: absolutely not true. And that is one thing that just
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: really annoys me. And it's meant to confuse the voters.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: It's meant to sway you one way or another. And
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: if they can't come out and tell the truth, then
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: those aren't the type of people that I think should
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: be elected in office.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: But thank you, Jimmer.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: This call has to do with Denise Powell. It comes
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: from Joe. Joe, you're on NewsRadio 1110 KFAB's Comment Line
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: with Gene Stothert.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Joe.
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: Hey, good morning, Gene. I really like your show. Maybe
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: you've talked about this before, but it's been on my
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: mind a long time. Has John Kavanaugh endorsed Denise Powell?
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: No.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: He has not, and I don't believe he is going to.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: And I have reached out to John. I've reached out
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: to his sister, Michaela, and asked if they wanted to
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: be on the show. And they both turned it down
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: just to say, we're not ready to do that yet.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Let's just see what happens. But no, they have not
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: come out and endorsed Denise. And I think that says
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: a lot. You know, the Kavanaugh name has been in
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: the Democrat Party for years. I like John Kavanaugh, to
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: tell you the truth. He was very, very kind to
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: me and worked with me when I was the Republican
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: mayor of Omaha. And what she– what they did, what
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the Powell campaign did, the dark money that came in
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: and how they tried to destroy him in the primary–
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: That might be just something that they're not going to say, OK, fine,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: then we're going to endorse you, Denise, because I think
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: that that was wrong. And I think that they they
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: understand that that was wrong, how wrong that was. But
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: it makes me feel like Denise Powell will do or
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: say absolutely anything for votes. And to be honest with you,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: you know, I've had Dan Osborne on the show. I
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: have had Lynn Waltz on this show, Jess Goldoni that
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: was just on, all Democrat candidates. I have reached out
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: to Denise Powell multiple, multiple times to be on this show,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: and she doesn't even respond.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: It's just, no, they won't.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's stunning, really. Yeah, I agree with you. I've
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: casually known of John a long time, and.
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: I don't agree with him politically, but he's a fine person.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. And I'm the same way.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I don't agree with a lot of his politics. But
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: he was one of those Democrats in the legislature that
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: was very good to work with. I remember there were
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: several issues that he wanted to... to lead in the legislature.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: And he contacted me and asked me how I felt
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: about it. And could I support him in doing that?
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: You don't see that too much. And that's exactly how
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: you get things done. You work with the other side.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: And John, John did that.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: Up next, we have a call from Paul. Hey, Paul,
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: you're on with Gene Stothert on the KFAB comment line.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Good morning. Morning.
• 36:37
  Speaker 8: Hey, hi. Hi, Jean. Love listening to you. You're doing
• 36:40
  Speaker 8: a great job.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 36:41
  Speaker 8: Hey, I have a couple of situations here. I live
• 36:44
  Speaker 8: in Iowa, and so I vote Iowa, and I vote Republican, 100%.
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: But I filled out my ballot the first day I
• 36:54
  Speaker 8: was able to and mailed it in. The problem is here,
• 36:57
  Speaker 8: I don't hear... anything about the judges. So I look at, granted,
• 37:03
  Speaker 8: it's our judges, but you guys don't talk about judges.
• 37:07
  Speaker 8: And so I went to, you know, I had no idea,
• 37:10
  Speaker 8: to be honest with you. I was blind. But then
• 37:13
  Speaker 8: even with, of course, you don't talk about Iowa politics
• 37:16
  Speaker 8: that much either. And you've got a lot of Iowa voters.
• 37:19
  Speaker 8: And you're leaving us in the dark.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate you saying that because, yeah, I understand.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: We broadcast all the way to Des Moines. And, you know,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: I have reached out and had the Council Bluffs mayor.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I have had some of the candidates on. But, you know,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: we're limited, obviously, in the time that we have. I
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: will tell you this. If any of the Iowa candidates
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: called and wanted to be on this show, I'd figure
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: out a way to get them on. So rest assured
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: with that. But the judges, you are very right with that, too.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: So many people... They don't know how to vote for
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: the judges, and they will do either a yes-yes all
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: the way down, a no all the way down, or
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: an eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and that's really not the
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: way to vote. That's the beauty of having an early
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: ballot because you could take the time and you could
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: look up and see if there has been any claims
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: or any wrongdoing done. for any of these judges or
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: any of their cases that they've made a judgment on
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: that you don't agree with. So, you know, I think
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: that's the beauty of an early ballot. It gives you
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: time to do that. But thank you all for spending
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: this hour with us today. Thank you, Scott Voorhees, for
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: hanging on.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: My pleasure.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: It was fun, and we'd love for you to join
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: us again tomorrow. Like I said, Taylor Royal, who is
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: the other candidate, the Republican candidate for District 18, will
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: be in the studio with us.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: I am Jean Stothert, and this is 1110 KFAB.