LIBA endorses Travis Nelson for Council
Life on the campaign trail
Got a call from LIBA head Coby Mach today, and he informed me that LIBA will be endorsing Republican Travis Nelson for the Lincoln City Council, District 3.
I am running for the seat, as well as incumbent Democrat Jonathan Cook.
I was not surprised by the endorsement. Nelson is a LIBA member and has served on LIBA committees for several years, and he took great pains last week at the LIBA debate to portray himself as the most conservative candidate.
In addition, a LIBA PAC member has been telling people that I supported former Councilwoman Patte Newman for mayor, based on an old Winterized poll in which some readers nominated Newman and I to run for mayor — and I joked that if Patte ran, I’d be her lieutenant (of course, there is no such position). Apparently, this LIBA member took it seriously, and is spreading that rumor and trying to portray me as a liberal.
Somebody else has also jumped on the bandwagon based on a comment I made at the LIBA debate last week. The District 3 candidates were asked who they would install as the next president if they had a magic wand. I said Abraham Lincoln — saying that none of the Republicans have wowed me yet, and Obama is only doing an OK job.
Well. Some people seized upon that and took it as a ringing endorsement of Obama — in fact, a reader tells me he’s seen Facebook ads that say “Liberal Deena Winter; klin.com; At a recent event, City Council Candidate Deena Winter said, ‘OBAMA has done an OK job so far.’ Do you agree? Yes or no?” But he said when you click on the buttons, the ad goes nowhere.
Interesting to see how people are quick to paint you in the light they wish to see you.
If you see this Facebook ad, do me a favor and take a screen shot of it (on a Mac, you push Command Shift and 3 and it should be on your desktop) and email it to me.
Winterized 
Being a very conservative individual I like what you have done over the years Deena. Do I agree with you 100% of the time, no. But I would say most of the time. This is not liberal vs conservative issue, it’s will you follow the democratic or republican mantra and vote down party lines and I believe you will do what is best for the city. You are a fiscal conservative in my opinion, a little more liberal on others. I like that you investigate the subject and just don’t go off half cocked before giving an answer. As for Obama, I believe he is the WORST president in the last 90 years. Keep up the good work Deena, LIBA is just a few hundred people, the rest of the district might just have a different take.
I think there’s no doubt that KLIN is behind the Facebook ad. When you click it, it goes to their site, not to “nowhere.”
If I had to venture a guess based on your work here and at the LJS, without anyone from LIBA or anyone else prompting me, I would guess you are a liberal. It doesn’t make you a bad person, that’s just my guess.
I don’t know exactly by what measure anyone can state that Obama has done an “OK” job, but hey, that’s just me.
I don’t know Travis Nelson, and I don’t live in your district, so I will neither vote for you nor will I vote against you. I will continue to read your blog. Thank you for using my idea of rewarding city employees for coming up with money-saving ideas in your letter to the LJS.
I actually first saw this type of employee inventive program in N.D. but u reminded me not to forget to propose one.
I’m all for it. I hope it can be done. I’ve talked to a few people that I know that work for the city and it’s mind-boggling what they see, and what is often just normal daily activity that wouldn’t last for long in the private sector.
Deena:
The reasons for voting for you keep adding up.
Jeff…
This is just waaaaaay too funny for words, Deena.
Fletch: KLIN is behind it? Give me a break. Bishop and I are behind 90% of KLIN’s online/social media imprint. We’re frequently accused of being dirty liberals on the air. Our main criticism of Deena was regarding the arena, and it certainly wasn’t because she was taking a ‘liberal’ position. Besides that, we’ve obviously buried that hatchet on that issue, given our recent conversations. If there’s one thing I’m damn sure of, it’s that I don’t have time to be taking out fake facebook ads to support Travis Nelson, who I’ve never met.
Geez, I see I’ve missed a lot during my two days off. Can’t wait to have a field day on this one tomorrow.
Hi Jack,
Heard you and John chat about this in the last few minutes. Let me clarify my original comment. It was a mistake to think that there was no doubt KLIN was behind the ad. That would have been my presumption due to the page that it sent me to on FB, which I sent you the link to via Twitter. Didn’t mean to get you guys all riled up! Big fan of the show!
when you reward people for saving money ideas make sure they don’t get punished for pointing out pet bloated $ projects!