Today, the Mike Fahey campaign rented Ollie the Trolley and loaded it up with supporters to vote early.

The Omaha World-Herald wrote about the event and in the same article, wrote about absentee requests.

Here are the highlights of this article.

Of 9,200 requests for mail-in absentee ballots, nearly two-thirds are from forms provided in a Democratic Party flier for Fahey, and about a third from a GOP flier for challenger Dave Friend, Election Commissioner Carlos Castillo said.

This is great news for Mayor Fahey and Democratic city council candidates.

The article gets better…

Chris Donnelly, manager of the Friend campaign, said he is not overly concerned that the requests will translate into a two-to-one advantage for Fahey.

“Any other race, I’d be sweating bullets right now,” Donnelly said.

Despite the involvement of the two parties, voters are not always concerned with partisan labels in the officially nonpartisan city election, he said.

Let me dissect the statements by Chris Donnealy. First, he says “he is not overly concerned” that the Democrats have a sizable lead in absentee requests. I’ll bet if the Republicans had a two-to-one advantage in absentee requests, Paul Johnson, Mike Fahey’s campaign manager would be worried. Don’t campaign managers get paid to worry about these things?

He also said, in “any other race, I’d be sweating bullets right now.” So, Mr. Donnealy, are saying that absentee voters matter in every race except this one? I think running the Friend campaign has made Chris go crazy.

Finally he says, “Despite the involvement of the two parties, voters are not always concerned with partisan labels in the officially nonpartisan city election.” Mr. Donnealy this is not a good thing but a BAD thing for Republicans. The last time I checked there were more registered Republicans in Omaha than Democrats. If voters “were concerned with partisan labels”, then Dave Friend would win.

I don’t know a single a Democrat that is voting for Dave Friend but I know of several Republicans that are voting for Mike Fahey. When voters don’t pay attention to political parties, it hurts Dave Friend.

Last week, the Omaha World-Herald profiled Dave Friend. Today, it was Mike Fahey’s turn.

To read the entire profile, click here.

A few things struck me while reading the article.

First, the title of the article is “Fahey’s record: Budget, annexation dominate first term.” How can the World-Herald say the annexation issue dominated Fahey’s first term? This issue came up 3 years and 9 months into Fahey’s first term. A year ago, nobody would have heard of this issue.

Secondly, I was a little disappointed that Hal Daub didn’t get mentioned in the article. Most of the article talks about the tough budget cuts Fahey had to make in his first term. Although Fahey takes the heat on many budget problems, most of these problems were inherited from Daub.

The OWH also left Hal Daub’s name out of the sentence below.

While the budget battles have included a few flare-ups between Fahey and the council, things have been relatively quiet at City Hall compared to the fireworks of previous years.

Finally, the picture the OWH chose for this story bothered me a bit.

It looks like the mayor is yelling at a Cub Scout. If the OWH tried to find the worst picture they had of Fahey and use it, they may have succeeded. I think the mayor is telling this youngster to go to his room.

I’ve got an idea. How about everyone tries to come up with a creative caption for this picture. In the comments section, post what you think the mayor is telling this youngster. Something like, “When I was your age I had to walk uphill both ways to school.”

The person with the most creative submission will receive a digital pat on the back.

I have breaking news…

- Sen. Chuck Hagel is voting for Dave Friend
- Sen. Ben Nelson is voting for Mike Fahey

Is this really newsworthy? Well, the Omaha World-Herald thinks so, and that’s why they reported on it. The sad thing about the story is it took two (yes, two) OWH staff writers to write the story (Cindy Gonzalez and Lori Nitschke).

I have no problem with the World-Herald reporting this but they tried to make an actual news story out of it. They spent 269 words (no, I didn’t count every word) on a story that I communicated to our readers in 16 words.

What’s even worse is the OWH reported that Rep. Terry Lee is endorsing Dave Friend even though Terry can’t vote in the election. Did the OWH bother to contact Bob Kerrey, Tom Osborne, Doug Bereuter, or Jim Exxon to see who they are endorsing?

Personally, I would’ve loved for the OWH to report on who Jon Stewart is endorsing in this election.

In conclusion, I apologize for writing this and wasting your time. It must be slow news day.

Got Voting?

UPDATE: Young Democrats Does
-More Photos on their way soon.

The World-Herald Story says:

Voters trickled into the Douglas County Election Commissioner’s Office Monday to vote early in Omaha’s city primary.

Members of a Young Democrats group even camped out to be at the office when voting began Monday morning.

We’ll also be doing this again on Sunday the 24th / Monday the 25th. General Election- WOOT!

/Update.

Your first chance to vote is Monday Morning 8:30am. We’re meeting at the Douglas County elections office 225 N. 115th St., Omaha, NE, 68154 at midnight. If you can be there by 5am it would be really great. Media will be there, so the more people the better.

Call John for more info, or if you will be heading down.

If you haven’t been to the front page of the College Democrats website you are in for a pleasent suprise.

Yep, that’s us in the picture. Rock on.