Douglas County government would be full of Democrats if the Omaha World-Herald had their way. Today, the World-Herald endorsed Don Kleine for Douglas County attorney over the incumbent Stu Dornan. Yesterday, the World-Herald encouraged voters to re-elect Roger Morrissey for Douglas County assessor. On Wednesday, the OWH endorsed Democrat John Ewing for Douglas County treasurer over incumbent Julie Haney.

Kleine’s advantage - Omaha World-Herald

Douglas County voters face a difficult choice Nov. 7. They can grant a full four-year term to Stu Dornan, appointed county attorney after Jim Jansen resigned in 2003. Or they can elect the County Board’s other option at that time - Don Kleine, Jansen’s chief deputy and current chief of Attorney General Jon Bruning’s criminal bureau.

Dornan has served with honor and laudable dedication. But county voters ought not pass up the chance to regain the services of perhaps the most respected prosecutor in the state. That person is Don Kleine.

This is an instance where a challenger’s particularly strong qualifications - in this case, as a prosecutor of unusually impressive skill and experience - justify the replacement of an incumbent, albeit a dedicated and capable one.

Re-elect Assessor Morrissey - Omaha World-Herald

During eight years in office, Douglas County Assessor Roger Morrissey and his staff have done yeoman work to move the county beyond its old-time, cockeyed valuation practices. Voters on Nov. 7 should give Morrissey a third four-year term.

Under Morrissey’s predecessor, 24-year Assessor Frank Bemis, properties that didn’t change hands could go years without being revalued. Morrissey, a veteran real-estate appraiser, took over at a time when the state was demanding more rigorous adherence to valuation standards set in state law.

Ewing for treasurer - Omaha World-Herald

Since her election in 1994, Julie Haney, the Douglas County treasurer, has been a change agent, pushing for new and better ways of doing things. She has overseen constructive change in the operations of her department in various regards, and she deserves credit for those improvements.

But in recent times, her record has been marked by discordant episodes that reflect poorly on her temperament and judgment.

People can and will disagree over how precisely to apportion the blame for the Byzantine circumstances that allowed Fred Cappellano, a 31-year employee of the office, to embezzle more than $120,000. But during this year in particular, the Treasurer’s Office has produced a string of peculiar incidents that raise concern about the steadiness of Haney’s judgment and operational approach. Specifically:

The astoundingly overheated and bitter in-house clash that erupted over the circulation of a card for Cappellano. The inappropriate use of county e-mail for campaign fundraising. Haney’s display of zealotry, poor judgment and insufficient explanation concerning her sending a letter to a Waterloo man on county letterhead after he criticized her in The World-Herald’s Public Pulse.

Taken together, such events raise a legitimate question: Is it time for this change agent to be succeeded by a competent successor, a consolidator?

The answer is yes. Haney’s opponent, Omaha Deputy Police Chief John Ewing, is an intelligent, accomplished manager who has the talent and temperament to provide the Treasurer’s Office with the needed direction and vision.

Ewing understands the various dimensions of the Treasurer’s Office. He ably analyzes its structure, its numerous connections to other departments and its fundamental needs for the long term.

Name change considered for Dodge Expressway - Omaha World-Herald

Someday drivers might talk about taking the Exon home, or businesses might say they’re located just off the Exon.

A state board will consider naming the West Dodge Expressway as the Exon Expressway in honor of the late J.J. Exon, the former Nebraska governor and U.S. senator.

The Nebraska Highway Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal Friday. Exon was nominated for the memorial designation by his granddaughter, Heather Exon Eurek of Omaha.

AP Photo/Nati Harnik

If Tom Osborne already has an expressway named after him, then I think it is more than appropriate to name an expressway after Jim Exon. He was a selfless public servant whose career spanned over 25 years. His record speaks for itself.

Personally, I would love to see the political science department at the University of Nebraska - Omaha named after Exon. I think that would be a more appropriate honor for such a great man. Exon was a student at UNO back when it was Omaha University.

Update: The Omaha World-Herald has an insta-poll on their website. Everyone go vote! www.omaha.com (scroll to the bottom).

Update: It’s still the West Dodge Expressway - Omaha World-Herald

The Nebraska Highway Commission voted 7-0 today against naming the expressway for Exon, who was also a Nebraska governor.

Commission members said Exon deserves the honor but cited a provision in Department of Roads policy that says individuals must be dead for at least five years before a road can be named for them. Exon died in June 2005.

That’s interesting. There’s an expressway in Nebraska named after a football coach that’s still alive, but we can’t name an expressway after someone that spent much of his life in public service because he hasn’t been dead long enough? I really hope I’m missing something because this doesn’t seem right.

The New York Times did an article about 7 Campaign Ads Worth Watching. One of those ads was Scott Kleeb’s “Rancher” ad.

You can watch a cool video about the article at the NYT website. If you want to read the article online, you need to be a paying member of New York Times Select.

If you’re not a member, visit this website for a reprint of the article.

Most of the strongest ads this cycle are attack ads, but not all of them. This ad plays up the deep Nebraska roots and classic good looks of Scott Kleeb, a fourth-generation Nebraskan whose grandfather was born in a dug-out outside of Broken Bow. (You won’t learn a lot about the Ph.D. Kleeb got from Yale.) In this Hallmark card of an ad, talking heads praise Mr. Kleeb while the sun-dappled candidate rides a horse in iconic cowboy style. Mr. Kleeb is running in a district that President Bush won 3-1 in 2004, but one recent poll shows him nearly even with his Republican opponent, Adrian Smith.

Unfortunately, the “Old Ben Nelson” ad by the Pete Ricketts’ campaign was not selected for this list. I don’t know how they could have overlooked such a quality commercial. It must be the damn liberal media bias.

If you’ve been to the UNO College Democrats Blog before, then you’ll notice things look a little different.

If you’ve been a loyal reader of our blog since 2004, then you may recall my post about the University of Nebraska - Omaha redesigning its website. If you’re a youngster (freshman/sophomore), you may not remember the old UNO website. At the time, I called the redesign a “facelift (and a boob job)”. So, in keeping with tradition and pop culture (i.e. Nip/Tuck), the UNO College Democrats Blog is undergoing a little cosmetic surgery of its own.

How about I bore you with some technical details for a second. We’ve expanded the dimensions of the blog (the bust size, if you will) so that we can fit more content and features on the page. We’ll be adding more features as time goes on, but we’d also like some reader input.

So, tell me what you don’t like about yourself… eh, I mean the blog.

In the comments section, let us know what you don’t like about the new design, what features you’d like to see added, etc. We’re here to please you.

This is my first blog post. I’m not sure I really even should post, since I got the access as the tech chair… But hey, why not?

The Get Out The Vote (GOTV) initiative has begun and gone into momentum with the UNO College Democrats. Our goals are to ID and register voters and then remind them to vote in the November elections. This is very important to us, as we are not only working to decrease the gnawing agony that is the voter turnout of the 18-24 age bracket, but also we provide support for the candidates we believe in.

Politics are important. Apathy is the process by which politics erode into a state of decay. It’s through apathy that action becomes inert. When action becomes inert, whomever wants to seize power will do so, and thus the system ceases to be a democracy, but rather a carefully-crafted dictatorship. By “dictatorship” I mean that those who are in power may basically through their own vision guide whatever they want wherever they want, regardless of their supposed constituency. An elected candidate is meant to represent the will of the people who elected them, which is impossible when the people who are supposed to be electing them on the whole have stopped caring. They get themselves in by presenting a front that will smoothely glide them into place, and then proceed to do whatever they want with the power they’ve been given.

Politicians are ours. The cynicism with connecting them as a separate identity known for dishonesty and trickery is terrible for democracy. They act for us in places of power, and if we can’t trust them to act in a way that we would like, then we ultimately will suffer as a people. They are the bullhorn through which our voices are channeled to those in control that would otherwise turn a deaf ear on the populace and let their own ambition be their guide. Therefore in order to be in any way a part of our own government, it becomes our duty to find a person to fit this role and move them forward by any means we have availible. We must seek out someone that we won’t feel cynical about, or at least LESS cynical about if there is nothing availible for the former. It’s better to make a compromise than to live with what comes since there’s no perfect and or immediate solution to the problem.

This is what it all comes down to. Changing things isn’t easy. It requires effort, which would be all right to give, but the real kicker is that it requires patience and persistence. America has lost its patience in all areas. We want our food to be fast, we want our service to be quick, we want our internet to be high speed, and we want all our gratifications to be as instant as possible. When it seems like there’s no way to simply flip a magic switch and make everything better, the popular reaction is simply to throw up one’s hands in discontent, complain, and then trudge on. Ultimately, more than any other force, this attitude will lead to America’s demise. It is the stem of cynicism, which comes from the discontent that grows from inaction that is caused by lack of patience to perform the actions and then wait for their results. Thus we find ourselves caught in an eddie where things happen that people dislike, there is an outcry, and then it falls away into a din only to occur again somewhere else, or even in the same place. All sound and fury, signifying nothing.

I’ve got news for you, America. CHANGE TAKES TIME. I acknowledge that what I’m doing now won’t pay off for maybe another year, maybe another five, maybe another decade, or even more. There will be successes along the way in the form of little changes, and there WILL BE FAILURES. Letting the failures be the end of it is the only way that failing actually happens. I will pick myself up, dust myself off, learn what I can from the failure, and continue on. In the end what will motivate me is the fact that I’m working for a cause in which I truly believe. I want the world to be a better place, and I have a vision of what that better place is (John’s “progressive happy place”-style). In order to bring about this world, it is up to me to do what I’m able when I’m able to bring it about. It won’t be fast, or instantly gratifying. But reading a history book makes change look easy, and the memories of the times where movements over the course of a decade were still being shared and still a tangible reality are now fading away into the past. Our very idea of time has been so utterly jaded that simply wrapping our brains around the concept that time passes and brings about change is difficult.

We are brought then to a world where the idea that change will ever come is being turned to poison in our veins and killing us as a nation. The masses are silent. The party I’m putting my voice into isn’t a perfect one, and by no means wholly encompasses my views. It has its problems and problem people. At the moment though, I see it as the most effective vehicle of change that I have availible. It’s easier to fix a house than build a new one, and the materials are already availible. I don’t pretend the house doesn’t need to be patched and mended, but I see the foundations that it was built upon as a solid and reliable place to begin. It will also provide me shelter with like minds who believe as I do and will help me work to make it better. Eventually, I will be able to put a secure roof over not just my dwelling, but on everyone’s.

I’d like to close this off with some words from Mahatma Gandhi, whom I believe to be among the wisest to ever live, “The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles.” All these things are happening in the world, and it’s so much easier to stand by and let it happen. The consequences of doing this are far too dire to ignore, and this is common fact. So if scandal is happening in the shadows of the political world, cast a light into the darkness and drag out the perpetrators, then leave no room to hide. Find something to believe in, then find someone who believes it with you. From that, change the world. Educate yourself, become active, and most important of all, VOTE. Gahndi also said, “You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.” Go out, vote, and encourage others to vote, because the voice that says it doesn’t make a difference is the cry heard ’round the world.