After eight years in the Legislature, Brett Lindstrom believes he is the gubernatorial candidate who, if elected, will be able to hit the ground running.
Lindstrom, who visited Grand Island Monday, said he has had more than 60 personally sponsored bills passed in the Nebraska Legislature. His time in government provides a significant difference between himself and his two main competitors, he said. “Experience, I think, matters.”
Odds are that whichever Republican wins the May 10 primary “will most likely be the governor,” he said.
Although he won’t take his foot off the gas in campaigning, a primary win would allow him to start working on agenda items, he said.
Lindstrom, 41, agrees that he’s in a dead heat with fellow candidates Charles Herbster and Jim Pillen. But he feels he’s picking up speed. “I could tell about seven or eight weeks ago that momentum had started to move our way.”
Still, the race is close. “We’ll see what happens on that last day. But I feel really good about where we’re at,” he said.
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“We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing,” he said.
By that, he means staying positive and traveling. Since July 15, he’s been to all 93 Nebraska counties and 150 communities.
The Omaha man feels his “positive message is resonating.” He’s focused on issues “that I think matter to people,” such as taxation, broadband, housing and child care. Hard work has also helped, he said.
Another factor is that “the other guys (are) kind of going at each other on TV.” People appreciate that he hasn’t gone negative, he said.
In the last 10 days, he said, close to $1 million has been spent in Nebraska by two nonprofit organizations that are known in the political world as C-4s. Those entities, which are allowed to become involved in politics, operate as IRC 501(c)(4) organizations.
Nebraska District 18 senator Brett Lindstrom, a gubernatorial candidate for governor shakes hands with Coney Island owner George Katrouzos, as he stopped by for lunch while in Grand Island Monday. Lindstrom also visited Gibbon before coming to G.I.
It’s a way for people to “run the negative hit ads without actually having their name attached to it,” Lindstrom said.
Some of the ads refer to Lindstrom as a RINO, which stands for Republican In Name Only.
How does Lindstrom react to being called a liberal Republican?
In the Legislature, “we just passed the largest tax cut in the history of Nebraska. So if they’re hammering me on the tax increase side, I just got that done, which is well north of a billion dollars once it’s phased in,” he said.
He authored a bill that reduces state taxes on Social Security income. He’s been endorsed by Nebraska Right to Life and received an A rating from the National Rifle Association, he said.
In his time in the Legislature, he cast thousands of votes. It’s easy for opponents to tell half-truths about his record, he said. Issues are more complicated than the TV ads imply, he said. He believes his record speaks for itself, and said he doesn’t get bogged down in the negative things.
Someone wrote on Facebook that “Sen. Lindstrom’s as much of a RINO as I am Santa Claus,” Lindstrom said.
Some of Lindstrom’s conservative opponents have criticized his support for medical cannabis. He said he’s talked to mothers of epileptic children and veterans who say cannabis helps them cope with post-traumatic stress disorder. He also said cannabis could lessen the opioid crisis, in addressing reliance on narcotics for pain medication.
Lindstrom believes that if medical cannabis gets on the Nebraska ballot, voters will approve it.
“I don’t want a free-for-all, of course,” he said. He believes there’s a way to structure the system properly, as the state did with gambling. After voters approved casino gaming, the Unicameral was able to pass legislation that tailors it to meet the needs of Nebraskans in a responsible way, he said.
He believes the same thing could be done with medical marijuana.
One nice thing Nebraska does is move slowly on difficult issues, seeing what works and what doesn’t work in other states, he said. Then “we get to take the best of what other states have already done.”