Local Republicans denounce attack ads
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BY DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star
Even the Republicans are getting mad now. Three people who served on a volunteer committee with City Council candidate Dan Marvin held a press conference Thursday to express outrage over a GOP campaign criticizing Marvin.
The campaign accuses Marvin of trying to increase Lincoln property taxes because he co-chaired a mayor's committee that proposed a $75 million street improvement bond issue in September.
Lincoln voters rejected the bond issue, and the state Republican Party has paid for two mass mailings criticizing Marvin's leadership.
Marvin, a Democrat, is one of six candidates running for the Lincoln City Council on Tuesday. Three will be elected from the field of four Republicans and two Democrats.
Two prominent Republicans and an independent denounced the GOP assault on Marvin for his work on the Streets, Roads and Trails Committee.
The committee examined several options to bridge the city's infrastructure financing gap, and ultimately recommended the bond issue.
Attacking the ads were two Republicans — former Lancaster County Board member Jan Gauger and former Lincoln Independent Business Association President Russ Bayer. Joining them was independent businessman Brad Korell.
The trio said the Republican Party's "baseless accusations" against Marvin will only divide the community and dissuade people from serving on such volunteer committees. They said while it's fair game to question candidates' records, the ads about Marvin are unfair.
Gauger said she is outraged by the state Republican Party's intrusion into the local race.
"I think that really they are guilty of character assassination," she said. "I think it's a really low point for my party. I don't think that's the way we want to win an election."
State party defends ads
But State Republican Party Executive Director Jessica Moening defended the ads.
"The truth is that Dan Marvin has staked his political identity on a $75 million bond issue that the Lincoln voters rejected by more than 2-to-1, and that's obviously failed leadership, being that out of touch." (The vote was 62 percent to 38 percent.)
Korell said Lincoln faces challenges unlike any he's seen in the past 35 years — declining new home construction, "skyrocketing" lot prices, a lack of affordable housing, city cash-flow problems and few new jobs being created.
"It's this kind of noise that gets in the way of people coming together and finding solutions," he said of the ads. "We're stewing in all this petty stuff."
Bayer said they're not endorsing Marvin; they just deplore the state party's tactics.
"I wonder why Brad and Jan and I aren't on the same flier (the GOP sent)," Bayer said. "I'm fed up with it."
He said he "took it very personally" and expressed his displeasure to a Republican official, whom he would not name.
"I just want factual advertising," he said.
Why hasn't the GOP condemned its own Republican incumbent Councilman Ken Svoboda for also supporting the bond issue?
Moening said Svoboda has provided leadership on a number of issues, while the only prominent issue Marvin has led the community on was thumped.
Moening said whether the campaign might deter volunteers from future committee work was "really not the issue." She also declined to say what committee conclusion would have been more palatable to her party.
Svoboda was invited Wednesday to join the trio, but said he was already booked. He also said that while he doesn't agree with the Marvin mailings, it's not his role to defend Marvin.
"I couldn't be assured in my own mind that it wasn't going to be a Marvin rally," he said of Thursday's press conference. Svoboda has said he convinced the state party to cancel a second Marvin mailing prior to the primary election.
Werner: Attacks ‘crazy'
He also didn't know whether the trio would disparage ads targeting his fellow incumbent, Democrat Terry Werner.
"I'm not in this race to defend my opponents," he said.
Unlike the Marvin ads, he said the anti-Werner ads are factual.
"We wasted an awful lot of time on the Patriot Act and death penalty," Svoboda said of Werner's leadership as council chairman.
Councilman Glenn Friendt (whose seat is up for grabs Tuesday, and who is not running again) appears in a TV ad accusing Werner of opposing the council's decision to begin reciting The Pledge of Allegiance prior to their weekly meetings. The decision came one week after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
Svoboda said Werner had a problem with the pledge's promise of "liberty and justice for all" and characterization of the United States as "one nation, under God."
Werner vehemently denies he opposed saying the pledge.
"That's just crazy," he said. "We voted unanimously to say it."
Council meeting minutes do not reflect discussion about the pledge, or a vote, but a 2001 Journal Star story said Werner expressed reservations, saying he didn't oppose the pledge but said it might feed a nationalistic frenzy that doesn't question America.
And in a 2003 letter to the editor, Werner said he questioned whether the pledge should be said because he questions whether the city of Lincoln truly provides "liberty and justice for all."
Werner said he didn't, and doesn't, oppose saying the pledge before each meeting.
"I've never said a word about ‘under God,' " he said. "That's a lie."
Werner is exasperated with the GOP's onslaught of ads lambasting him, saying they seem to be running "every five minutes" on radio and TV. By his estimate, the Republican Party and individuals have spent about $75,000 targeting him.
"I don't think there's ever been anything like it," he said. "They will spend more money attacking me than I will spend on my entire campaign."
Werner expects to spend up to $60,000 on his campaign, and says he's about out of money. He said he did not plan TV ads until he was bombarded by GOP ads and scrambled to put one together.
"They are dividing this community tremendously," he said. "If they want to talk issues, I'm more than happy to talk issues, but these are lies. It's not about the community, it's not about issues, it's about Rs and Ds with them and they will stop at nothing to get the Rs elected."
Moening acknowledged that some Republicans are unhappy with the ad campaign.
"There obviously are some people who disagree with the tone and tenor but in general I believe that the job of the Nebraska Republican Party is to ensure that Republicans get elected and sometimes that is (accomplished by) providing a contrast between them and their opponents."
Nebraska Democratic Party Executive Director Barry Rubin said his party has contributed money to Werner and Marvin's campaigns, and he doesn't have a problem with state parties getting involved in local races.
"We're certainly more involved in local races than we used to be because we believe in recruiting candidates at every level and recruiting a farm team," he said.
But he doesn't like the Republican Party's approach to forming that team.
"Terry Werner and Dan Marvin are out talking about potholes and public schools," he said, "while the GOP is conducting a shameful smear campaign that I think Lincoln's voters will see right through."
Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.
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