3rd District's Stoddard shares ideas for change

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By ANNA JO BRATTON / The Associated Press

OMAHA — Grand Island native Jay Stoddard says the United States needs change, but he wants a tuneup, not an overhaul.

“We must remember we have the greatest system in the world,” the 3rd District House candidate said during an AP interview Monday. “All people in the world want what we have, the freedoms we have. We’re the envy of the world.”

After winning the May Democratic primary, Stoddard is campaigning against Republican Adrian Smith, who’s trying for a second term.

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Jay Stoddard

Jay Stoddard

Stoddard, 77, says people need to hear what he has to say, and he plans to work hard to claim the seat that hasn’t been held by a Democrat in dozens of years.

The lifelong Grand Island resident is passionate about veterans care, telling the story of a friend who lost both arms in Vietnam and had a badly damaged eye.

Years later, Stoddard says, the man was told by doctors at a veterans hospital that he had cancer in the eye and it should be removed.

Stoddard begged him to get another opinion and got him an appointment at a clinic in Hastings.

“The doctor used surgical tweezers and pulled out a piece of shrapnel working itself out,” Stoddard said. “Why couldn’t our veterans administration health centers, hospitals, doctors and so forth — why couldn’t they see that?

“What kind of service are the people who have fought for us getting?” he asked. “I think it’s disgraceful.”

Stoddard has tried his hand at politics before, running unsuccessfully for secretary of state in 2002 and 2006 and the University of Nebraska Board of Regents in 2004. He served on the Grand Island School Board from 1972 to 1975.

Stoddard says the nation’s energy problems are hurting families and that emergency measures have to be taken.

The first step is a fair price on gasoline, Stoddard says, which has as much to do with domestic policy and the value of the dollar as with foreign pricing of oil.

“There’s nothing to stop our administration from allowing more gas, more oil wells to be used at the present time,” Stoddard said. “Even if just for six months, until the energy situation is solved.”

He opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying it would create open borders.

“I oppose globalization completely,” Stoddard said. “We should take our people into consideration, our people who are working for a living.”

Americans shouldn’t have to compete with badly treated overseas laborers, he says.

NAFTA and the Central American Free Trade Agreement have given other countries an advantage, Stoddard says, and the U.S. risks “giving our country away.”

“I want the United States to be the same old United States of America that I grew up in,” Stoddard said.

He says the U.S. probably shouldn’t be in Iraq and that withdrawing U.S. troops “has to be the goal.”

But that doesn’t mean bringing everyone back today, he says.

“We have to do it with dignity,” Stoddard said. “We have to let them know that we are an honorable country.”

Stoddard, who spent years as an insurance agent, expressed concerns about universal health care plans.

“Whenever you make a blanket deal of coverage, you’re going to find people that are going to abuse it,” he said.

His plan for health coverage starts with paying for schooling for young people who want to be doctors but can’t afford tuition. In exchange, those people would be required to serve four years in a “stress area,” such as north Omaha, he says. They would concentrate on preventive medicine, including birth control, which would cut down on eventual costs, Stoddard says.

Stoddard says that while he personally opposes abortion, he supports a woman’s right to make a choice about pregnancy.

He wanted Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination, but said he’ll support presumptive nominee Barack Obama.

“We’re going to come up with a ticket that will bring America back to what it was,” Stoddard said.

Stoddard hasn’t reported raising any money yet, but says he has people prepared to donate and “I happen to be a millionaire.”

He says he’s not lazy, and plans to have the organization to win in November.

“When I’m the congressman, and I’m going to be one, you’ll find a difference,” Stoddard said.