Despite his big lead in published and private polls, Gov. Dave Heineman says he’s not assuming he’s got this election in the bag. But he’s clearly thinking long-term.

BY DON WALTON | Lincoln Journal Star

As Scottsbluff-Gering civic and business leaders gather around a table at the Hampton Inn, Dave Heineman has a message for them.

“Build relationships,” the governor counsels them.

Build ties with their counterparts 450 miles across the state in Omaha.

Connect the west with the east.

It goes both ways, Heineman says. He also urges Omaha leaders to reach westward.

“This is the way to move the state ahead,” Heineman says. Join hands, bind the strengths of agriculture and business, tie the more prosperous urban centers together with the more sparsely populated and economically challenged expanse of rural and western Nebraska, which has been punished by seven years of drought.

Working together, he says, both  will prosper and grow.

Five hours later, Heineman is introduced as “our governor for the next eight years” at a fundraising reception in Sidney by Ralph Castner, chief financial officer of Cabela’s.

Despite his big lead in published and private polls, Heineman says he’s not assuming he’s got this election in the bag.

But he’s clearly thinking long-term.

Planning ahead.

Not only in binding the state together to muster and consolidate its strength.

On this day in the Panhandle, he also talks about “raising the bar” in education, finding ways to increase parental involvement in the education of their children, increasing the college-going rate of Nebraska high school graduates and creating quality jobs that will keep them here.

Those are long-haul goals.

On the shorter-term agenda: tax reform, economic growth and diversification, restructuring state government’s health and human services system.

“I’m results-focused,” the governor says, sipping from a can of Dr. Pepper as the twin-engine Cheyenne soars above the Platte Valley, darting west across cloudy skies into a fierce headwind.

“I’m very disciplined, very focused.” 

And — as if there ever was any doubt about it — “I’m having the time of my life.”

Heineman inherited the governorship 21 months ago, moving up the ladder from lieutenant governor when Mike Johanns resigned to become U.S. secretary of agriculture.

This always has been his dream destination.

“He said he wanted to be governor when we married,” says Sally Ganem, Nebraska’s First Lady. “He always wanted to be in public service.”

Heineman is a product of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a graduate of Army ranger and airborne schools who served in the military from 1970 to 1975.

In politics, he’s been a congressional aide, Nebraska Republican Party executive director, member of the Fremont City Council and state treasurer.

This governor is on a roll, emerging from the Republican primary election last May with a full head of steam after accomplishing a feat virtually everyone not named Heineman said couldn’t be done.

Rep. Tom Osborne, the three-term congressman who had presented Nebraskans with three cherished national football championships, fell to the politically savvy governor and his carefully executed campaign.

“But I’m not taking anything for granted now,” Heineman says.

“Hey, I remember when I was down 40 points in the primary and no one said I could win.”

At the Hampton Inn in Scottsbluff, the governor joins more than 70 people at the Scottsbluff-Gering United Chamber of Commerce’s annual State of the Valley luncheon.

Heineman speaks briefly, but he’s come to listen.

Even his few remarks are tailored to that aspect of his governorship.  Only after Nebraskans finish sharing their views at three public hearings will he be prepared to sign the cooperative agreement managing the Platte River, he says.

“You’ve been heard,” Heineman tells his western audience. “You’ve made a difference.”

Then he sits down to listen to what’s happening in the valley.

The Scotts Bluff County detention center, funded by a $12 million bond issue, is under construction.  Work on County Road 19 is completed. The city of Scottsbluff bought six new Dodge Charger police cruisers. A drinking fountain has been installed in Terrytown.

It wouldn’t be the last time he listens, or seeks advice or information, this day.

“Do you see a concern?” he asks a man who raises a question about the state’s tax treatment of capital gains during the reception in Sidney at the Buffalo Point restaurant.

“I’ll take a look at that,” the governor says.

When Keith Rexroth of Sidney asks whether the governor has someone in mind to appoint as the next director of natural resources, Heineman responds: “Do you have any names?  Let me know.”

Heineman says he’s reaching out for suggestions.

“He’s a listener,” Rexroth says after the governor finishes answering  a variety of questions and resumes chatting one-on-one with nearly 80 people throughout the room.

“I’m pleased with his approachability on state policy,” Rexroth says.

Snow flurries are flying when Heineman heads to the dedication of a new public housing project in Gering designed for people with special needs. 

“Public-private partnerships are  how we get things done in this state,” the governor says, standing outside, coatless in the cold in front of a white gazebo.

At the Coffee Corner in Sidney, a gathering place filled with clocks and books and games and an astonishing array of knickknacks, Heineman signs an autograph for an elementary school student, poses for snapshots with employees and hands out a series of community development awards.

A few feet to his right, a couple of students continue to work on their math homework without missing a beat.

At the Cheyenne County Farm Bureau’s annual meeting that evening, the governor tells about 40 people dining on prime rib he’s there to address important issues.

First and foremost: “I think we can beat Texas.”

Thanking the Farm Bureau for its endorsement in the GOP primary race, Heineman says: “I know you took a risk on me.”

And then he regales the audience at the Sidney Holiday Inn with stories about the late-night encounter with Fidel Castro when Heineman and a Nebraska trade delegation negotiated the agreement that opened a market in Cuba for the state’s dry edible beans. 

No need to mention they’re grown here in the Panhandle.

Castro launched into a four-hour monologue that ended at 12:30 a.m. with the Nebraskans still on their feet, standing behind chairs they decided not to occupy until the Cuban president sat down. He never did.

The overriding issue in his contest with Democratic challenger David Hahn is his job performance as governor, Heineman says during an airborne interview. 

Just as it was in the primary election.

The record demonstrates he  reaches out, the governor says.

He listens; then he decides. 

“You don’t get a maybe in this business,” he says.

He travels to communities across the state to hear people’s concerns, Heineman says. And he has done so from the very first day when he flew west to the Panhandle immediately after he was sworn in as governor.

His decision on the Platte River agreement — which Heineman has signaled is likely to be approved — will come before Election Day, he promises. Because that’s being accountable, he says.

The legislative record includes tax cuts and new economic development tax incentives to spur job creation, Heineman says.

Nebraskans are becoming accustomed to seeing their governor at the same places they go.

His favorite meal is a quarter pounder with cheese at McDonald’s. He dropped in at Wal-Mart  the other day to pick up shaving cream and toothpaste. After the final gubernatorial debate in Omaha earlier this month, he headed to the Dairy Queen at 114th and West Dodge to celebrate the occasion with a banana split.

Asked to define his differences with Hahn, the governor immediately points to his opponent’s property tax reduction plan.

“It would mean a $1 billion increase in state spending,” Heineman says.  That includes $700 million to double state aid to education and $300 million in replacement revenue for local governments, the governor says.

Hahn disputes those figures, noting he has proposed $200 million to $250 million in state spending cuts and would recapture substantial revenue by eliminating some corporate tax breaks.

Heineman, like Hahn, opposes the proposed constitutional lid on state spending.

“Right issue, right message, wrong mechanism,” the governor says. One-third of the state budget actually funds local government, mostly in the form of school aid, he says.

“Lid or no lid, you’re going to see a very tight-fisted budget from me next year,” Heineman pledges.

Heading toward Election Day as governor and candidate, “it’s 24/7 as usual” for him, Heineman says.

Friends and aides will tell you that’s not much of an exaggeration.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com.

Dave Heineman

Age: 58

Occupation: Governor

Family: Wife, Sally Ganem, is a  former school teacher and principal; son, Sam, is student at Midland College.

Internet viewing: Nebraska media sites daily, Washington Post occasionally, political surfing.

Sports: Golf with son, Sam. 

TV viewing: “Not much,” mostly news and sporting events.

Musical preference: Patriotic songs. “I played — or, more accurately, held — the trumpet in high school.”

The Heineman agenda

Taxes: A multi-year state income tax cut, targeted to the middle class.

Health and human services: Restructure state services to be more accountable, effective and efficient.

Education: Increase college-going rate, strengthen K-12 education, involve parents more.

Economic development: Build on “the most comprehensive job creation economic incentive initiative” since the 1980s, legislation enacted during his governorship, to create quality jobs that keep young Nebraskans in the state.