Kleeb: Undecided voters hold the cards

by George Lauby (North Platte Bulletin) - 11/2/2008

The race for the U.S. Senate has come down to undecided voters, Scott Kleeb said Sunday in North Platte, as he urged supporters to walk neighborhoods and talk to voters.

The Senate candidate stopped in North Platte on a 10-day, 30-city sweep of the state. He spoke to nearly 50 people.

Kleeb, a college teacher, ag-business developer and Democrat hopeful, said he has solid support in Lincoln and Omaha, where thousands of new Democrat voters have registered. He said he is within reach of his opponent, political veteran Mike Johanns. Pollsters show Kleeb gaining with undecided voters.

"And, the good news is that we are down to the undecided," Kleeb said. "The race will be won right here."

"We face almost insurmountable challenges affecting our children and grandchildren," Kleeb said, and he listed the major issues "national debt, a global financial breakdown, a crisis in both health insurance and health care, aging roads, utilities and buildings, terrorist threats, two wars halfway around the world and dwindling energy supplies. "

He said the solutions are with people who get involved in improvements.

"At a time when most people think of Washington as the place where nothing gets done, as only a place of scandal, we are deciding we are not going to be defined by our problems," he said. "Across this state and across the nation, we are saying 'yes, we can' and 'yes, we will.'"

Kleeb, 33, said the reason Congress has an 8-percent approval rating is that "they don't walk in our shoes. For instance, they don't have to pay for health care."

In response to a question about how to improve the environment, Kleeb said he favors tax credits for homes and businesses that save energy. Nebraska could convert livestock waste into fuel, in addition to developing its wind and solar energy.

"It is remarkably exciting what all we could do," he said.

Kleeb also took a poke at his opponent.

While Johanns was head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he favored reclassifying small pools and golf course ponds as wetlands so natural wetlands could be drained to make way for homes and businesses and still conform to the federal "no net loss of wetlands" policy instituted by former President George H.W. Bush.

Hunters and farmers protested, Kleeb said, demonstrating their strong environmental concerns.

As he travels, people write messages on Kleeb's pickup for him to take to Washington. Kleeb lived in the pickup for a year and a half while worked on a doctoral dissertation about the history of cattle ranching. He traveled 65,000 miles through states west of the Mississippi River.

"Work for those who work," one message on his pickup says.

On the hood of his pickup, Kleeb has written these pledges:

-- No new federal spending without a way to pay for it.

-- Turn down the senators' health care package until all Nebraskans have access to health care.

-- Turn down all pay raises until the federal budget is balanced.

-- His first bill would be for American jobs and energy, ending tax breaks for U.S. companies to move overseas.

-- Will take no junkets or gifts paid by lobbyists.

-- Will publish a list of all federal programs he supports on the Internet.

-- Will publish and update his weekly schedule on the Internet. There will be no closed-door meetings.

-- Require an independent audit of his office each year.

-- Continue to live in Hastings with his family, where his two daughters will attend public schools.

For more images from the "Countdown to Change Tour, visit Scott Kleeb's Flickr page.