Kerrey Focuses on Issues

Chabella Guzman, Scottsbluff Star Herald | Link to Article

He’s back.

Bob Kerrey is back in Nebraska and he’s ready to work. The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate said he is focused on the issues facing the state and country.

With the primary over on Tuesday, Kerrey will have six months to convince voters that he is best suited to represent Nebraska in Washington, D.C.

Kerrey knows that while many people are welcoming, there will also be the attack ads.

“Attack ads are all over the country,” he said. “They went after Jon Bruning saying he wasn’t conservative enough and the ad (Joe) Ricketts did was nasty and brutal.”

Kerry said he’s not particularly worried about the ads or even losing the election.

“I’m worried about losing our grip on representative democracy,” he said.

Kerrey said he believes the federal government has taken too much control from the state in several areas, including education.

The federal government has a limited amount of control, he said. It exerted a great of control with the No Child Left Behind program that Kerrey believes made things worse in schools.

It is the state and local school districts that need to govern, he added. Kerrey has relatively high confidence in schools dealing with issues and believes the public wants the districts to handle their schools.

“The No Child Left Behind has soured a lot of people,” he said. “It was a lot of testing, regulations, orders and mandates that frankly weren’t funded. We need to cut the mandates out that were imposed and give the school districts the flexibility they need.”

He added that the federal government can assist the states in many areas, but shouldn’t try to establish a superintendent of education inside the U.S. Department of Education.

Kerrey also talked about the deficit problem and creating a balance between spending cuts and taxing.

“Anytime we do deficit reduction in a honest fashion we need spending cuts,” he said. “It would not be fair to leave anything off the table, I know it will produce angry people, but that happens in tax reform.”

It has long been known that the western part of the state often sees more money used in the eastern half of the state. Kerrey believes all Nebraskans should get their fair share of monies in the state.

The Nebraska Department of Roads, with the passing of LB 98, is authorized to implement a federal buyback program. The state now receives the money and doles out so much per county and project.

Kerrey said if elected, he would meet with the State Roads Commissioner and county roads departments and work to make sure both sides of the state were able to accomplish road projects.

“I would work it out so that the Heartland Expressway can get built,” he said. “There are legitimate grievances here in the west.”

He added that the eastern part of Nebraska often only looks at population, when the west needs funds just as urgently for roads and infrastructure.

“I would work to make sure western Nebraska gets their fair share.”

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