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Legislative District 8 voters looking to replace State Sen. Tom White will choose from three Omaha men whose jobs helped shape their priorities and the way they'd do business in the Legislature.
John Comstock, 48, is the lone Republican in the officially nonpartisan race. He is a small-business owner who manages about 15 residential units.
Burke J. Harr, 38, is a former criminal prosecutor and co-founder of Flatwater Strategies, a firm that analyzes and helps clients respond to actions on Capitol Hill.
Richard Ream, 63, is a risk management supervisor for First National Bank who weighs financial risks and oversees vendor compliance.
The two candidates who get the most votes in the May 11 primary will face off in the November general election.
The winner will replace White, who is leaving to run for Congress, and represent the north-central Omaha district that includes diverse and established neighborhoods, including Benson and Dundee.
While their chosen career paths set the three contenders apart, they share the fact that none has ever held public office.
Comstock sought the same legislative seat in 2006 but was knocked out in the primary. Ream was unsuccessful in his attempt 30 years ago to get on the Austin (Texas) City Council.
The trio offered positions on a few issues sure to heat up again in the Legislature:
On restoring publicly funded prenatal services to illegal immigrants, Comstock backs Gov. Dave Heineman's stance against such a move.
Ream takes a risk-management perspective. The state, he said, should help provide the preventative care and not risk paying more down the road for a child born with impairments.
Harr said that it also is a “moral” matter and that he would resume the Medicaid coverage. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he said.
On creating tax incentives to spark job growth, Comstock is opposed.
It's not good business, he said, to “bribe a company to come in your state.” Comstock said laws like LB 775 can become tools to “extort the taxpayer into subsidizing the company by playing one state against another.”
Ream, on the contrary, favors such incentives as one-year sales tax exemptions for start-up companies.
Harr said he'd encourage tax breaks to expand “green collar” and other hot job fields.
Each candidate said past and present jobs prepared him to tackle the issues dearest to him.
As a self-employed property manager, Comstock said he has grown weary of safety and other regulations that he said can stifle business growth. He thinks more laws should be repealed than made.
His yard signs describe him as a “tax cutter.”
“Historically I have chosen a candidate not by what they could do for me,” Comstock said, “but by how little they would affect my business and my life.”
His Facebook page describes his interests as “politics and religion and other subjects that cause discomfort.” Comstock also hosts a weekly Christian radio show.
Harr, who served five years as a Douglas County prosecutor, puts fighting crime as a priority along with job creation.
He said he would work to ensure that law enforcement agencies have enough tools. With a wife as an elementary school principal in District 66, Harr said he also backs anti-truancy efforts.
After college, Harr spent a year in California with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. He later went into private practice focusing on real estate at Kutak Rock. Harr, whose twin brother also is a lawyer, calls himself a fifth-generation Nebraskan.
He thinks the Legislature should stop dwelling on “student council issues” like traps and helmets and focus on the state budget.
Ream is a Texas native whose wife's university position moved the family to Omaha in 2000.
From 2002 to 2005, he managed and documented patient risks related to experimental drug trials at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. For the past 10 years, Ream has directed a Midwestern political consulting Group, Democrats Forever. He has served as office manager for the Nebraska Democratic Party.
Now that the last of his three kids is off to college, Ream, who also studied two years at an Episcopal seminary, said he has more time for public office. His priorities include job creation and filling empty storefronts in the Benson business area.
As the father of a child with learning disabilities, Ream also vows to oppose cuts in education. His son overcame his impediment with help from public schools and today is studying for a doctorate degree.
Contact the writer:
444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com
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