In the next few days all Nebraska most Nebraska office holders will be required to file their year-end financial summaries, showing how much cash they have on hand and where they got it from over the last year or since the last filing.We've taken a look at the Omaha City Council members and as of today we've reviewed the reports for Councilmen Festersen, Gernandt and Mulligan. For this post, we'll stick with Councilman Festersen.
We were struck by the size of the war chest that Festersen has accumulated. For a guy that we've often heard doesn't much enjoy being on the council he has done an extraordinary job raising funds. He started 2011 with $38,024 on hand and raised $57,909 during the year bringing his cash on hand to $90,678!!!! That's pretty impressive more than a year away from the next city council election and one can assume that if he, in fact, chooses to run for re-election rather than mayor or something else that he will be sufficiently financed to discourage other candidates. It might even discourage the fire union from going after him....And he's got yet another year to raise money!
Festersen got his money from the traditional Democrat liberals you'd expect for the most part. They include Susan Buffett ($1000), Keith Edquist ($500), Mike Fahey ($1000), Tom Fellman ($1000), Richard Holland ($1500), and Willie Theiesen to name a few. Other prominent names, some Republican, include Trea Brashear ($500), John Kotouc ($500), Frank Krejci ($1000), Dainel Neary ($1000), Jay Noddle ($1000), Walter Scott ($1500), Jerry Slusky ($500) and Ken Stinson ($1000). Some of these, obviously have business before the council and wouldn't want to offend Festersen by not supporting him...
Festersen has also done a solid job of 'tapping' lots of business entities, many of which come before the council fairly regularly. They include the Crocker/Huck law firm ($1000), EHPV Lottery Services ($1000), First National Bank ($1000), Fraser Stryker law firm ($1000), Fullencamp law firm ($1000), Hawkins Construction Company ($500), HDR ($1000), Holland Basham Architects ($500), Kiewit Corporation ($1000), Kutak Rock ($500), the Lund Company ($1000), Lyman-Richey ($500), Pansing and Hogan law firm ($1000), PDM Inc. ($500), Union Pacific Railroad ($500), the Nebraska Realtors PAC ($500) the State Health PAC ($1000) and the Steamfitters and Plummers Labor Union 464 PAC. Again, it's not a stretch to say the latter have lots of interests before the council.
While we've seen folks raise large amounts of dough well in advance of an election we have to say that Festersen has obviously been working hard at it and done so successfully. With that said, it's also clear that many, if not most, of his contributors will appear before the Omaha City Council at some point, many points in some cases, looking for a favorable vote from Pete. Likely, they will get it.
We don't begrudge Festersen his efforts and we'd acknowledge the same generosity extended to Republicans and probably will shortly. It's easy to see how such contributions could impact (euphemistically speaking) one's judgement, but such is political reality.
Frankly, we'd like to see an ordinance that would require every council member to acknowledge any donation of $250 or more for any contributor who comes before the council. We think it would be instructive to the citizenry of Omaha and would also acknowledge what could be potential conflicts of interest for the sake of transparency. Sorry, we're sounding like some of those liberal groups.
Until then, good work councilman.
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