Polls Closed In Recall Election: Preliminary Results Show Recall Vote Very Close

[OmahaBlueDog]

Source: KETV Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. -- The polls have officially closed across the city in a special election to decide whether to let Mayor Jim Suttle keep his job.



Read more: http://www.ketv.com/politics/26615500/detail.html

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Note: Up to the minute results can be found here:

http://livewire.ketv.com/Event/Omaha_Mayoral_Recall_Election

[rurallib]

1. is it a tea party revenge kind of deal.

[OmahaBlueDog]

3. Everyone needs to pay attention to this one

There's a lot to this story, and mistakes on both sides -- but the bottom line is that this is nothing less than an attempt to break the police and fire unions. If SUttle is recalled, this will be used as a blueprint for other towns.

As of 9:40 the mayor is winning by 2 votes out of 56,700 counted. 133 precints/284 reporting

[UrbScotty]

2. Whoa! Two votes!

For recall: 28,349
Against recall: 28,351

[OmahaBlueDog]

4. They really all do count, don't they?

[UrbScotty]

6. Yep! (nt)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. At least lately.

:tinfoilhat:

[frazzled]

5. I do not believe in "recalls"

I think they are a scourge that people will come to see is a very boneheaded idea. If your mayor did something truly wrong or illegal, there are means to remove him from office. (For Governors, there is always impeachment; for legislators, there are internal ways to remove unethical ones or those who have broken the law.) Otherwise, I don't like the idea of electing someone and then having a mob be able to remove them. This applies to my political opponents as well as my political allies. We will regret this recall mentality some day.

[OmahaBlueDog]

8. It's essentially the mentality that hobbles parlimentary governments

Things get rough -- there's a no confidence vote -- new government. That government may be in for 4 years or 4 months.

[mopinko]

19. i don't either. they tried to get it in illinois after blago.

what they wanted would have been clearly unconstitutional, anyway. their bill would have applied only to the governor. even tho blago was a shining example that a governor could already by removed.

[rpannier]

7. Thanks for posting this

Was unaware of a recall -- I'm not from Nebraska
But, I hope it fails
From what I've read the recall is being lead by the "Don't make me pay for anything - but give me everything." crowd

[OmahaBlueDog]

9. There was a budget shortfall

The shortfall was partly fueled by pension obligations

The pension shortfall was partly fueled by union police and firemen "spiking" (getting promotions right before retirement in a manner that inflated their pension payout).

Suttle did not cause this, he inherited it.

He proposed a budget (and made some mis-steps along the way, like hiring some high priced advisers and paying an exorbitant lease on the mayoral vehicle). The budget was a combination of property tax increases, user fee increases, a 2.5% restaurant tax, spending cuts, and a renegotiated union contract.

Enter the Tea Party and Dave Nabity, who basically said they were against any tax increase, and thought the entire shortfall should be managed by "renegotiated union contracts." They proposed having the county sheriff take over the policing for 1/2 of Omaha, and proposed privatizing the fire department. They howled about the restaurant tax and how it would drive diners out of the city.

The city is in much better fiscal shape (although they reported being in-the-black as of last week --- I'm dubious), and the restaurant tax hasn't killed anyone that I know of.

Bottom line -- this is a GOP union busting effort.

[rpannier]

11. 21 precincts left to count and the recall people have been slipping

Curious how absentee ballots will affect this

[Stargazer09]

13. Thanks for explaining this

We live in the Omaha area, but we're both legal residents of other states due to our military status. We have been hearing a lot about the recall, but we didn't really understand what was going on. (And since we can't vote anyway, I'll admit that we didn't do a lot of research.)

It sounded like he should be recalled, due to some of the tax increases he was imposing, but if the tea party wants him recalled, I'm definitely against it.

Having his campaign bus homeless people to early voting places, then paying them money, was a BAD IDEA. That just screamed desperation, as well as corruption, in my opinion.

[OmahaBlueDog]

17. That was a huge mistake, but remember that the recall movement paid for petition signatures

...and also had lots of signatures from folks in La Vista and Bellevue.

I posted my opinions on the recall earlier:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=164&topic_id=2253&mesg_id=2256

Yes, I voted to keep Suttle in office, but mostly for 2 reasons:

1)Because I think that the recall is a tool to be reserved for criminality or gross negligence. I don't think any of what he's done rises to that.

2)Because I think this whole thing is essentially the Tea Party's desire for a do-over after a more mainstream Republican (Hal Daub) lost by 1,500 votes (about the same margin SUttle carried tonight).

OTOH, Mrs. OBD (who is what I would describe as a Joe Biden Democrat, and probably more liberal than I am) can't stand Suttle.

[LarryNM]

10. The Recall Leaders - Typical Government Bad Except When It Is For ME Crowd

They make a bad, or improving situation, worse.

[rpannier]

12. Keep government hands off my Social Security and Medicare

[rpannier]

14. All precincts in and the recall is losing

Absentee and early voting left

[Citizen Worker]

15. Latest numbers as of 9:12 p.m., PST from the livewire link.

Yes - 36,832 (48.90%)
No - 38,484 (51.10%)

[OmahaBlueDog]

16. The opponents are giving the "every vote must be counted" line, but

...they are basically conceding that the mayor has won.

Credit where credit is due, Forward Omaha (with some notable missteps) ran a well organized campaign against the recall.