Re-Elect Leirion Gaylor Baird Mayor of Lincoln!
Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor is running on a record of accomplishment because Lincoln is thriving.
Gaylor Baird launched her re-election campaign by giving a lengthy interview to the Nebraska Examiner. The pertinent excerpts were as follows.
“She credited temporary measures such as masking and the COVID-19 transmission risk dial with helping people navigate an uncertain time. (Lancaster County had the lowest per capita death in Nebraska.)
The mayor shared rankings that show major gains in job growth, wage growth and broadband infrastructure. She mentioned a record number of building permits in 2021.
Lincoln’s violent crime rate is approaching a three-decade low, she said, even as the city has grown by 100,000 people.
She said part of recruiting young talent is being a welcoming place for all Nebraskans, including LGBTQ youths.”
Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Gaylor Baird and the Democratic majority on the City Council, the Lincoln economy is roaring. Currently, Lincoln has an amazingly low unemployment rate of 2%.
Lincoln is ranked number 12 on the Forbes list of best places to retire in 2022. The median home price is 31% below the national average. Lincoln’s capital city also has good air quality and an excellent health care system.
Lincoln is ranked number 3 on the Storage Cafe list of best places for families with children. Housing costs and rental prices are well below the national averages. The public schools are very highly rated, with Lincoln East High School ranking as one of the best in Nebraska.
Despite that impressive progress, former State Senator Suzanne Geist has challenged her, assisted by significant funding from the Peed and Ricketts families. Something like 2/3 of Geist’s $1.8 in campaign funding has come from those two sources.
Geist has been a loyal Ricketts’ lieutenant and has compiled a very conservative record in the legislature. When she was asked about what issues in which she differed with Ricketts, Geist couldn’t provide an answer.
In 2022, Geist voted for tax breaks for the wealthy and the corporations but voted against middle class tax relief. Geist also voted for a 20% consumption tax proposal that would eliminate income, corporate and estate taxes. Most experts have stated that this kind tax scheme would redistribute income upwards.
Geist has voted for a near total abortion ban and against LGBTQ employment protections. She also supported the bill that would ban trangender medical care for minors.
When she announced for mayor, Geist was asked what she’d do differently than Baird on the issues. All Geist said was that she would talk to experts who know the systems and get them what they need. The platform on her website remains vague.
Geist is not only extreme but she is out of touch. Even though she grew up in a racially diverse area of Arkansas, Geist has no understanding of the challenges being faced by African Americans. In a 2020 Lincoln Journal Star interview, she said: “They think about fear being a part of their lives all the time. And I didn’t know that.”
In that same interview, Geist said that she didn’t believe the issues of African-Americans can be solved politically and that racism is not something that can be eliminated with the writing of a law. Are you kidding me? Is she even familiar with the Civil Rights Act of 1964? The Voting Rights Act of 1965? Or the Fair Housing Act of 1968?
The center piece of Geist’s campaign has been an unsubstantiaed claim that Lincoln is an unsafe, high crime city. Gaylor Baird has expressed concern that these claims could discourage young people and businesses from locating here.
Those ads are deceptive since the Lincoln Journal Star reported on October 23 that “reports of violent crime in the city have been largely stagnant for three full decades, even as Lincoln’s population has grown by about 100,000 residents….Lincoln’s violent crime rate — the number of violent crimes reported per 100,000 residents — has actually dropped substantially since the 1990s and early 2000s….By last year, the city’s violent crime rate had been nearly cut in half, down to 372 violent crimes reported per 100,000 residents, according to police data.”
Just last fall, GOP County Attorney Pat Condon essentially “endorsed” Leirion’s public safety record in an interview with Channel 10/11 News. Lancaster County’s top law enforcement officer told the voters: “I mean, Lincoln generally is a safe place.”
Former Kerrey and Nelson Chief of Staff W. Don Nelson said Gaylor Baird should ask her opponents one question: “What is it I have done over the past four years that you would not have done, and what would you have liked to have done?”
It will be progress versus extremism in 2023. Things are going well in Lincoln. It would be too risky to turn over the city to Geist and her wealthy donors. We must preserve the good life in Lincoln by re-electing Mayor Leirion Gaylor-Baird!