BRAD ASHFORD-BAD FOR OMAHA!

If you like high taxes, runaway spending, and lots of strangling government regulations, then Brad Ashford is your candidate for Mayor of Omaha.  If you think illegal aliens have a right to crowd our schools, burden our welfare system, take our jobs, murder our fellow Nebraskans, and continue to fill our jails and prisons, then Brad Ashford should be your candidate for Mayor of Omaha.  His voting record during his years in the Legislature has wounded taxpayers many times each session.  His other political activities expose him as a liberal who wants to use government social engineering to destroy our traditional middle-class values.  Read below and see for yourself how Brad Ashford would harm Omaha taxpayers as its mayor.
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2013 Legislative Session.

LB 556 cosponsor: To require regional behavioral health authorities to provide community services in local public schools.  The welfare dept. and Dept. of Education would adopt and utilize rules and regulations to provide telehealth services for kids through the public schools.  School personnel and behavioral health professionals would treat medical or behavioral problems.  School personnel need not have medical training. This legislation would allow strangers to treat your child for supposed behavioral problems without parental consent.  THINKS GOVERNMENT KNOWS BETTER THAN PARENTS!
LB 44: Ashford.  Lowering the penalty for murder for those under 18 to a maximum sentence of life in prison and a minimum sentence that would allow parole after 20 yrs.  Gangs now use juveniles to murder their rivals, knowing juveniles receive more lenient sentences.  The American Civil Liberties Union-NE supports the bill. 

LB 50: Ashford.  To make gun owning adults criminally liable for civil damages if leaving a firearm in a place where someone under 19 or mentally incompetent person can get it.  The bill does not closely define “reasonable storage,” so vague that a home intruder could sue a homeowner whose child used a gun to shoot him.  Lawyers could file frivolous lawsuits against gun owners. 

LB 561: Ashford.  To create $10 million in new community-based social programs for incarcerated juveniles and close the detention centers at Kearney and Geneva.  His bill would expose NE citizens to potential violence from criminal juveniles.  Both Kearney and Geneva juvenile detention facilities would lose hundreds of jobs, impacting city school systems, housing markets, and economies. 

LB 562: Ashford.  To require the Dept. of Correctional Services to prohibit the use of seclusion for disciplinary purposes and standards for the use of seclusion as a temporary emergency procedure. 

                                                BRAD ASHFORD IS SOFT ON CRIME!

 

2012 Legislative Session.

Taxes.

LB 357: Voted to allow Omaha and other NE cities to raise their local sales tax by 1/2c per $1, forcing Omahans to pay 7.5c per dollar sales tax.

Ashford was the main legislative sponsor to impose a hike in the Omaha local sales tax in 1993 (World-Herald 4-19-94).

Spending.

LR 373 CA: Voted to raise his state senator salary from $12,000 to $22,500 annually, about an 88% increase.

LB 540: Voted to allow Medicaid to cover family planning services for families earning up to 185% of the federal poverty level.  26,000 NE women would qualify. 

LB 599: Voted to provide prenatal care to poor, illegal alien women ineligible for Medicaid, costing the state over $655,000 annually.  Passage of this bill guaranteed NE as a magnet state for migrating illegal aliens. 

LB 821: Voted to create another bureaucracy, the Dept. of Childrens Services.  The leftist NE Appleseed Center supported this bill.

LB 1079: Voted to fund programs through $200,000 annual grants from the state education dept. to provide English reading, writing, and math skills to the poor, including illegal aliens.  Funding also paid for job coaching and personal expenses. 

 

Ashford received a 57% conservative score on our NTF 2012 Legislative Voting Record. 

 

2011 Legislative Session.

Taxes.
LB 106: Voted to expand county sales taxes up to 1.5%.

LB 211: Voted to facilitate mail order and Internet sales and use taxes on consumer purchases.

LB 251: Voted to increase court filing fees by $20.

LB 283: Voted to allow school districts to levy property taxes and issue bonds without a public vote.
LB 357: Voted to allow cities to raise their local sales tax by 1/2c per $1.

LB 400: Voted to extend the sunset date for an additional natural resources district property tax of 3c per $100 of valuation. 

LB 421: Voted to raise the cost of annual state park resident permit fees by 25%.

Spending.

LB 200: Voted to provide up to $150,000 annually in grants to help establish socialist food cooperatives.

LB 465: Voted against the bill, which saved NE about $3.9 million annually by stopping food stamps and Medicaid to illegal aliens. 

LB 468: Voted against the bill, which allowed the state to add and increase client co-pays for Medicaid goods and services. 

LB 543: Voted to raise the income limit on savings and checking accounts for food stamp applicants to $25,000 and force the state to develop an outreach program with counties to encourage the maximum number of people to apply for food stamps.

Regulations.

LB 329: Voted to adopt a new, minimum international energy conservation code for NE that raised consumer costs.

 

2010 Legislative Session.

Taxes.

LB 686: Voted to increase county fees.
LB 861: Voted to raise fees for farm winery licenses from $45 to $400.

LB 867: Voted to increase from $200 to $1,000 annual shipping license fees, hurting small businesses.

LB 910: Voted to raise kennel fees by thousands of dollars.

Spending.

LB 1105: Voted to make it financially inconvenient to administer the death penalty in capital cases.

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                                    BRAD ASHFORD THE HYPOCRITE!

In a speech to the Omaha Morning Rotary Club in Nov. 1993, Ashford declared that he would support a Balanced Budget Amendment in Congress, requiring a 20% cut in federal entitlement programs as a means to drop the deficit down to zero (World-Herald 11-17-93).  However, the next February, he said that he opposed the Balanced Budget Amendment then considered by Congress (WH 2-28-94).  Ashford changes sides like a political chameleon.  He has been a Republican, Democrat, and Independent.  Yet, he claims to have “a solid track record of building trust” (Omaha WH 10-3-12).  While a Republican, he authored a glowing guest editorial praising Gov. Ben Nelson, who, as Senator, provided the vote needed to pass ObamaCare.  Democrat former Sen. Bob Kerrey has urged Ashford to consider running for mayor. 

 

Ashford is not very skilled at handling finances.  During his campaign for Congress, his campaign forgot to pay Social Security taxes for his campaign staff (WH 5-5-94).  Oops!!

 

  ASHFORD NO FRIEND TO LAWFUL GUN OWNERS!  BAN ASHFORD, NOT GUNS!

Ashford has led the fight in the Legislature for gun control over lawful gun owners. 

Ashford: “It takes guts to stand up to the National Rifle Association.”  (World-Herald), 11-11-93. 

Ashford editorial (WH. 8-16-94):  “…self-serving, greedy interests of the NRA.”

In his 1994 plan to fight crime, Ashford pledged to ban semiautomatic firearms not used for hunting (World-Herald 4-2-94). 

In a 1997 editorial (WH 2-12-97) and in the Legislature, he opposed a law allowing lawful citizens to carry concealed handguns and hoped that the Legislature would strike down the bill. 

…..BUT HE SURE LIKES GANG MEMBERS!

Ashford pandered to youth gang members when he introduced LB 923 in 2010 to seal juvenile gang member records, so that they could more easily gain employment, as if employers want to hire gang members!

 

            BRAD ASHFORD: AMIGO TO ILLEGAL ALIENS!
As chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, Ashford bottled up bills to stem illegal immigration in Nebraska, such as E-Verify employment measures and voter ID verification.  He voted against voter ID and for prenatal care for illegal aliens.  The owner of a Spanish-language newspaper in South Omaha praised Ashford’s “leadership in opposition to Draconian anti-immigrant bills,” bills that actually would reverse illegal immigration in NE, and again praised Ashford for “his compassion” for pregnant illegal immigrant women (see Ashford’s Mayoral website).

See his radio ad specifically pandering to those who prefer to speak Spanish in Omaha:

http://www.bradashford.com/taxpayer-relief-radio-advertisement-spanish/

 

                                                 NO FRIEND TO HOMEOWNERS!

Ashford served as Executive Director of the Omaha Housing Authority, expanding taxpayer-subsidized housing for the poor and minorities.  He is a vigorous proponent of this kind of housing scattered throughout the city, destroying property values of homeowners who have worked hard to afford and maintain their homes. 

                                                NO FRIEND TO PARENTS!
In 2010, Ashford pushed through LB 800, which forced public schools to report truancy cases monthly to the state and county attorneys.  Dozens of parents now face court dates with their children, who miss 20 school days because of illness or hospitalization. 

 

Friends of Brad Ashford:
Financial supporters of Ashford for Mayor include former Mayor Mike Fahey ($1,000 contribution), who continually raised our property taxes, and leftwing State Sen. Steve Lathrop.

Endorsed by radical State Sen. Ernie Chambers.