OMAHA—Mayor Jim Suttle surprised no one Tuesday night when he announced he’s running again in 2013.
But one of his re-election promises did sound too good to be true.
As he pledged among other things (see video below) to keep Omaha’s unemployment low, Suttle upped the jobless ante.
“We still have a sector of our city with over 20 percent unemployment and we are going to solve that and drive that statistic down toward where it should be at three-point-nine like the rest of the state,” said Suttle.
Suttle says his legacy will be the city’s strong financial future but he also used the historic Flood of 2011 as one key reason voters should give him four more years.
“We saved our city,” Suttle told a packed room at the Old Mattress Factory.
The fundraiser-birthday bash (Suttle turned 68 Wednesday) followed what may have been some campaign cash lowballing by Team Suttle.
After telling Nebraska Watchdog that the get-together would raise about $100,000, the campaign now says it picked up at least $200,000.
Several other candidates are expected to challenge Suttle but so far only State Sen. Brad Ashford is running.
Told that Democrat Suttle picked up a couple hundred thousand dollars Ashford, who was a Republican until he became an independent late last year, said he’s “very confident” he can raise the money to get his message out.
“I realize it’s a big challenge…the citizens of Omaha will respond to real reform,” said Ashford.
Reported by Joe Jordan, joe@nebraskawatchdog.org
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