Governor Pillen’s political consultant fired him after his gift of a no-bid 2.7-million-dollar contract to a personal friend became public.

Now I don’t know if Jessica Flanagan left the Pillen campaign because of that. It does seem suspicious, since it was announced the day after the Lincoln Police Department said it was investigating that contract.

Ms. Flanagan and Axiom Strategies are also consulting Pete Ricketts’ campaign, so maybe they left to concentrate on the tough road the Senator has ahead of him.

Who knows why she no longer wanted to work with Pillen?

The void she left has been filled by a team of out-of-state MAGA consultants with close ties to the president. Ryan Smith has served as an advisor to MAGA Inc., which is actively involved in Trump’s outside political activities.

Ryan Smith has been successful in helping candidates plagued by scandals get elected, but do we really want a person leading our state who is plagued by scandals?

Enter Brett Lindstrom. The former state senator is seriously considering running as an independent for governor.

Some friends and I had breakfast with Mr. Lindstrom the other day. He talked about how he believes that Nebraska under Governor Pillen is heading in the wrong direction. He spoke of working together with Democrats to solve problems. He sounded like an old-school Republican. He was reasonable and rational. Nothing like how Republican candidates sound these days.

No wonder he left the party to become an independent.

While he says that, he hasn’t totally decided if he’s going to start putting out petitions to get on the ballot; I wouldn’t bet against it. In fact, I would encourage it.

Nothing against Lynne Walz. I think she’d make a very good governor. But in the past few decades, Democrats have had poor showings in statewide offices regardless of their qualifications. The Democratic Party has done a lousy job of selling its brand in this state. They have had few out-of-state victories since the days of Ben Nelson and Bob Kerrey. There are too many people here who won’t vote for a Democrat regardless of their qualifications.

Dan Osborn showed that an independent candidate can have a shot. And I think Brett Lindstrom has a good shot at winning if he decides to run.

If Lindstrom runs, Pillen won’t be able to get away with cute TV ads with grandkids and shotguns. And for the life of me, I can’t think of any major accomplishment he can tout as a reason to give him another four years.

I would love to see a series of three debates between Lindstrom, Walz, and Pillen. One in each congressional district.

Pillen avoided debates with his Republican primary opponents and his Democratic challenger, Carol Blood, the last time around. But he’d have to show up if Walz and Lindstrom debated. The optics would not look good if the two of them were on stage with an empty chair.

Of course, if Pillen did show up, they’d be on the stage with an empty suit.

I know that every election is touted as the most important election in our lifetimes. But this midterm election is going to not only determine the direction our country is going, but also the direction of the state.

We gave Pillen a chance to see what he could do as governor. And what he did was give a sweetheart deal to a close friend. He ignored Omaha and called people he disagreed with lib-tards. He dismissed a report about the dangerous nitrates in the water on his farms and ignored the death of a young man who worked on a facility his family runs.

Nebraska is better than Jim Pillen. The voters who supported Republicans like Dave Heineman need an alternative to the man currently occupying that office today.

I sure hope Brett Lindstrom decides to run for governor. If he does, I will not only sign the petition, but I will volunteer to get others to sign it as well.

I’m sure Jim Pillen’s campaign consultant knows things about him that the rest of us don’t. Jessica Flanagan decided to distance herself from him. Come November, the voters of Nebraska need to do the same thing.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.