Lynne Walz is Nebraska nice. But is she a little too Nebraska nice?

I recently heard her speak at the Free Speech Society, where she spread her message of how her faith has taught her to love all people regardless of their skin color, sexuality, religion, or political affiliation. She spoke of how she will work with all sides to find the best solutions to fix our budget problems. She spoke of how, in her time in the State Senate, she worked with Republicans to pass legislation, including working with Brett Lindstrom to provide tax relief.

Yet when I see the ads the Pillen camp is running against her, they portray her as being anything but nice.

After Walz spoke, I asked her campaign manager why Lynne isn’t running ads talking about the poor job Jim Pillen has done as governor. Why aren’t they running ads talking about the corruption of a $2.5 million no-bid contract given to a good friend of his? Why don’t they run spots reminding people of the cancer-causing nitrates in the water around his farms and how Pillen just dismissed the report because he doesn’t like the reporter? Shouldn’t they be pointing out how the family put roadblocks in the way of federal investigators looking for answers on how a teenage worker died on one of his farms?

The campaign manager told me that they don’t have the money to attack Pillen the way that Pillen and his PAC’s are attacking her.

But even if they did, I doubt they would run those ads because Lynne Walz is just too nice.

She stood before the crowd of about a hundred people and answered all their questions. The previous month, Brett Lindstrom spoke to our group, and he too answered questions from the crowd.

The Free Speech Society has reached out to have the Governor speak to us, and we never heard back.

That might be another ad the Walz camp could run about how the Governor is not responsive to the voters by failing to show up to debate, speak to groups like ours, or answer tough questions.

Lynne has run an ad where she talks about how Governor Pillen inherited a surplus and turned it into a deficit. But even when she does a negative ad like that, she comes across as nice, because that’s who she genuinely is.

Which in no way is a bad thing. Unless you’re a politician.

Can a politician afford to be nice in this political climate?

I certainly hope so.

Lynne Walz is much more than nice, though. Yes, she’s a wife, mother, and grandmother. Which is nice. But she’s also a very accomplished woman who went back to school to get her teaching degree. After she spent years in the classroom, she got her real estate license so she could spend more time with her children. She soon became an associate broker with Don Peterson Associates, before spending 8 years in the Unicameral as a state senator.

But you wouldn’t know all that from the attack ads against her.

The attack ads on Lynne Walz are very similar to the attack ads the Republicans used against John Ewing when he ran against Jean Stothert for mayor. And we all know how well those ads worked out. I think voters are tired of using immigrants, transgender men, women, and other minorities as political fodder.

Politics is a contact sport. There have been negative ads ever since the first ballot was cast. But with all that negativity, by the time someone gets elected, half the population hates them.

How is that productive?

Lynne Walz is just too nice to hate. And though she may lack the money to flood the airwaves running attack ads, she’s traveling the state meeting people, answering their questions, and marching in their town parades.

Pillen, on the other hand, goes out of his way to avoid answering questions and meeting Nebraskans face to face. Lynne Walz is letting the voters see who she is for themselves. While Pillen is trying to scare people into voting for him, Lynne is spreading her message of working together to get Nebraska back on the right track.

And it’s working. Polling shows that she is running neck and neck with a man who sold out Nebraska to get the approval of the least popular president in recent history.

There’s a good chance that come November the Cornhusker State will have a new leader.

And that will be nice.

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.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.