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LINCOLN - Three women - a public interest lawyer, a neighborhood activist and a business owner - are vying for Lincoln's 46th Legislative District seat, which is being vacated by State Sen. David Landis after 28 years in office. The district features the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campuses, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant, some of Lincoln's oldest neighborhoods and some of its newest. Danielle Nantkes, 28, has worked for the Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest for five years, since before her graduation from law school. She previously lobbied the Legislature on behalf of Appleseed but has stepped back from that work during her bid for office. If elected, she said she would resign from Appleseed to focus on private law practice. Her experience with Appleseed would give her a head start in the Capitol, she said. Carol Brown, 53, has lived 30 years in north Lincoln and has been active in neighborhood and business groups in her area. For the past six years, she has been chairman of Lincoln's Neighborhood Round Table, an umbrella group for the city's 40-plus neighborhood groups. She and her husband, John, own a jewelry store, and she works as a business development specialist for the Lincoln Action Program. Brown said her work with city government and neighborhood associations showed her that many local efforts depend on state backing. "I think I can be the bridge between the city and the state," she said. LaRae Eifert, 51, moved to Lincoln from Fairmont more than 20 years ago after her husband, Marvin, died of cancer. She was recruited by local Republicans to run for the Legislature - Nantkes and Brown are both Democrats. She took on the challenge, she said, because "I am not afraid of change." One of the biggest issues facing the district is the possible loss of jobs and possible closure of the Goodyear plant, which employs about 580. The company announced last fall that plants would be closed and jobs cut during a worldwide restructuring over the next few years. All three candidates are stressing economic development and job creation. "The Goodyear plant . . . is the heart and soul of the district, in many ways," Nantkes said. "Those are high-quality jobs, and people are very, very nervous." Nantkes and Brown said some of the $15 million set aside for job training by the 2005 Legislature should be used to help retrain Goodyear workers. Eifert also stressed a need for recruiting new businesses as a way to reduce taxes. "If you bring in new jobs and new business, it will save on taxation," she said. "Instead of looking for a project to tax the people, let's look for new businesses." Nantkes said that when she studied the demographic statistics of her district, she was surprised to realize it is the second poorest in the state - after the north Omaha district of State Sen. Ernie Chambers. "North Lincoln has great needs," she said. Brown said she was disturbed by Nantkes' emphasis on the district's poverty. She said the district also includes newer neighborhoods and new business development along the 27th Street corridor toward Interstate 80. "When you say the whole district is poor, people don't want to come here and invest in a business, because nobody would support it because we're so poor," she said. "I've been involved for a long time with the North Lincoln Business Association and we struggle to get rid of that tag all the time." Eifert said she previously worked at a bank in Fairmont. After her husband's death, she moved to Lincoln and accepted a job at the former NBC bank. Later, she started her own bookkeeping business. Eifert said the eclectic nature of north Lincoln appealed to her when she moved to the city. She circled the city before settling upon a town house next to a cornfield in north Lincoln. It was close to a 24-hour grocery store, 12 minutes to a shopping center and near great schools. "I love the hometown feeling," she said. "That's what it is, a very hometown feeling in the heart of the city." Nantkes had two drunken driving arrests in 1997. She pleaded guilty to reckless driving and paid a $100 fine in the first incident and pleaded no contest to DUI and paid a $200 fine in the second. Nantkes called the arrests a "youthful indiscretion" and "a learning experience." Afterwards, she said, she realized she had to settle down and focus on more important things.
CAROL BROWN
LaRAE EIFERT
DANIELLE NANTKES Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom Copyright ©2006 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or distributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
©2006 Omaha World-Herald. All rights reserved. |
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