Race for Lincoln's mayor begins to heat up
By: Johnny Perez
As Democratic mayoral hopeful Chris Beutler visited with UNL students in the Nebraska Union Tuesday night, the upcoming election to choose Lincoln's next top city leader seemed to loom closer than ever.
Beutler's stop at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is indicative of a mayoral race gaining steam.
Though meet-and-greets and fundraisers are beginning to dominate the campaigning, the candidates have also advanced significant policy proposals, some of which could affect university students.
For Roger Yant, a Lincoln businessman and an independent mayoral candidate, one priority is bringing job growth to Lincoln.
Ken Svoboda, a city council member running for the mayoral seat, said job creation was just as important as job retention, adding that creating a favorable business climate in Lincoln was crucial.
And Beutler, a former member of the State Legislature, said he hoped to make Lincoln a "vibrant, powerful economic engine" that would work to invite development and convince younger generations to remain in the state.
Time is becoming more valuable for the candidates.
"The pace has gone up tremendously in the past three weeks," Yant said. "The schedule is filling up."
Svoboda, a Republican, said his time is being divided between his responsibilities with city government and his political campaign.
As a result, Svoboda said, his sleep schedule has been truncated.
"It's really about time management right now," he said.
Despite their hectic schedules, both Svoboda and Yant said their campaigns were running smoothly.
With just a few short weeks until the final deadline for candidacy filing, Svoboda said it was unlikely that another challenger would surface.
"I would find it highly unlikely that someone would get in that didn't have a whole lot of name recognition," Svoboda said.
"I can't imagine what it must be like for a potential candidate to get in at this point in time."