Interview with Democratic candidate for Governor, Mike Meister

DISCLAIMER: This article ran on October 26th, 2010. The tuesday before the election, where Meister would eventually lose to Republican incumbent, Dave Heineman.

*******************

Mike Meister can’t really remember what he did in the past 100 days.

Photo illustration by Courtesy Photo. Following Mark Lakers being ousted as the Democratic candidate to challenge Republican incumbent Dave Heineman for governor, Meister was selected at the state Democratic Convention. He has spent the last 100 days campaigning for governor.

Since then, it’s been nothing but open roads and campaign events for the Scottsbluff, Neb., native. A schedule so demanding that separating the days is hard for Meister.

Meister was thrown into the race by his party, after Lakers dropped out of the election due to questions regarding campaign finance reports.

Because of this, Meister was left with only 100 days to run a complete campaign, the kind that politicians normally spend years strategizing for.

Meister is viewed as the massive under-dog in this election, but don’t tell that to him, because as he says, anything can happen on election day.

Dailyer: If come Nov. 3 you’re not the next governor of Nebraska, will you have regretted running?

Meister: No. I’ve had a ball, I mean, it’s been an absolute riot. (I) met a lot of great people, learned a lot of great stuff, in fact you never know, I may look back and forget what we did wrong and do it all again in four years.

Dailyer: So how has the whole ‘100 day campaign’ been going for you?

Meister: Absolutely exhausting, it’s absolutely exhausting. I mean, we get to the point at the end of the week, and it’s like ‘what did we do Tuesday? Oh wait a minute, that was last week.’

But it has been absolutely exhilarating. The one thing I’ve figured out is that you cannot raise enough money in a hundred days to get on television.

Dailyer: How many days off have you had?

Meister: In the hundred days we’ve probably had three days off total.

Dailyer: And the rest of it is all just campaigning?

Meister: Yeah, a couple days in the office here and there, but even when you’re in the office, you’re still making phone calls for money and doing interviews by phone. You’re never completely off the campaign trail.

Dailyer: Has there been a debate?

Meister: No.

Dailyer: Has there been any progress in putting one together last minute, or is it just not going to happen?

Meister: I don’t think it’s going to happen. The idea initially pushed to us by Jack and John (from radio station KLIN) was a debate at Southeast High. Warner Cable would come in and video tape it and provide it on a statewide feed basis on the radio.

And the Heineman administration said that they wouldn’t do that. They said that they’d only do an in studio debate without any kind of state feed or anything else. They called us, like we were all excited, and I said ‘No we’re not doing that.’ And they said ‘Well, what do you mean you’re not doing that?’ And it’s just like, you know, a waste of our time.

You know, if I go into your show with your audience, it’s just not my demographic. It’s not really a moderate audience either. It’s just a bunch of people that are already going to vote for Dave Heineman.

Dailyer: Since this is a student run paper, what do you think is the most important issue facing the campus?

Meister: Co-eds (laughs). But probably this next round of budget cuts, or whatever is going to happen. We’ve been focusing on generating revenues, and if you get revenues, you don’t have to worry about cuts. Dave says everything is a cost, and seeing everything as a cost is looking for cuts.

And you know, the university is cut to the bone already. I don’t think they could find any more cuts. And my fear is they’re gonna say we don’t really care, you’re cutting anyway. And you’re gonna see professors laid off, and the quality of education at the university is going to suffer because of it.

Dailyer: What do you want to do with the budget?

Meister: Biggest thing I want to do with the budget is do a top to bottom scrub of state government. Every single agency, and the university would be on the block as well. Basically, justify your existence. Now there are agencies out there that are going to be able to do that, like the university.

Dailyer: You’re from Scottsbluff, that’s pretty close to Colorado, and what a lot of people are talking about since there’s a lot of budget deficits going on is the legalization of marijuana and medical marijuana. Do you have an opinion either way?

Meister: Man, you really don’t want me to get elected do you? (Laughs.) Well, what we’ve put on the website is we need to have a discussion about medicinal marijuana.

Dailyer: If you had to make a spread for the election coming up, what would you put it at?

Meister: Right now I’d put it at 60-40. I’m behind. We’re in the last stretch, and I made the analogy a few weeks ago that I’m the guy that’s in the pretty silks that your girlfriend looks at the track and says, ‘Oh I’m betting on that one.’ You know, but I’d probably say I’m at 60-40 right now.

Dailyer: So what’s it been like running a campaign that people labeled as unwinnable going in to it?

Meister Part of that is a challenge. You got to look at it and say ‘now we got a plan and we can get this done.’ And the hardest part I’ve had is getting Democrats to believe us. I have a lot of moderate republican support, particularly in the third congressional district.

Part of that is I understand those issues out there. I’m not a crazy left-wing democrat, you know, I’m a Jefferson Democrat. But Democrats are so downtrodden and so ‘Oh. Woe is me. We can’t win. Thank you for doing this.’ It’s like, look, we can win.

Dailyer: What is your position (on gay marriage)?

Meister: If gay people want to be as miserable as the rest of us and get married, that’s fine. You know, the thing is it’s not a marriage issue, it’s a property issue. It’s about adopting children, and being able to see loved ones in the hospital.

There are so many things that people are not considering, because all they say is ‘Oh, they can’t get married, because that’ll impact my marriage.’ But no, it doesn’t. It really doesn’t. It has nothing to do with your marriage, because your marriage is your marriage.

Having gone through a 22 year marriage that’s falling apart right now, I can tell ya, it has nothing to do with that. I can’t tell you that if gay people were allowed to get married that it would have saved my marriage or destroyed my marriage, because that’s just silly.

It’s about property rights. And it’s about people. And it’s about making sure that they have the same legal rights that everybody else has.

But (progressive groups) keep asking me about this question, and it’s like okay, you understand that law (banning gay marriage) was passed in 2000 with 73 percent. And it’s like ‘yeah okay, I’ll grab that third rail, thank you very much.’ It’s just you know, let me get elected, and then we’ll start having that conversation. And we’ll bring people to that conversation correctly.

Dailyer: Has it been something that you talk about on the campaign?

Meister: No, we just ignore it. Well the political answer is, you know, the constitution was amended in 2000 to ban gay marriage. And while Proposition 8 was thrown out in California, our constitution is not dependent upon that ruling.

And until somebody challenges that law, my personal opinion doesn’t really matter, because there is nothing I can do about it. Because I can’t introduce legislation. I can’t do anything, so it doesn’t really matter. That’s the political answer, and it’s an answer that people have got to read between the lines, and know where I’m at on it.

But if I all the sudden said ‘Yep, I’m for gay marriage,’ well I would have effectively sealed the fate, never should have gotten involved, we’re done, stick a fork in us.

It’s just one of the certain issues that are immediate death, and unless you can make people understand that getting elected is the more important part of the equation, and all the things that we can get done for you after we’re elected, that’s great. But if I talk about it before we get elected, we won’t get elected and you’ll get the worst thing you’ve got now.