Democrat incumbent and two Republicans vie for Sarpy County District 49 race in NE Legislature

OMAHA — State Sen. Jen Day is defending her Sarpy County legislative seat against two challengers who believe that their “conservative” views are more aligned with the voters of District 49.

Day — a Democrat who won a close election four years ago against a Republican appointee — faces Bob Andersen, 61, a defense contractor and U.S. Air Force veteran, and Caleb Muhs, 40, a former FBI analyst now in the insurance industry. Both are Republicans, and seeking their first public office. 

Officially, Nebraska legislative races are nonpartisan, so the top two vote-getters regardless of political affiliation will move on from the primary to the general election.

A mom, wife and former business owner, Day believes residents of the north-central Sarpy County district appreciate her approach, which she describes as starting on middle ground and working one way or another depending on the discussion.

She notes that while the district is heavily Republican, a combined count of voters registered as Democrat and nonpartisan outnumbers them. 

“Registered independents, they’re tired of the hyperpartisanship and divisiveness that exists in politics,” said Day, 42. “I’ve found that this district consists of a lot of people like me, families with young children just trying to get by.”

District 49 includes parts of La Vista, Papillon, Gretna and the Chalco area.

Sports and Spaces divide

Andersen and Muhs said in separate interviews that they’re ideologically opposite of the incumbent. And as an example, each pointed out the contentious Nebraska bill that would define K-12 school bathrooms and sporting teams as male or female based on students’ sex at birth.

The measure fell two votes short of advancing this past session. Day voted with the opposition. The sponsoring lawmaker vowed to resurrect the Sports and Spaces Act, and both Andersen and Muhs said they’d be on that team.

“Men should not be able to compete in women’s sports and steal the opportunities that these women have worked for their whole life,” said Andersen. “Just because somebody says they want to be identified as something different doesn’t mean that the physiology changes — it doesn’t.”

Taking aim at the same issue, Muhs contends that Day is “opposed to protecting girls” from male athletic competitors and with their own “private spaces.”

Day called it a “waste of government time and resources to discuss things that are not a problem” and contends that her challengers want to stir anger and division.

She said the Nebraska School Activities Association already has a “gender participation policy” in place. Fewer than a dozen students as of earlier this year had applied and been approved under that policy to play on a sporting team of their choice. 

“It’s not the role of government to step in the middle of that,” she said.

Day’s priorities this past session included food security for youths. Bills she introduced included subjects such as memory care facility training, building inspections, the child care subsidy and vehicle tax exemptions for Gold Star families.

Day, who is married with two sons, said her priorities if re-elected include reducing property taxes, legalizing medical marijuana and improving access to maternal health and behavioral health care.

Quest for property tax relief 

Both Muhs and Andersen say that a greater issue propelling each into the race is a quest for property tax relief.

Muhs is critical of Day’s suggestion to raise state revenue by legalizing medical marijuana. Day also suggests turning to online gambling as a new revenue source.

“I think Nebraska has a spending problem, not a revenue problem,” Muhs said. 

Muhs described himself as a “small government conservative” who would shrink government and a believer that “strong families are the foundation of a healthy society.”

He said that while he is not “soft” on violent crime, he believes systems should look for ways other than prison to address and help substance abuse addicts. He favors a redesign of certain income-eligible welfare benefits to incent, rather than discourage, the formation of families. 

A Grand Island native, Muhs met his wife while studying at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The couple now have five children.

Muhs said his path after college led him to a counterterrorism stint at the FBI and to Fordham University for a law degree. He volunteered at a public defender’s office before settling into self-employed consulting work in the insurance industry.

The family returned to Nebraska in 2021.

Andersen was born in Ohio, raised in Michigan and said he has lived in the Omaha area about 33 years. He and his wife have two sons. 

Now retired from active military duty, Andersen’s career in the U.S. Air Force started at age 19 as a Russian linguist. He was in Germany during the Cold War and the Middle East after Sept. 11, 2001.

He said he enjoys Nebraska’s “conservative environment” and says his political leanings began as a kid making phone calls for Richard Nixon’s campaign.

Anderson said he favors a “collaborative” approach, and has received endorsements from five Sarpy County commissioners. His campaign literature says he is endorsed by Kirk Penner, the highest-profile conservative member of the State Board of Education.

Today Anderson is a small businessman and defense contractor.

Among top priorities, he said, is capping real estate taxes.

“We’re forcing retirees out of their houses, we’re forcing them to leave the state,” said Andersen, who said young people also can’t afford a house.

Fundraising in the District 49 race so far has reached nearly $300,000, with Day outpacing her opponents.

Among those boosting Day’s nearly $186,000 fundraising tally is the family of Nebraska Regent Barbara Weitz and Emily Patel, a maternal and fetal medicine doctor.

Andersen, who raised nearly $64,000, was helped by donors including Tom Peed of Sandhills Publishing, Hal Daub and Charles Herbster.

Muhs has raised nearly $46,000, and has among his contributors the Nebraska Realtors Association and Pete Ricketts.

In their own words

The Nebraska Examiner asked the three candidates about issues facing state government and the Legislature. Here are responses, in their own words:

Q: How would you want the State of Nebraska to address property taxes, if at all, and how would you pay for your approach?

Day: Addressing property taxes requires three important components: 1) reducing the reliance on local property taxes to fund public education in perpetuity, not just temporarily, 2) implementing new revenue generators like medical marijuana and online gaming, and 3) ensuring that we are creating a welcoming environment in Nebraska for businesses and employees so we can slow down and eliminate brain drain.

Andersen: Nebraska has to stop punishing people for owning a home. The most pressing issue I hear at almost every door are the property tax increases caused by dramatically higher valuations. These back-door tax increases are hurting our families and businesses. It forces people out of our state. In Sarpy County last year the average increase was 14%. Some were as high as 40%. This is unfair. My top priority will be finding a way to cap the amount a homeowner’s tax payments can go up on an annual basis. Capping the increases to a reasonable amount annually would help our families plan year-to-year and our municipalities would have a stable tax base estimate each year. We have to stop punishing homeowners.

 Muhs: We need to rein in spending at both the state and local level. We have a spending problem in Nebraska as opposed to a revenue problem. We should simplify the tax code and end a number of loopholes, but we must do this in conjunction with spending reductions.

We should look into slowing down the ability of local taxing entities to raise taxes along with ensuring that elections on bonds occur during the normal election cycle to ensure greater representation and that they are transparent on costs to taxpayers.

Q: What spending would you prioritize in the Legislature and why? What spending do you think the state could cut and why?

Day: Nebraska’s Constitution requires a balanced budget, so the spending needs will vary based on economic conditions. That being said, my top priority for spending is education, both K-12 and higher education. A close second would be things like mental health care, child care and roads. In terms of spending cuts, I would look at being more responsible in choosing incoming big projects like the Perkins Canal that are large costs to the state and place the tax burden on local property owners. We have to be sure to right-size funding for projects like these. Additionally, efficiency reviews are an essential way to address redundancy and waste. 

Andersen: We need to prioritize our basic needs and look at everything else to make sure programs and projects the state funds are actually accomplishing their intended purposes. I believe if we look at every item we will find a lot of waste and programs that are no longer needed. I applaud Gov. Jim Pillen for eliminating the unfilled positions in state government. We owe it to the taxpayers to examine everything. The top spending items for our state government need to be education, health and human services, public safety, and roads and infrastructure. 

Muhs: I would prioritize slowing down spending growth and then reducing the amount that we spend. All areas of state and local government should review their entire budgets to see what can be done better and more efficiently, where waste can be eliminated and honestly ask whether value is being provided to Nebraskans. There may be areas that are underfunded, which I suspect includes the foster care system.

Q: What would you like to see the state do to encourage economic development, growth, workforce development and housing?

Day: First, creating a welcoming environment where businesses and employees want to live is imperative. Second, programs like our Middle Income Workforce Housing and Rural Workforce Housing that provide incentives to increase affordable housing will become more and more important in the future.

Andersen: It all starts with making Nebraska a more affordable place to live, work, raise a family, start a business and retire. Our overall tax system is putting Nebraska at a disadvantage to surrounding and comparable states. We cannot compete under these conditions. We need to look at our entire tax system and look at what other states, like Iowa, are doing.  

As far as the workforce, affordable and available housing is a major issue. We need to make it easier for developers to build mid-range housing developments for both workforce and empty nesters looking to downsize. Papillion’s Affordable Housing Action Plan is a good roadmap for creating more affordable housing. Our communities need to eliminate burdensome regulations which make it more difficult to develop and redevelop neighborhoods to fit the workforce and downsizing models. 

Muhs: We need to start by making Nebraska an attractive location with a low, competitive tax burden as well as an efficient but light regulatory framework. We also have an opportunity to pursue an energy policy that provides Nebraskans with reliable, cheap power and gives industry in Nebraska a competitive advantage. We can begin to address housing by ensuring zoning regulations are not overly burdensome and seek to reduce inefficient and wasteful regulatory costs, which are roughly 33% of total construction costs in Nebraska vs 22% nationally.

To address workforce development, we should encourage and incentivize private enterprise to further develop our workforce and attract talented individuals.

Ultimately, a small and limited government that upholds the rule of law, respects the rights of the people, doesn’t pick winners and losers and efficiently provides the services needed will create an environment where all Nebraskans can succeed.

Q: What policies would you prioritize at the state level in K-12 and higher education, and why would you emphasize them?

Day: First, a restructuring of how we fund public education would be top priority. Second, assuring students have all the resources they need to get a quality education; mental health care access, qualified instruction, nutritious meals. Students need to be ready to learn, and it’s our responsibility to make sure they are prepared and taken care of.

Andersen: We must return to the basics of reading, writing, math, science, and civics. There is too much social engineering going on in some of our schools. Let parents be parents and teachers be teachers. We are failing if we do not prepare students with everyday life skills. In District 49 we have really good schools. But it is our responsibility to make sure every student in Nebraska has access to the best educational opportunities available. No option should be taken off the table.

Muhs: I prefer local control over K-12 education, but I do think girls sports and private spaces should be reserved only for girls. We need to get back to focusing on education instead of pushing divisive ideologies for political purposes. I hear this sentiment echoed from many teachers who are frustrated with the politicization of education as well as the amount of administrative work they perform which takes away from teaching children.

Q: What issues are you hearing from voters in your district that need to be addressed? 

Day: Property taxes are always at the top of the list! But I also hear a lot about health care access; voters don’t want their access restricted by government. The cost of living and the economy are also high priorities; families are struggling with affordability of housing, food, etc.

Andersen: The number one issue by far are higher property tax payments caused by dramatically higher valuations. … allowing boys to compete in girls’ athletic events is both unfair and dangerous. These girls work hard to be successful in their events and I will work to protect their opportunities.

Muhs: I think this mostly covers it at the state level.