VansOpinion - VAN VALKENBURG SAYS POFAHL VIOLATING PARTY RULES

Norfolk GOP "leader", Louis Pofahl broke G.O.P. rules by not staying neutral in primary. He got caught at it, and now he is working to turn the spotlight away from his inappropriate behavior.

The people of Madison County, I have found, are some of the most loyal and hardest working Republicans in Nebraska. On Saturday, 24 April, the State Central Committee of the Nebraska G.O.P. held a meeting in Norfolk for its members, from around the state at the beautiful new Lutheran High School.

A major part of the meeting was dedicated to giving the leaders present an up-date on Federal Election Commission Rule changes and an opportunity to hear all seven Republican Candidates for the First Congressional District seat being vacated by Doug Bereuter. The order of speaking for the candidates was decided by a neutral party who drew their names from a box. I was 2nd of the seven to speak.

My exact words after addressing the chairman, fellow candidates and loyal Republican Party leaders were, "its great to be in solid Republican Country....Bush Country.... a place where Democrats are so scarce, you folks must spray for them." The audience responded with laughter and cheers. The remark was made to stur up excitement in the audience and to inject a bit of humor into my presentation. On the way to the podium, one of my well known friends from Omaha who had heard several of my highly partisan talks, said, "Give ‘em hell Van." I told him, "Buckle your seat belt Pat and hang on." One of the exciting things about political speaking is getting the audience all "wound-up" and folks say, I'm pretty good at it.

Several days before, I had called Pofahl to talk about an event scheduled on the State G.O.P. master calendar as "Madison Co. Republican Party Lunch Meeting, Wed. 12 Noon..." There are so many events during "political season" it would be easy for a candidate to over-look one. When I called Pofahl and asked about the meeting, he said my opponent, Jeff Fortenberry, was the only candidate who had been invited to speak. I asked to be included since it was a party function rather than a private function. Pofahl, clearly a Fortenberry supporter, refused to allow me to participate. I reported the unfortunate event to senior party officials thinking that sort of inappropriate behavior on Pofahl's part would be corrected and thought that would be the end of it.

Louis Pofahl works for the North East Nebraska Economic Development District and is almost impossible to reach in that he, like many bureaucrats, has a love affair with his answering machine. He did not even show the courtesy of introducing himself at the Norfolk meeting where I spoke notwithstanding the fact "his county" was the host for the statewide meeting. He must have been ashamed of himself.

Louis has another problems - he fibbed to the media. His so-called apology was unwarranted, undignified and in part untrue. He did not write a letter to me "to express his disapproval" and he was not gentleman enough to confront me in person with his complaint. I trust the good Republicans of Madison County will take the remark as nothing more than intended - a joke - and not start "dusting Democrats", I'll need their votes in November to beat the best that party can put up against me.


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