Sen. Mike Johanns/File photo from Johanns’ Senate office

Former United States Senator Mike Johanns says members of Congress need to keep one thing in mind as they tackle tough issues.

Johanns, a Republican, had a long political career which culminated in serving as Secretary of Agriculture under President George W. Bush followed by a term in the United States Senate.

He doesn’t regret his decision to leave Washington.

“I can’t say that I miss being in Washington. To be honest with you, I never warmed up to Washington,” Johanns tells Nebraska Radio Network in a telephone interview.

Johanns says he and his wife, Stephanie, had always been small-town people who found Washington to be a “very complicated place to live.”

Still, Johanns says he keeps abreast on what is happening in Washington, perhaps more so now than when he worked there. Now, he has more time to devote to consuming the news flowing from the nation’s capital.

Members of Congress have a very, very tough job, according to Johanns, who has one piece of advice for them: keep in mind people want results.

“Don’t get so tied up on what the Republican way is or the Democrat way or whatever,” Johanns says. “Focus on bringing results to the state. Focus on what’s in the best interest of Nebraska, what’s in the long-term best interest of the country.”

Washington has too much partisanship, according to Johanns. He says Congressional members need to be willing to explain their positions, to get out among the people and let them know what they are doing.

Johanns says he enjoys his new position as the Chairman of Agriculture with alliantgroup, a tax consultant business headquartered in Houston.

AUDIO:  Brent Martin reports [:45]

Gov. Dave Heineman

Former Governor Dave Heineman is voicing his frustration with the stalled GOP healthcare bill. He says promises were made.

Heineman says, “Republicans for the last three elections said they were for repeal and replacement of Obamacare and if we got a Republican president we would do it on day one. Well we got a Republican president and we are now 150 days into the administration and it hasn’t happened.  It is a huge debate.  It affects every American and every American family and the big picture is if you want a government run health care system that the Democrats favor or do you want a more patient centered, free market  oriented health care system that the Republicans favor.”

Heineman says they promised to repeal and replace but just can’t get their act together. He says Senator Ben Sasse’s letter to President Trump on his two step approach on handling the situation was good timing.  Heineman says, “He is an expert on health care.  He knows this issue.  I respect Ben on this issue but now is the time for him to lead because the Senate isn’t getting the job done.”

It could be that President Trump paid attention as soon afterwards he sent out a tweet today that stated “If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date”.

Nebraska State Auditor Charlie Janssen is running for re-election. He says, “I’m looking to get re-elected.  I’m looking to keep doing the job.  It is really a job I’ve fallen in love with, in many ways a movie where somebody wanted to do something else and fell into something else and really loved it.”

Janssen is a former Nebraska State Senator from Fremont and also served on the Fremont City Council.

Janssen says this job is an exciting position. He says, “There are those ‘gotcha’ moments you hear about like selling road millings for beer in the state or the Tourism Commission that came under fire.  The Nebraska Brand Commission which I spent more time telling people about what a Brand Commission was in this part of the state – the certain waste, abuse and actual fraud that was going on in those agencies.”  He says what you don’t hear a lot about is the number of agencies that come to the auditor’s office wanting help on fixing an issue so it doesn’t become a problem.

Janssen says the office also takes tips from concerned government employees and Nebraskans who are concerned issues that affect taxpayer dollars. He says they look into complaints and fully investigate each one.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s name comes up a lot in individual state U.S. House elections and she is blasted by the GOP. Chairperson of the Nebraska Democratic Party Jane Kleeb says criticizing an opposing candidate is one thing but demonizing them is another and that is what Republicans are doing to Pelosi and other strong Democratic women.

Kleeb says, “I think it is a tired argument. I think it does show that the Republican Party demonizes women in leadership positions.  They did it to Hillary Clinton as well.  I get why some men don’t full embrace this but as a woman you see it all the time and quite frankly we are tired of it so at any time they start to demonize women I think a lot of us stand up for those women even if we disagree with them.”

Kleeb says this is a pattern for the Republican party. She says they don’t target women within their own party and you will never see attack ads against Condoleezza Rice or Sarah Palin.  Kleeb says, “They use women against Democrats that are running all across the country running in rural and urban communities and they try to make Nancy Pelosi out to be this demon.”  Kleeb goes on to say she was one of the strongest speakers in history.

Former Congressman Brad Ashford

Former Congressman Brad Ashford wants his old job back.

Ashford, a Democrat, says the shooting of Republican lawmakers at a practice for a charity baseball game moved him to go public with his decision to run again.

“These people are dedicated public servants and I think what we need to do is we need to bring more civility to Congress, more bipartisanship, so that we can show the country that we can do this,” Ashford tells Nebraska Radio Network.

Ashford says he had been leaning toward an announcement, but the shooting in Alexandria prompted him to make the decision this past weekend.

Last week, an unemployed home inspector from Illinois, 66-year-old James Hodgkinson, reported to be angry with President Trump and Republicans, opened fire at a baseball park just outside the District of Columbia in which Congressional Republicans were practicing for an annual charity game against Democrats. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise suffered serious wounds. Four others were wounded before Hodgkinson was shot and killed.

Ashford says the shootings moved him quite a bit.

Ashford, a former state senator, won election to Congress in 2014, defeating veteran incumbent Republican Lee Terry.

Ashford lost the Second Congressional District seat two years later in a close race with Republican Don Bacon, former commander of Offutt Air Force Base.

It was a close race. Ashford won Douglas County, but lost big in Sarpy County. Bacon won by fewer than 3,500 votes out of 288,000 votes cast.

Americans deserve to get action on pressing issues, according to Ashford.

“We’re not getting it not because there aren’t answers. We’re not getting it, because the institutional partisanship, seemingly institutional partisanship of the day, is getting in the way,” Ashford says, adding that political parties and big money get in the way of reaching consensus in Congress.

Before he gets a chance at a rematch, Ashford will have to secure the Democratic Party nomination.

Does he expect a Democratic primary?

“Oh yeah,” Ashford says with a chuckle, “sure.”

AUDIO:  Brent Martin reports [1 min.]