Lindstrom Considering a Third Party Run After Failing to Meet Signature Threshold

by Matt Johnson

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

OMAHA — Brett Lindstrom spoke to the Free Speech Society in Omaha Saturday morning, just one day after his nonpartisan gubernatorial campaign came to an abrupt end.

On Friday, the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office revealed that Lindstrom did not gather enough signatures to make the ballot and that a substantial portion of them were deemed fraudulent.

“It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done in 15 years, was to do a petition in two weeks,” Lindstrom said. “We got 5,734 signatures. We had a lot of volunteers that helped do that. But you have to, in a two-week span, you have to hire professionals to do it.”

Lindstrom said he used a company called On The Ballot to gather some of the signatures for an Independent run — the same company that had petitioners caught for fraud in a separate Good Government Lincoln petitioning effort.

He said Axiom Strategies, which had helped consult with the Good Government Lincoln effort, was not involved with his campaign.

“You know, part of this doctrine was to spread it a little around between Democrats and Republicans. I hired a Democratic group to do CD2,” Lindstrom told The Plains Sentinel.

Loyalty Tests

Lindstrom had been a registered Republican since age 18 before switching to nonpartisan this year and launching his campaign for governor in July.

He said he met with Brinker Harding about a possible endorsement after dropping out of the District 2 congressional race in January. Lindstrom considered it but said both major parties have become loyalty tests more than platforms for meaningful work.

“The Republican side, what’s happened is, it’s become a loyalty test—it’s a loyalty test with deviating away from the institution,” Lindstrom said. “Republicans, Democrats, they have the platforms. And I’ve done this: If you overlay the platforms, they’re not that far apart, right? We want growth, we want opportunity, we want stability, we want good things for our kids. … but for whatever reason, both parties have gone to the extremes. They’ve gone and it’s become weaponized.”

Lindstrom approached multiple Republicans for endorsements during his congressional race but was told by some, “Well, we’ve known Brinker since we were kids.”

“Oh, okay, well, he’s gonna lose, all right?” Lindstrom said. “Brinker’s gonna get his ass kicked in November.”

Lindstrom ran to replace Don Bacon in Nebraska’s 2nd District until January of this year and had praise for the congressman specifically for his ability to reject loyalty tests.

“Don Bacon, loyalist to the party? No. Because if he was a loyalist to the party, he would be all over Trump, and he’s not,” Lindstrom said. “Out of all the congressmen, I think that he has stood head and shoulders above everybody in Washington now, frankly.”

Dissatisfaction in Choices for Governor

Lindstrom’s campaign initially stemmed from dissatisfaction with Governor Jim Pillen’s first term. He criticized Pillen for diverting large cash-reserve dollars into an education fund without pay-fors, promising an unrealistic 40% property-tax cut, using divisive language such as “libtard,” and eroding trust with those on the other side of the political aisle.

But Lindstrom does not see a better outcome if Democrat Lynne Walz is elected either.

“There’s no plan. Pillen doesn’t have a plan. Lynne doesn’t have a plan. There’s no nothing for the state, absolutely nothing,” Lindstrom said. “The legislature’s gonna be split. Everything that they talk about is gonna be filibustered. It doesn’t matter. So we’re, next four years, we’re screwed. I don’t care if you are on one side or the other, we’re screwed.”

Lindstrom had especially strong words for Nebraska’s politicos and moneyed interests, saying they were “all full of shit.”

“What happens is that you get these tacticians or politicos who are only motivated by clout and money, and those are the only two things,” Lindstrom said. “They could care less if their candidate wins or loses. If they get close enough, then they can go out and say, ‘Well, you know, in a Democrat or a Republican state, we got within 5%,’ and then they get hired by somebody else.”

‘Pirate Ship’ Third Party Run

Lindstrom said he has been approached by both the Libertarian Party and the Working People Party of Nebraska about running under their banners in the November election. He described a potential candidacy with another party label as “taking a pirate ship out of the harbor.”

“Even if it doesn’t succeed in the sense that I don’t win, it’s still a worthy effort to bring this to people’s attention and present a different option,” Lindstrom said. “If presented the option, yeah, I’ll do it. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do, in my opinion.”

Despite his openness to another party’s ballot line, Lindstrom believes both of Nebraska’s potential new political parties were created explicitly to cause confusion in the U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts and Independent Dan Osborn. He also made clear he would not jump into the Senate race.

In the end, whether or not Lindstrom’s “Hail Mary” campaign push succeeds, he aims primarily to put his Nebraska Doctrine in front of as many voters as possible.

“Nebraska could be a lighthouse in the storm of chaos,” Lindstrom said. “As long as the heart continues to beat, all the extremities can fail, but as long as the heart beats, you stay alive. Nebraska can be that. And that’s what this is—that’s what the doctrine is.”

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.