By Campaign for Larry Bollinger, District 47, Nebraska
Larry is a veteran, a graduate of UNO, has a Bachelor of Science Degree, majored in Political Science, and minored in Criminology. He received a Master of Public Administration Degree from Bellevue University. Larry received the Omega Nu Lambda Honor Society for Academic Excellence in May of 2023. He ran his own contractor business for more than 20 years and authored 18 books. His last three books cover the 20 years he has spent in politics. He has written and researched more than 50 policies to help his community and State.
Bolinger: “The number one thing we need in District 47 is a candidate that is a steward to the people. I have not seen that done in decades. What I have seen is representatives that work
on one or two policies in the 8 years they are in office and they refused to engage and work with the people. They get into office and ignore the people. My 20 years in politics have always had a focus on addressing the concerns of the people. Most of the policies I worked on were concerns that people brought to my attention. I have always kept an open-door policy and will continue to do so after I’m elected to this office. I plan on doing town hall meetings regularly throughout the district when not in session. I will respond to event requests. I set a voting record when I ran for Attorney General in 2022, and I did that by working with people from all parties. I do not discriminate based on party affiliations. I had campaign managers in different areas of Nebraska from all four parties, which is something that is seldom done. If you are not biased in your approach to politics, then you can be a voice of reason and focus on what is important for your community.”
I have run for orffice 8 different times. There is always a reason that I run. My first campaign was in 2006 when I ran for the local City Council. There were some unethical actions being done by the City Council when they were forcing people out of their property so the city could do land grabs for a new bank. The City Council and Management did not follow procedure and there was nobody there to fight for the people. So I ran for public office to fight for the people and for property rights. I was also pushing for clean energy to help drive down costs. In my second campaign, I continued pushing for property rights, but I was also pushing to get repairs done to facilities that had been ignored for 20 years and were creating safety and ADA code violations. The third time I ran for City Council was fighting against a corrupt government that ran things like they were above the law and the people did not matter. They violated dozens of civil rights and forced many people to leave town. They treated the people poorly and thrived on bullying tactics. The results of the poor people and management skills resulted in people leaving and businesses closing. The town was ranked #6 in unemployment for the state and was ranked one of the worst places to live due to high crime. Eventually, the city management and council were voted out of office and replaced with people who were there to work for the people and the economy grew and crime dropped 30%. I just hope that I set a good example to hold your elected officials accountable.
The first time I ran for the State Legislature was in 2008. My primary focus was on law reform and introducing a professionally drafted “Defense and Restraint” program for law enforcement, school teachers, and human services. At that time there were a lot of issues of officers using excessive force. There were many cases of officers using pepper spray on children, and there was an incident where a Police Chief shot and murdered a 16 year old child in Crawford Nebraska. That kid was someone I took care of when he was a resident at the Nebraska Boys Ranch. It was a personal reason to address excessive force and change policing procedure and policing philosophy because it was getting out of control. Profiling in Nebraska was getting out of control. I wrote many books on self-defense. One of the books was specifically on “Defense and Restraints” and I sent that out to dozens of police departments in law enforcement
training centers each year for more than a decade. Today, the focus has been to end profiling, utilize de-escalation tactics, and impove law enforcement education.
In 2018 and 2020 I ran for Congress for District 3. My main focus was on Economic development. Our state and federal governments were making a lot of mistakes and were going to decrease funds for the Farming Bill and reduce food programs that were going to hit seniors and children programs hard. The state was in a spiraling economic collapse with the EPA emissions change of 2016, the flooding of 2019, tariff negations of 2020, and COVID-19. All those elements shut down thousands of businesses, costing tens of thousands of their jobs, and put Nebraska in one of the highest foreclosure rates that I’ve ever seen. It was worse than the 2008 recession. When I tried to reach out to my Congressional representatives, they said everything was going great and that there was no need to do anything. Within one money of the announcement of the COVID outbreak, meat costs tripled, and no representative stood up against the price gouging. I conducted a research analysis and sent in the information on what was being done and recommendations on how to fix the problem. Our governor refused to do anything for two years. One of my recommendations was a state meat inspector program, which was refused in 2018. 3 years later, we had a state inspector program, and shortly afterward, the cost of food started going down.
In 2022, I ran for Attorney General with a focus on law reform. Over the past 20 years, the focus has been to be tough on crime. Many clinics, mental health clinics, drug addiction clinics, and detox centers were shut down and the only thing law enforcement was left to use was jails and correctional facilities. That led to Nebraska having the highest per capita prison overpopulation in the entire Nation and a growing homeless problem that wasn’t being addressed. Our state representative's focus was to expand and keep building more and more correctional facilities, while our top Univiersites were saying addressing core issues was statistically far more successful. Diversion programs showed to have a 60% reduction in recidivism rates. Our government ignored facts to build more correctional facilities. I ran for Attorney General to fix that problem which was costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
For 2024, I am running for State Legislature with a focus on representing the people in my district and addressing their concerns.
Some areas that I will be working on are:
· Improving wages for teachers and law enforcement. Review issues of inequality of pay that we see in business in rural Nebraska compared to larger cities and present a plan to address those issues. I will address some policies that have diverted public school funds to be used elsewhere which has created lower wages for school teachers.
· I would work on programs to ensure kids don't go hungry. Making sure that there is a breakfast and lunch program at schools, as well as a summer meal plan. That would mean
supporting and adding to the Farm Bill and collaborating with other organizations that utilize the Farm Bill.
· I would also work on a program, that I've been researching to decrease greenhouse gases, improve energy efficiency, and put more money into each district while decreasing everyone's gas and electric bills. The research shows that on average would decrease utilities by 60%.
· I would also like to see a rest stop at the junctions between Alliance and Bridgeport. That junction has been used as a transaction place for years and it looks like a gravel pit.
· Address the issue of injuries and deaths of children being run over by speed boats and jet skis at the Bridgeport Pits.
· I would also work on programs to help decrease drug addiction. The primary goal for District 47 is to support the detox center that is being proposed in the area. This could help with addiction problems in the region. This will also add to each city's diversion programs that will decrease drug-related criminal recidivism rates. Over the past decade, several clinics were shut down because of defunding by the Legislatures and County Boards. Because of that, we have a soaring drug addiction problem. The lack of diversion programs has increased the recidivism rates which has overpopulated our correctional facilities.
· Build a new police facility in Alliance to help policing efforts that will help with training programs for the region and help each department's diversion program outreach. The Police Chief in Alliance received approval for several training programs and I’d like to see that progress. My studies of Criminology show that diversion programs have decreased recidivism rates by 60%. On average that reduces crime by 40%. Utilizing diversion programs will reduce correctional expenses. Within 2 years of implementing diversion programs in Alliance, it reduced crime by 20%. Adding a detox center should show another 20% reduction in crime and a 40% reduction in recidivism.
· End Truancy as a status offense. Utilizing diversion programs has reduced recidivism in children by 40% while utilizing our Juvenile Court system has been shown to increase other criminal activities that show advancing criminal activities into adulthood.
· Tackle farming, dairy, and ranching policies to improve free enterprise and help with direct, state-to-state, and international sales. This is something I worked on when I ran for Congress and resulted in some improvements in policies.
· In 2003 our government significantly reduced funds from our school system and put those funds into advancing correctional facilities making a pathway to a growing school-to-prison system. Today, we have the highest per capita prison overpopulation in the Nation. You shouldn’t have to fail for 20 years before you correct a wrong. Our school rankings were top in the world. Today, we fall below 17th. One of my goals is to right that wrong.
This shortlist is something that many people have brought to my attention. I have started working on research analysis and proposals to implement solutions to these problems. These will have significant positive impacts on our district.
Political Accomplishments:
· Advanced policies to help increase housing in downtown Alliance.
· Advanced policies to help businesses create diversified incomes in downtown Alliance.
· Addressed policy issues in our meat packing industries that helped create the State Meat packing policy that helped drive down the price of meat across the state. It helped Ranchers and consumers get a better price.
· Developed a Community Bike Share program.
· Fought against a corrupt government and won. By getting rid of the corrupt people in government, the community started thriving and crime was reduced by 30%.
· Hold the record number of votes in Nebraska for a third-party candidate when I ran for Attorney General.
Information about Larry Bolinger, his campaign, previous campaigns, and donations can be located at www.LarryBolinger.com or by mail at 507 Niobrara Avenue, Alliance, Nebraska 69301. For a list of my books, you can go to www.ScottBolinger.website.