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The Third Party Candidate Taking On Big Money in Nebraska | Rick Beard | ZFS 71
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I sat down with Rick Beard, the third party candidate running for governor of Nebraska, and this conversation opened my eyes to something happening in the middle of America that nobody is covering.
Nebraska voters passed cannabis legalization with 71% of the vote. Their own legislature came in and dismantled it. That is not a coincidence. That is lobbying money doing exactly what it was paid to do. Rick is running on the Legal Marijuana Now party ticket with zero PAC money, zero foreign lobbyist dollars, and a platform that nobody else in the race is willing to touch.
We talked about using hemp to build homes at $150 a square foot versus the $200 to $250 it costs today. We talked about the constitutional ballot amendment strategy that would put power back in the hands of the people and out of the hands of the legislature. We talked about Big Pharma, Big Cannabis from other states blocking new markets, data center moratoriums, property taxes higher than California on a state with 2 million people, and what it actually looks like to run a people's campaign against a machine that has infinite money.
Rick is polling at 12% as an independent. That is the highest any third party gubernatorial candidate in Nebraska has polled since 1905. Pay attention to this one.
Today we are sitting down with politician Rick Beard. He is running for governor of Nebraska. He's a 58-year-old Omaha native, former farmer, wine professional, and private chef who is running for the governor of Nebraska under the Legalized Marijuana Now Party. Yes, that is a real party running as an independent. Rick is not a career politician, though has been involved in legislation both in Oklahoma and California prior to this. He's never taken a dollar from a party, a special interest group, or pact, and his campaign is grassroots as it gets, being that he's pushing for green. Get it? Because he's in the green party and he's pushing for weed. No pack money, no donor bundles, and just a message on a website is where you can find him. In this race that is being dominated by establishment names and million-dollar war chests, Rick represents something different. He's a guy who says the system is rigged, politicians are bought, and that people deserve a candidate who actually answers to them. And whether you agree with him or not, I think this is a conversation worth having with Rick, somebody who's pushing against the mainstream money-filled establishment. We go into a little bit of the differences as to why a specific lobbying group would want weed legalized in their state, and maybe it's the same people who want weed in other states, which I found interesting. He's against data centers, he's against money to Israel, he's anti-war, and he's polling at 12% as an independent Nebraska, which, to my knowledge, is the highest polling percentage of any independent running for that position across the country. He has momentum, he's got a plan. We're going to ask him about that plan. And with that being said, Rick Beard, thank you for joining me today on the Zach Fowl show, my friend. How are you?
SPEAKER_02Great, Zach. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for being a part of it. Brother, can we start real quick? What are you running for and why are you running for him?
SPEAKER_02I'm running for governor in Nebraska this year, and I just won the primary. I'm actually on the ballot for the general, and I am running because I've been dissatisfied with both parties over the years, and uh we have a corrupt situation here in Nebraska, and I thought that I would uh try and do something about it. I'm running uh third party with the Legal Marijuana Now Party in Nebraska. It's an offshoot of the Green Party, it's also in uh Minnesota, and I believe in Missouri. Um and I'm running on some platforms that none of the other politicians are running on. Which is what? It's more I'm more of a people's uh it's more of a people's campaign than a party campaign.
SPEAKER_00Got it. Well, when you say you you see issues in the in the parties themselves and the corruption, what do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_02Well, we've passed legislation here in Nebraska for uh multiple things um with ballot initiatives. One of them, one of my main platforms is cannabis, medical cannabis. And once these ballot initiatives are passed and become law, our legislature comes in and dismantles them and makes changes to them, holds things up, um, and changes the legislation that the people voted on and put in. So it's happened repetitive times on multiple issues, and though I the only reason that I can see that it's happening is from outside money, special interest groups, um paying off our politicians because they're making bad decisions for our citizens that go against the will of the citizens vote. And if they're not doing it for money and they're just doing it for kicks and funsies, then that's even worse than them getting paid for it. So I would assume and hope that they're getting paid for this, these decisions that they're making, but it's uh repetitively crooked here. So I'm uh trying to be the voice of reason and the voice for the people, as opposed to uh a voice of a party that is beholden to PAC money and uh corporate donors.
SPEAKER_00And with that being said, special interest groups, PACs, are you taking any money from them?
SPEAKER_02No, none. Not not from A to Z. None of them.
SPEAKER_00Now, is that based off of the fact that they haven't offered you money, or is that based off the fact that you just stand against these special interest interest groups so heavily you don't want to you don't be, like you said, incumbent to their desires?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, to be perfectly transparent, it's both of those.
SPEAKER_0010-4. 10-4. But if an APAC walks in and says, hey man, I got a milli for you, it's gonna be a no.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's gonna be a hard no. That's gonna be a real hard no. And I have um a lot of close connections with the Jewish community in Omaha. Um, one of my dear high school friends is actually the CEO of the Jewish Federation in Omaha. So while we don't agree on things like that, um on we, you know, we have different views on the issues. Uh, I still uh have hopes that we can eventually come together to stop this insanity.
SPEAKER_00Now, what made you run for such a forgive me for saying obscure party? Uh I I know that the typical running of a libertarian, an independent is already a really, really big uphill battle. Uh, and I think it's funny you say you're running as an offshoot of the Green Party in support of the real Green Party. So what what what led you to doing that? I understand, you know, hey, it's a uniparty. I don't gr agree with this whole uh voting down the partisan line, the red versus blue thing, it's not beneficial to our society. Got it. But but why specifically the party you chose?
SPEAKER_02So when I was looking for a way to get on the ballot and run, I looked at all the parties, and you know, I consider Democrat, but there's so much money that in reality I would have run for the primary, and then I would have gotten knocked out by our candidate, her name is Lynn Walls. Uh, she won the primary landslide, and that would have had and then I would have been done. So I wanted to be at least beyond, you know, the chances of a third party winning are very, very, very slim. Uh, but my voice gets to be heard all summer now. And where if all the Republican uh primary candidates and all the Democrat primary candidates are gone, so we're down to three people now, and I'm one of them. So that's why. That's probably the main reason why. And you know, the legal marijuana party, legal marijuana now party um stands for the same things that I stand for and have been pushing for legal cannabis and decriminalization uh for a long time. And now that we have the vote of the people, 71% of Nebraskans voted for it. It's like the biggest vote, biggest, highest percentage of a vote, I think, almost across the country for a cannabis. So while Nebraska is it's in Nebraska, and while Nebraska is a very red state with the blue, a very red and blue separated state. This is one thing where we obviously came together on this vote.
SPEAKER_00And uh 71% of Nebraskans are cool, are are cool with the legalization of marijuana.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Roger. And you know, to zoom back, so you're running on uh a party position that's very hard focused on the legalization of marijuana, hence the actual party running in his name. Um it's it's no doubt uh I think Illinois, Colorado, they've generated millions and millions of dollars from this legalization. Uh Missouri, great one. And I can absolutely see that the benefit of the revenue in. Let's say hypothetically you get in, hypothetically you get this passed, and now you have millions flown in the Nebraska. Where that money is going to get used to? What are you gonna utilize it for?
SPEAKER_02We have insane property taxes here. We have property taxes that are higher than California.
SPEAKER_00No way.
SPEAKER_02Two million people in the state here, and we have huge property taxes, and they just keep going up and up and up and up and up.
SPEAKER_00Wait, you only have two million people?
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00Wow, you're such a bigger state than Delaware, but only about double what our population is.
SPEAKER_02It's very spread out. Once you get outside of Omaha and Lincoln, it's very spread out in rural communities and farming communities and uh a lot of land in between. Uh so we've got these crazy property taxes with like literally no relief in sight. And every candidate always talks about dropping the property taxes, and we're gonna lower them 20%, we're gonna do this and we're gonna do that. And it never happens. And people are just they have had it here with it. It's uh in our road.
SPEAKER_00So your gain so your game plan would be then taking the revenue from the legalization, being able to use it towards lowering property taxes?
SPEAKER_02At least capping the levies, at least putting a lid on it to begin with. I mean, I I I can't I'm not gonna like say that oh, we're gonna drop them 40 percent and make weird campaign promises, but I think that we can cap them to begin with, and then once the real revenue starts coming in from this, we can start applying that money to that and actually eventually lower taxes.
SPEAKER_00Now, with the two million residents, I mean what what kind of revenue do you think that that could generate if it were indeed legalized?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think that we could initially my plan was that we could probably generate uh $700 million in gross revenue, make a hundred million dollars in taxes, and provide uh a lot of salary, you know, several 300 million, 400 million in salaries and jobs. That's comparing it to Colorado and comparing it to Missouri and Oklahoma and calc trying to calculate the um population differences. So I have this whole new idea. This is a new one that is just a long, long shot. But I I all these states that have, and I've been involved in legalization in California, in the early legalization, I've been involved in the recreational legalization and licensed in California in uh 2016 and 17. Uh I also I was also licensed in Oklahoma in 2019 when they started their medical. And I've seen the problems that come with it, and I've seen this what it also can do for a community when we start bringing money in. So my idea, this is a long time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what do you say to the people that that look at the cons? Because I think I think one of the most obvious cons, you know, you look at you look at Colorado. I got to go to Breckenridge uh just a month ago. And I will say, even in a high net worth area, because like Breckenridge, Jesus Christ, a lot of money flowing through there. I noticed walking through the streets, oftentimes I could smell weed. Well, I mean, what do you say to the people that say, I I don't want my community filled with marijuana? I I think it's already something that's is prevalent enough on the black market. Yes, it could bring money to the state, but uh I just don't want that in my area. What do you say to those people?
SPEAKER_02Well, the new our our ordinance here in town in Nebraska says that they don't want any, there's no uh outside combustion. You can't smoke it outside, it has to be inside. So the cannabis is already here. We get it from Colorado, we get it from Missouri, we get it from these legal states, and we get it black market. The thing is it's not regulated, so we don't really know what it is all the time. When we do get it, we give the money to other states. So, I mean, it's cannabis is here like alcohol is here or like cigarettes are here. It's just it's always it's been a part of our culture, just not as much in Nebraska as it is in California. But now that we're 30 years past the point where California started recreation um medical legalization in 1996, we're 30 years past that, and we still haven't done anything with it here. So we're just basically missing it. We're shooting ourselves in the foot, we're missing out on money, we're not regulating the product. People use it black market anyway, so we're trying to make it safer, more regulated, more controlled, and bring the profit to the state.
SPEAKER_00Now, when it comes to profit bringing money into the state, there would be the argument that more money into the state could cause further asset inflation, but you guys are kind of in a precarious position out there in Nebraska, switching gears to housing. You're the ninth hottest housing market according to realtor.com in America, but also one of the top ten most affordable housing markets in America, with your home prices only being at median about 309,000. It's about 100K less than the national median. Your median income per household, a little less than typical. Typical is about 85,000. Your guys' household sits at about 75k from what I can find. So that's the are you guys seeing this yeah, that's the median. 75k per household, 300, and I believe 9,000 for in Nebraska. Yep, that's what I have. Do you have a different number?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that no, that's right. I'm I'm I'm I agree with you there. I was just verifying.
SPEAKER_00So your home price is up 4.5% year over year. Your unemployment rate actually is fantastic comparatively to other other states, median, I think, for the nation sitting in the mid-4s, 4.6. You guys, I believe, are somewhere like the 3.3, 3.4 range. So the job market's doing better, the housing market seems hot. What are the drivers of that? Are you seeing a lot of internal mechanisms like the job market improving? Are you seeing more availability for wealth to be distributed amongst the Nebraskian? Uh, which by the way, what do you call yourself? Nebraskans?
SPEAKER_02Nebraskans. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Nebraskans. My apologies. So Nebraskans, are they seeing the benefit of these things? Are you seeing a lot of people moving in to Nebraska from other states that maybe are less affordable?
SPEAKER_02I think that a little bit of a lot of a little bit of a lot of that is happening. That people do are moving here, but at the same time, our job market is it's it's solid, but that 3%, we never used to go above 2%. Nebraska was really insulated as far as like unemployment. So that what we're riding at right now is a little bit higher than what it has been in the past. Um, that being said, also our our housing market has always been like strong and insulated here for some reason. The the prices have always been moderate compared to other pa other places around the country. Um, it's always been kind of viewed as a good place to raise a family, affordable. Um, but I think that right now our I do see our job market suffering around here. People are losing jobs, it is tough. The price of living, price price of you know, affordability is going through the roof here. Uh, grocery prices are crazy. Even the home prices here, from what we've kind of seen in the past, I think that they're creeping up a little bit higher, a little bit quicker than they have, just by by some.
SPEAKER_00Well, and the national stats would back that up because you guys are are considered the Midwest region according to NAR, and the Midwest is the area where home prices are increasing the most. Mainly because it's the it's like the lone affordable area.
SPEAKER_02The last the last frontier. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You go to the Northeast, you go into the South, you go out to California, all home prices are going up. The South seems to be kind of in this uh this standstill, but in the Midwest specifically, when you look at Missouri, when you look at Illinois, when you go out to Nebraska, there is this growth happening in the housing markets, which similar to Delaware, I think locals aren't excited about because they're already seeing increases in every other price. Um how do you think you being the governor of Nebraska that you could bring some momentum in the other direction, momentum for the people, the regular everyday person, Nebraskan, in the affordability battle? How could you being governor make it so that the normal Nebraskan can afford the Nebraskan life a little bit better?
SPEAKER_02So I think that there's there's a few things. Um, again, we kind of have we have a resistance to uh do to to uh multifamily housing here, at least here in Omaha. People don't like to see uh higher density housing or multi-unit housing for fear of you know their property values or increased traffic or whatever it is. But I think that if we could knock down some of that resistance um and create um maybe a new way of uh developing some neighborhoods that are a lot a lower cost but yet uh function as neighborhoods more than just uh you know apartment swaths of apartment buildings. Um and yeah, to build actual communities. And I also think that if we could going back to this hemp thing, if we could get industrial hemp going here, we could we could create lower cost housing units. I've um okay, we could create lower cost housing units to create affordable housing here. Um because of the insane building supply prices over the last few years, they've gone through the roof, and we could actually combat that and move forward with uh a new a new way of building.
SPEAKER_00So you believe if if hemp could be better regulated, if the stigma could fall out around it that you could utilize it to build homes is what you're saying.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And there is go ahead.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, no, please, please, please.
SPEAKER_02There is a huge stigma, and there is a lot of resistance to that here. The you know, we've got corn farmers, bean farmers, beef, pork, and there's a lot of uh there's a lot of force, and there's a lot of lobby money, and there's a lot of I guess just business tradition behind these things that make coming in with hemp a very it's it's hard, it's hard to push in. So I I um I'm still trying to figure out how to incentivize or make it attractive to start growing hemp. And it looks like we'll probably have to bring in an outside, some outside businesses who are willing to participate in the Omaha or in the Nebraska hemp market. Um but it I think it's just one it makes more sense than just about anything anything else.
SPEAKER_00Now when you talk about hemp and and using it as a building supply, I'm assuming for anything that is wood within the property could be substituted for some form of a lot of a lot of the boards, a lot of the boards and a lot of the siding plyboard could be made from it.
SPEAKER_02One of the great things that they make that are that we could produce are hemp crete blocks, concrete hemp blocks. And they are they have about a two square foot um footprint, and they take care of the siding, they take care of the inside structure, the framing, insulation, and interior walls all in one piece. So you could you could avoid a lot of that's what makes it lower cost.
SPEAKER_00My devil's advocate to that would be how how does so I I've researched into the hemp side of things, and we can go all way deep into their like the early 1900s and the the tinfoil hat around why we never utilized hemp and we stuck with you know uh the the typical stuff we're building with today. A lot of the building materials we're getting in, especially wood, are coming in from the softwood lumper areas of Canada. So with the tariffs being associated with that, of course, higher costs are coming down, but at the same exact time, we know that mega builders are running the game of housing infrastructure. How do you get a Ryan Holmes, a KB Holmes, a Kob Nanny? How do you get them who are are running on a national scale to in Nebraska specifically change their models, or are you hoping more for the mid tier, lower size builder uh to really utilize this? How do you convince somebody who's already running a system that's quote unquote working and profiting them millions to change their ways?
SPEAKER_02That is a it's a good question and a very like hard answer because there is so much money like from these lumber, oil, other industries, concrete industry, they have so much lobby money that it's very hard to push in.
SPEAKER_00So I do think Big Wood is lobbying Nebraska?
SPEAKER_02I can't confirm that, but I suspect that you know they are um they have some input in uh the in dictating what kind of building supplies succeed or don't succeed in this country. I don't want to I just see so much dirty money flying everywhere, and after paying just paying attention for like 20 years, it's just what it all comes back to. It always comes back to having resistance from some other force.
SPEAKER_00So you're running you're running for governor. I want you to know those numbers. I want you to be able to point me right in the direction of Big Woods so we can fight on. All right, you're running for governor. I need you to know exactly who's doing it. Because I agree. Well, big money's ruining a lot, but but but the specifically for the housing side of things, I view it as a very difficult battle to get them to change up a system that's ultimately working for them, especially a system that's working for, you know, big billionaire type companies, right?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And that's another reason why I decided to take the long shot and go for the governor's seat instead of uh uh, you know, I want to try and be boss here and push stuff. So I think that with a governor pushing issues like this, that we could probably get a little momentum behind it. And I do think that it would probably have to start with a mid-sized builder or somebody here who would be willing to work with these products and start promoting them and start being and and start having promoting the success of these items.
SPEAKER_00Now I'm assuming you you you and your team have crunched numbers around what kind of price difference there could be for building a home utilizing these hemp style products versus traditional methods. Do you like for the viewer listening? Yeah, can you give an example as to what what that would look like?
SPEAKER_02Honestly, I have not. So I don't want to sit here and blow numbers up anybody's ass. Um but but it could obviously be it could obviously be less. One thing when I was talking with Greg from Hempwood in Kentucky is that because these are smaller um startup businesses, that the scaled up production and production cost to begin with is gonna be a little bit higher, just be out of startup. So I think you know it's gonna take some commitment, it's gonna take some ins incentivization, and uh, like I said, probably some a bigger business from outside wanting to come in and uh start and start the project here.
SPEAKER_00Well, that could be a great talking point if you can find that number and find, hey, it's gonna be 13% cheaper to be able to build a home here in Nebraska if we could switch to these supply methods. I mean that that would be a great point.
SPEAKER_02I think that we I think that we could come up with uh something where it would be significantly less because the the our current building materials have just gone through the roof over the last year. Of course. Of course, it's it's insane.
SPEAKER_00So of course, yeah. And oil going up, that doesn't help anything. Everything that goes involved in manufacturing is gonna go up. It doesn't help that there's tariffs across lines from Mexico and Canada. That affects appliances, it affects shingles. Like you said, concrete gets affected by that. I never heard of hemp blocks. Is is that new or is that something we just never utilize and has been around for forever?
SPEAKER_02It's kind of yeah, it's been around for a long time. But again, you know, trying to keep the good guy down.
SPEAKER_00Um just as sound and just as structurally, like you know, trusting as as concrete. I I guess when I view it, I'm like, do I really want to plant being the foundation of my house?
SPEAKER_02But yeah, it's actually better, stronger. It acts like this, the the hemp acts like rebar in the concrete box. The structure's amazing, the insulation value is huge.
SPEAKER_01Cools the house.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it cools the house, holds the house. Um you can you can drill through it. It's uh it's very, very user-friendly. And uh I my my camp my campaign manager just ran me uh some uh figures here, and we're figuring that we could probably build houses at about $150 a square foot as opposed to two to two fifty, as which is kind of that's a significant price difference.
SPEAKER_00Wow. That's a significant one.
SPEAKER_02It's it's way cheaper.
SPEAKER_00And the well yeah, I mean uh draw that out and and a graphic for me, brother. Show show me back. I'll get back to you on this. Yeah, the sheathing on the roof, the two by fours utilized in the framing, the foundation with the concrete blocks. I mean, draw that up because if you can show, hey, there's a well, I mean, that's a significant drop. What are we talking? A 75% decrease? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that and that's why the poly oil building supply.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's the next thing. I need you to know exactly which big wood entities, big infrastructure entities are fighting it. Make that fight visible. I love that. Uh, find us the enemy and show us that what could happen if we got that enemy out of there. So speaking toward the enemy, you mentioned you're not taking money from PACs. You're not taking money from these big lobbyists, you know, whether by force or by opportunity, not part of what you're running on. Can you explain to me? Because we talk about on the show often the infrastructure of America, the corruption, the Uniparty, the following the money and seeing where it goes around our country and those foreign. Can you explain to me, though, as someone from Nebraska, what big money is controlling Nebraska right now? What lobbyists are are pushing people in Senate in or out, Congress in or out, even the position of governor. Who who controls the systems of Nebraska out there? Who's who's the big money moving the system?
SPEAKER_02Uh big pharma, pharmaceutical is huge. It's massive. Um insurance?
SPEAKER_01Foreign lobbyists?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, foreign lobbyists, you know.
SPEAKER_01Big time.
SPEAKER_02Big foreign lobbyists are coming in. They came in with about five million dollars into our uh primary elections.
SPEAKER_00Primary for for governor?
SPEAKER_02Or no, first for Senate.
SPEAKER_00For Senate. Okay, you're running for governor. Gotcha, I just want to be clear.
SPEAKER_02Uh his family's worth about eight billion dollars. Maybe even I think it's gone up recently. So they just that's just, and he unequivocally backs our governor, our current governor, Jim Pillen. So there's a just a billion-dollar piggy bank sitting right there to do with whatever. Um it's it's I think it's really and you know, it's endless. The alcohol commission here lobbies against uh cannabis. Um that makes sense. The big cannabis, I'm pretty sure from other states lobbies against cannabis in our state.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's interesting. So you you have big cannabis companies that are making money already in other states, and so they're lobbying against you becoming one.
SPEAKER_02I would assume, yeah. And again, I can't prove these I I can't prove these numbers, but I've been this happened in in California, where big cannabis from other areas of the state lobbies against new markets opening up by lobbying their board of supervisors. Interesting. And what's happening here, I believe, is that cannabis, anti-cannabis, anti-new business, new cannabis business money is coming in here to our politicians to prevent uh any legislation or actual business from moving forward here. So it's a world.
SPEAKER_00So that they can maintain a stranglehold on other markets that are already open.
SPEAKER_02Sure, absolutely, because Nebraskans drive to Missouri and Colorado continually to purchase cannabis from those states.
SPEAKER_00And are the tax incentives or the incentives toward the big cannabis companies better in those other states than say Nebraska? Because I would imagine uh, and I'm just hearing that for the first time, so I'm I'm speculating on this as fresh knowledge, but I would assume that opening up more marketplaces would be access to more money, more revenue, because yes, people are driving across state lines, but I'm sure there's some people in in Omaha that are like, you know, I'd love to smoke a pre-roll, but I'm I'm not gonna drive to Missouri tonight. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Probably generate more sales if they had one on the corner. Uh and and as many people know, I mean, alcohol leads to way more deaths, way more depression, way more uh pain in families and people's lives and violence than anywhere close to what marijuana drives. I think there's zero recorded marijuana does.
SPEAKER_02Here's here's the other big one that really is a driving force in all of this. You know, all of our CBD shops, the hemp, the hemp and CBD shops, Delta VII and all that, all over the country.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like THCA, things like that.
SPEAKER_02All that stuff. You know, so that lobby money from the intoxicating hemp industry outnumbers the can the medical cannabis and the cannabis industry 15 to 1 right now.
SPEAKER_00Really? So they want to keep it illegal so that they can continue to sell hemp and CBD? Yeah, yeah because it Oh, got it. Because once THC because once THC is officially legalized and regulated, then less people are gonna be buying the THC unregulated. That's right.
SPEAKER_02You're on to it, you're on to it. And this is so unregulated and cowboy country. This the THC, the or these, you know, the the hemp shops, it's completely unregulated. They're selling, you can sell Colorado weed there, you can sell California, like it's just you don't know what's in it. So they want to obviously, it's a huge business across this country that is definitely way outrunning the legal cannabis business in lobby dollars.
SPEAKER_01Hmm.
SPEAKER_02So that's another major resistance that we're getting. That's probably like the maybe the biggest.
SPEAKER_00So how do you fight that?
SPEAKER_02Keep that keep that dirty money, that pack money out. If we we run the Montana plan.
SPEAKER_00Well, you okay, so you ran you you mentioned the Montana plan. Can you bring up for those that have no clue what that is, what the Montana plan is, and then I'm gonna ask you about Citizens United.
SPEAKER_02Sure. So the Montana Plan is a way to repeal Citizens United, which Citizens United allows corporate money, PAC money, foreign money, and outside interest money into our elections and to our politicians. Um the Montana plan um allows corporations, allows the state to take control of the corporations regulations because the state always gives corporations their rights and their permissions and regulates that. So it's not a federally dictated thing. That's why when you start a business, you have to go get your state license and the stamp and everything. So a state can take away these rights and these permissions. So by taking away the ability to have money come in from outside entities.
SPEAKER_00I'm having a hard time hearing you. I heard I hear a second voice in there, too. So just that's my camp. That's my campaign. Okay, gotcha. Okay, gotcha.
SPEAKER_02So they guess she's been working with the Montana people. Uh understood. Gotcha.
SPEAKER_00It'll probably sound crazy on audio though, because she's coming in a little later.
SPEAKER_02So anyway, uh it basically says that in order for a company to do business in a state, they shouldn't have to rely on outside money to come in in order to do business in that state.
SPEAKER_00In terms of lobbyists and big corporations coming in and purchasing, whether it be via contributions or lobbying money, politicians to ensure that whatever they want done is done.
SPEAKER_02Yes, it's precisely.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Because Citizens United 2010 is essentially when money became free speech. It was capped, it was limited, it had to be tracked, and now it's super PAC dark money. This is where we get things like APAC and things that are highly controversial. Uh gives them their ability to do what they're doing. Exactly. Essentially, it allows them to do it. Um, you're not seeing that as much in the in the governor's race, but you'd mentioned earlier you're seeing a lot of that in your Senate, House of Representatives primaries.
SPEAKER_02Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. About five million bucks has come in. Um, and it's been all over our local news and our local social media, and it's a bunch of mud slinging and finger pointing and the usual stuff that we see during election years.
SPEAKER_00So talk, but talk to me about this because I was just in Kentucky for the Thomas Massey race. I think we all listening to this know the inevitable results of him losing uh to you know $30.2 million, it would inevitably come into uh Quelch's voice, uh suppress him, slander him, uh, and and foreign money did that. I think that the ripple effect of that is is is happening as we speak nationally with with many people who I guess I guess they call it like the truther community. They're like politically adjacent people, they don't feel like they have a political party, they just want us to know the truth, are seeing what's clearly happening at the very least in Kentucky, which is kind of a microcosm of what's happening in this entire country, is that big money is winning elections. Are you you're seeing that in Nebraska as well?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00What do you see as the big because with Kentucky, um, for example, a lot of the speculation around Massey is he didn't want foreign wars, he didn't want money going overseas when we had domestic and economic issues, uh a plethora of economic domestic issues, and the Epstein files, of course, he was the one who co-sponsored with Martu Taylor Green and Rokana, the Epstein Transparency Act. So he he ruffled a lot of big wig feathers. What what what um what big money, big lobbyists are involved in Nebraska and why?
SPEAKER_02Sames. It's the same.
SPEAKER_00Nebraska's pushing for the Epstein Files too?
SPEAKER_02Oh, we all want to see the Epstein Files, but it's APEC. Apex, APEC, John the Senate battle between John Kavanaugh and Denise Powell was five million dollars worth of Apex money.
SPEAKER_00And who's the incumbent in that scenario? Huh? Who's the incumbent in that scenario?
SPEAKER_02Uh they are but uh it's Don Bacon. But he's not running.
SPEAKER_00Okay, Don Bacon. What a great thing.
SPEAKER_02He's gonna be out of office, he's not running. So got it.
SPEAKER_00So he'll be out of office, and then who is who are the lobbyists sponsoring?
SPEAKER_02Denise Powell.
SPEAKER_00Denise Powell. Okay, why are they pushing for her?
SPEAKER_02Because she's pushing for them and doing what they want.
SPEAKER_00And it was a Republican or Democratic Party for her.
SPEAKER_02And then about in the same breath after the election, it appears that they're not really helping her out too much anymore because we've got a Republican in who maybe is in in the in the general who will suit their needs better.
SPEAKER_00Got it. Okay. So it's it's just And when you say suit when you say suit their needs, like be blanket straight with me. Like, what do you mean by suit their needs?
SPEAKER_02Money to Israel and vote pro-war.
SPEAKER_00There it is. Got it. Got it.
SPEAKER_02It's just it's and in and in the middle of all this, it's a bunch of money and name calling and anti-Semitic name calling when it's not even about that. And it's a big mess, just like in it's a it's like a little one of what's going on in Kentucky right now.
SPEAKER_00Well, what why do you why do you think that is? Why I'm sure everyone listening to this and myself have their opinion on the whole smearing anybody who's anti-Israel is anti-Semitic. But what's your take on that?
SPEAKER_02I think that our I think the citizens of America are tired of it, and I think that we don't want war, and we don't want the killing to continue, and we don't want to support it with our thoughts or with our money. And that's where we are. And I think that there's you know, obviously the big money and that pack is gonna fight back pretty hard. It's a un it's a very unfortunate battle that we need to come together and resolve. Well, I hope that it's it's sad as hell.
SPEAKER_00No, it is. It is, and I and I personally think um I'll I'll I'll take the soapbox for a second. I think that there's gonna be this, and I'm curious what your thoughts are on this, that's why I'm gonna soapbox for a second. I I I from Kentucky, uh, I I got to meet with talk to so many individuals that were just politically adjacent at these political events. Myself, I'm I'm no fan of politicians. No offense. I'm no fan of politicians. I I have no love for the political game. But when I see somebody who's as uh at the very least sensible, can stick to their beliefs, cannot change their belief system based off the money that's coming into their pockets or or just pushes them to the side altogether, I I I tend to want to agree with that person because they're viewing their decision making not financially, but maybe quote unquote, I'm crazy for saying this about politicians, but maybe viewing it morally. So I I I get this feeling from what just happened in Kentucky that a lot of Thomas Masseys were born across the nation that day. That there's a lot of people who saw clear as day that billionaires beat people, that the the the the elites and the lobbyists outweighed the interest of the shareholders of the country. Not shareholders' companies, shareholders of our country, which has been largely belittled for uh over a century since the Dodge v. Ford case of I think 1916. So I say all that to say would you being governor be a step in the right direction and would you view yourself as one of those people who is massy adjacent in terms of if people like you, if people who watched Massey lose that want to stand for maybe what's right morally in this country, do you do you feel yourself as one of those people that kind of fits in the realm of being massey adjacent in terms of we need more people in office that aren't going to just bow the knee to big billionaires?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely, completely. It's the only way. It's it's why I'm running to offer a choice than this blue pack-driven party or this red pack-driven party. Like it's just it is absolutely time, and I think that if there's any year that any a person like me could win or get close to winning, or is it now because people are disgusted with it? It's and absolutely, and I think you're right, there's been a lot of us born. You know, I've been around for a long time, but I've haven't decided to do something about it. You know, I've worked with I worked for Bernie Sanders on the 16 since 16, and we've oh wow, cool. We've been we've been pushing for a lot of stuff for a long time, but I figured that instead of uh, you know, my friends told me that instead of bitching about it and talking about it, I should go run and go do something. So I love that, Rick. I did.
SPEAKER_00Well, let's be honest for a second. You're running up against an incumbent who has massive funding behind them, yeah. Uh, and also has the typical party behind them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's probably an unlikely battle that you win, just being frank through the numbers. But if let's just say you were to run and put up significant numbers but still end up falling short, what what does this mark for you in terms of your political career? Would that be the last step for you? Is this just the first in many attempts in the battle of of of making change in Nebraska for you? Do you think that you are just leading the path for others to follow behind so that's a stronger coalition? What does your next few years look like, assuming, and we're we hope for the best, but assuming that running against in this independent party, you fall short to the billionaires? What do you think the ripple effect in Nebraska happens?
SPEAKER_02Or the ripple effect is gonna the ripple effect is gonna come for these guys here in Nebraska, for our politicians, because if I lose this race, I am gonna be right in touch with everybody up in Montana, and we're gonna go study that and we're gonna learn it, and we're gonna come back here and we're gonna run that, we're gonna run the Nebraska plan. So whether I'm in office or whether I'm not in office, we are gonna push forward with this money out of politics thing here in Nebraska. And that'll be my main goal either way. So they considered.
SPEAKER_00Now, with that being said, would you consider running for like a state legislative position at that time?
SPEAKER_02I mean, it'll be another uh few years before I could. Of course. So I'd probably push for getting the Montana plan on the ballot first before I would re enter a uh campaign.
SPEAKER_00Now if you Where to put that on the ballot, what do you assume would be the main pushback? Do you think the main pushback would just come from political opponents, framing it as some anti-Semitic trope or some anti-American uh ideal? Uh what what do you think the pushback is?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're everybody, everybody, they're gonna say that without uh like the Democrats would say that without allowing pack money into Nebraska, there's no way that they can compete with Pete Rickett's billions of dollars. And there's no way that they can possibly, it'll run them over. And then the Republicans will say that it's the same thing, that without the PAC money, they're not able to promote businesses like they do in Nebraska, and that all the businesses are gonna leave. All the corporations are gonna leave and go somewhere else because we can't, they won't, they can't buy our politicians and do what they want to do here. So the kickback's gonna be from everybody. And I do have a way to work around, I do have even some citizen, you know, the P, not everybody feels how I do, but here's how we do it with a constitutional ballot amendment as opposed to a ballot initiative.
SPEAKER_00Explain the difference of those, yeah. Explain the difference.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for asking. Uh ballot initiative is what we've been working on here with uh our cannabis legislation, um with our minimum wage, uh, and uh uh ballot initiative requires 7%, a 7% signature from the voting population, where a constitutional ballot amendment requires 10% of the voter's signature to get it on the ballot. And the difference is that once it's voted on and put into legislation, our Congress, our state Congress, our state legislatures can't dismantle it. They can't get in there and change it. It's what it is. And it's a huge difference because all of these ballot initiatives that have been voted in, our legislators can go in there and pull the thing apart and change it into legislation that it is not even what we voted for. So that's how we do it. We get 10% of the voters by it's and it's this is another one of those things. It's like a 71% slam dunk. Like everybody is gonna want money out of politics unless they're just insane. So I think we could have great success with that. And if I lose this year and I'm not governor, we're gonna come back, we're gonna get money out of Nebraska politics, and then maybe run again.
SPEAKER_00So if I'm hearing you correctly, regardless of whether or not you win, this is the this is the jumping board into at least having enough voice in the area to voice your concerns, voice how you would want to fix them and voice how you want to get money out of politics, and then whether or not you're actually the governor, you can still take your position as a civilian with influence to get this on a ballot without the ability of the state legislation being able to change the verbiage of whatever you're presenting, you know, to omnibus it or or just alt-right change the language. Is that what I'm hearing?
SPEAKER_02Excellent summary. That's exactly uh you got it.
SPEAKER_00Well, brother, I am pushing for you. I I I I like what I like what you're doing out there. I like your your your messaging. Uh and you know, as somebody who will partake in a pre-roll, I have nothing against uh marijuana. I think that Delaware is has been teeter-tottering themselves into this world where we're gonna do it and we're not gonna do it, and now we have a card, and now certain places don't have to adhere to it. So we're we're kind of stuck in that that limbo of whether or not we want to be a uh a weed state. But the same exact thing applies where if you don't do it here, people just drive to Maryland, people just drive to other states, and we're losing that money. So I think the debate there around at the very least the money is very simple. It's very clean cut. Do you want the money in your state or do you want the money out of your state and also have to succumb to the black market? Or, like you said, the unregulated smoke shops, gas stations, THC, hemp that can be coming from anywhere in all places. It can be a mixture of California weed, New York weed, and a little bit of Clorox, and you'd have no idea. Yeah, you'd have no idea. Uh, Rick, I want to hand you the mic for the last couple minutes. Uh, tell people that are listening to this that may live in or have friends adjacent to Nebraska why they should be looking into Mr. Rick for governor.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. So I'm I'm running on a platform getting money out of politics about bringing a strong hemp and cannabis business to Nebraska. And uh we want to halt, pause, put a moratorium on data centers. We need to check out the environmental impact that these things are gonna have on our environment and on our on us before we do anything else. It's just too much of a rush. Uh I I represent the people. I am the candidate of the people, not a candidate of a party. Um I'm here to uh I think I think that we can raise just so much money for our state and uh put a lid on these property taxes, start fixing our roads, and bring a bunch of jobs to Nebraska along with some compassion uh for our sick people, for our veterans, for our epileptic uh citizens that need this to prevent their seizures and for even for people that just have chronic pain. I think that we could just open up our hearts. And uh it's a it's a unique campaign that is uh very grassroots, excuse the pun. But uh it's it's spread it's spreading good. We we have great traction. We polled at 12 percent uh just before the primaries, which is higher than any that's incredible as an independent, yeah. It's massive, and um it's it's more than any gubernatorial third-party candidate has polled in Nebraska since 1905. Wow. And I'm polling higher than any candidate for gov, third party candidate for governor in the whole country right now. Fantastic. So as much as the media is trying to not include us, and as much as we are underfunded and a third party, we have some real traction and a little bit of grip going. So I'm excited to get our messages out there this summer, even if that's what it is. I want to educate people on this Montana plan. I want to educate people on constitutional ballot amendments uh so that we can step above our state legislature and so we can be the people and so we can hold the power and take our state back and get it out of their hands. We've just got a lot of things, we've got a great campaign that is completely we're we're talking about things that the other parties don't dare talk about. We're saying we're saying the quiet part out loud. And uh hopefully people enjoy that and are refreshed by it and it brings awareness and uh helps create this movement that's starting to happen around America.
SPEAKER_00Well, if you already have one out of eight people polling and they're voting for an independent, I'd say that the momentum is very much in your favor. I mean, people might hear 12% and think, well, that's not a huge number, but for an independent, it's an incredibly high number. Uh, brother, I wish you all the best of luck. I hope other politicians like yourself stepping up against the big money, stepping out against the big countries that are funding us, Israel that we're sending money to, wars that we're spending unnecessary money on, and and frankly, just uh you're you're viewing, though some people may view it as a very, very, very large uphill battle, you're looking at finding different routes of creating affordability, uh, hemp being one that is not a new topic uh in ways that we could get costs down if we create new infrastructure around hemp and how we build homes. And you're you're facing the job market, housing market, and where people are feeling the pain most, the economy. So, brother, I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you for joining us today, and uh, I will be keeping up with your race, friend. I hope others do too.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Zachary. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00So I pulled up some stats. It says the Pede family and Sand Hills Global have pumped over $20 million into Republican politics in Nebraska since 2020. Uh they've funded the same party and the same attorney general who's actively trying to criminalize hemp products and block marijuana legalization. Could be a connection there between their and their politics. What's interesting that I found uh and Joe was looking up is the Sand Hills Capital Company. Uh it's Lincoln's largest private sector uh donator, and they are a billion-dollar seems like a hedge fund, capital fund. They're big on data centers. They it seems like the biggest the biggest pack battles between those that want data centers and those that are wanting to protect farmland. Nebraska tons and tons of farmlands, so that makes sense. And I I think here's one of the probably the biggest things that they're lobbying against legalization of marijuana, is right now it seems like Nebraska is making about $11 million in sales tax revenue and employing 1,600 people a year from hemp-derived cannabinoid businesses, which are those smoke shops. So it's probably an argument for if we bring in THC legislation and legalize it, though that might create money, create jobs, it would probably limit the money made and limit the jobs, or at least curtail the job market of those hemp shops. If that makes sense. Interesting conversation. I've never heard of the legalized marijuana party. Sean Joe, did you heard of that? Am I I hadn't heard of that at all. I didn't know that was a thing. It sounds what? It does sound made up. Um wishing Rick all the best. Um we did some research. I was not able to find Big Wood. I was looking up who who who the heck's big wood. I don't suggest Googling that, by the way. Who is Big Wood? Where's the big wood? Don't Google that. You won't find what you're looking for. Or maybe you will find what you're looking for. Yeah, it wasn't what I was looking for. Sure, Zach, sure, sure. Show your Google history. Uh it looks like in 2020, the federal election cycle alone Sandhills affiliated contributors totaled more than $14.7 million in lobbying money, putting them in the same league as casino magnate Steve Wynne and LinkedIn co-founder Reed Hoffman. So not a small amount of money. There's also a separate entity uh this specifically funds a pack for Senator Deb Fisher, the Republican out of Nebraska. Lots going on in Nebraska. Any takes or thoughts from that one, guys? Sean, you want to jump on the mic real fast? Is there uh yeah, he doesn't he's nothing. Nothing. Well, big wolf. Well, thank you for jumping in to episode number 71 of the Zach Fowl show. Hit subscribe, hit like. We will continue to do interviews like these as well as monologues and what's going on in the everyday life of you as an American and how you can prepare for it financially and economically. Have a great one. Love you. Sean Play the Song on our way out. Now we're good. We were good at it now.