Bruning outlines his work of the past

He's running for U.S. Senate, but Jon Bruning wasn't talking about the upcoming campaign.

Actually, Nebraska's attorney general was asked not to discuss his campaign during his visit to the Fremont Kiwanis Club.

“Bryan (Maschmeier, who invited Bruning to speak) told me no politics today, so I'm not going to get into that Senate race,” Bruning told the club's members Thursday at Wilderness Lodge. “But I do want you to know I love being attorney general. And frankly, the Senate race, you can't even get there unless you start with, ‘Is this guy doing a good job as attorney general?'”

So Bruning talked about his record as Nebraska's attorney.

Much of his work since being elected has dealt with sexual predators.

“Sexual predators have been a priority for me and making sure we put these guys behind bars. It's something I care about,” he said. “My kids are 8 and 10. When I started this job they were 3 and 5.”

First the attorney general pushed for laws regarding child enticement over the Internet. Then he pushed, with assistance from New York's attorney general's office, to shut down

70,000 user-created chat rooms on Yahoo.com. Most recently, they worked to make it illegal to send pornographic photos to children via the Internet.

“I think we've made some progress on sexual predators, but there's still more to be done,” Bruning said. “The problem is there's a new crop (teenagers) every year. My job is to continue warning kids to be just a little skeptical when you're on the Internet.

“We're going to keep doing it as long as those guys are still out there,” he added. “Unfortunately, they're still out there.”

In addition to making it tougher for sexual predators to operate online, the attorney general worked to keep sex offenders in prison longer.

A 2006 law - one he called the most comprehensive in the nation - allows the state to keep sexual offenders behind bars until it is determined they won't be a threat to the community.

“The problem is you can't rewire somebody very easily,” Bruning said. “The same way I'm attracted to my wife or you're attracted to your wife or husband, these guys are attracted to kids. That's just how the are, and it's hard to get somebody like that rewired.”

Bruning also led a charge to decrease the number of meth labs in the state by making it more difficult for people to buy key ingredients for the drug.

“We have reduced the meth labs in this state - homegrown meth labs - by 90 percent. Ninety percent,” he said. “Does that mean all the meth's gone? No, the meth is not gone.”

What the law did do, though, was greatly reduce potential exposure to hazardous materials, the byproduct of manufacturing meth.

Bruning leads a staff of 63 attorneys and 60 support staff in the attorney general's office. He announced earlier this year he will seek the nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by fellow Republican Chuck Hagel.