Register enters District 15 seat race

For the past 15 years, there has been one thought in the back of Richard Register’s mind: Running for the Legislature.

The Fremont attorney announced today that he will seek the District 15 seat currently held by Ray Janssen of Nickerson.

Register first ran for the office the same time as Janssen, losing in a close primary election. It wasn’t long after that defeat that his thoughts turned toward another run.

“The day after I was defeated in the primary, I worked in my garden. ... The plan was started when I was planting my plants late that year,” Register said Wednesday night in an exclusive interview with the Fremont Tribune. “You have to plant a lot of gardens to make things grow.”

This time, Register will face another Janssen -- Charlie, nephew of Ray �” in the race. A primary election is set for May 13 with the top two voter getters advancing to the Nov. 4 general election. Candidates have at least until Feb. 15 to file to run.

“It’s something that has been in the back of my mind for a long time,” Register said. “The opening only comes up every so often.”

Register’s top issues will be economic growth, education and the environment.

“We really have some serious things coming up -- education, environment, economic growth. We really need to have someone who knows what they are doing with some experience and common sense,” he said.

Almost every issue is related to those three areas, he said.

“Our tax problem comes down to economic growth,” Register said. “Our economic growth is tied into education. They are all kind of intertwined. As long as we continue to throw money away to other countries to fill up our tanks, we’re not going to be economically sound.”

Register said Nebraska’s property tax structure hurts economic development opportunities.

“You really have to have an inviting playing field for everybody,” he said. “You start with a tax that is going to make sense and is fair. As long as our property tax is so out of whack with the states around us �” how do you compete with that? You can not compete with that. It has to get fixed.

“You don’t necessarily have to pay them to come here if they see it’s a good system,” he added. “If you have good education, a fair tax system, they’re going to come.”

Register first became interested in the Legislature as a child. When he was 12, he was named the Tribune’s newspaper carrier of the year. The reward was a trip to Lincoln, a tour of the Capitol and tickets to a Husker football game.

“I’ve always wanted to do that,” he said. “Even as a kid going down to the Unicameral and looking at that stuff, it always fascinated me. It’s something I always wanted to do.”

So he tried 15 years ago. But times have changed and he has picked up experience during those years at his law firm, as a certified mediator, an instructor at Metropolitan Community College and a volunteer for MainStreet of Fremont and several political campaigns.

“Fifteen years ago I thought I knew everything,” he said. “When you’re that age, you still haven’t really got over yourself. You’re still thinking you know everything. In the years since, I have had huge changes in my life, my profession, which has given me a foundation that I didn’t have back then.

“Quite frankly, I’m glad at this point that I didn’t get in back then because of the changes I’ve been through,” he added.

Since that time he and his wife, Janet Stewart, have become grandparents three times.

Register waited until now to get into the race because “people get bored with campaigns.”

“I think there is a limit to the shelf life of a campaign,” he said. “One year is enough so we started just a week after one year out.

“I’m going to do door-to-door in the entire district,” he added. “I have to start in December to pull that off.”