Mike Meister calls himself a country lawyer from Scottsbluff. Now he's also hoping to call himself the next governor of Nebraska.

"We told folks at our convention that we would not talk about side issues," said Meister, 49. "We are not going to get distracted from the real issues of this campaign, which are the budget, the fiscal irresponsibility of this governor, the mismanagement of state resources by this governor and what we need to do to fix those things and make things better for Nebraska."

One way Meister plans to do that is through education. Under his proposal, the state would assume responsibility for local school buildings instead of providing financial assistance through the current state aid program.

"I have not proposed a cut in state aid to education. That is an absolute lie," said Meister. "What i have proposed is an idea - that idea is to change the way we look at state aid to education. Rather than doing it in dollars, we do it with a building. "

But Gov. Dave Heineman believes schools should be controlled at the local level.

"The idea that the state would take over a local school facility seems a bit bizarre to me," said Heineman. "I don't know why we would do that. Are we going to get involved in bond issues then? There are all sorts of complex issues involved in that. And to tell you the truth i haven't found a superintended who is for that idea."

While he's lost political races before, Meister said when it comes to the 2010 gubernatorial race, he's in it to win it with his ideas on education, planning and of course fiscal safeguarding.

What will solve the budget crisis in itself is getting Dave Heineman out of that office and getting me in there.