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Larry Bolinger
Candidate for Attorney General
Legal Marijuana NOW
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
I have run for local, State, and Federal offices and have argued many policies. I am a Veteran of both the Airforce and Army National Guards. I earned a Bachelor of Science Degree at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Major in Political Science and Minor in Criminology with a concentration in government affairs and civic engagement. I studied law, constitutional law, international law, policies, and police procedures. I have conducted several research analysis to help argue for a change in policies that will help me achieve my goals.
- Was on the City of Alliance Planning Commission for several years
- Chairman for LMN Party of Nebraska District 3
- I helped raise funds for Nebraska Boys Ranch, YMCA, ABATE, and the DAVA for disabled veterans.
- Volunteer on the Activate Alliance Initiative. One of the programs I worked on is to create a bicycle share program for the city of Alliance.
- Gave free rental space for the BBC tower to allow internet access for the local government in Alliance, NE.
- Volunteer In Police Services (VIPS). This organization helps the local law enforcement where needed voluntarily.
- Donated training materials to several police departments and law enforcement academies.
Why are you running for office?
My focus is on Law Reform, trying important cases, and working with programs that reduce recidivism.
Over the past 20 years, our government has been focused on harsher penalties, adding more law violations, and lacking diversion programs. So we ended up with a higher recidivism rate which caused Nebraska to have the highest per-capita prison population in the Nation. We need more focus on law reform, mainly working on victimless crimes. We need to push hard on diversion programs so we reduce the possibility that someone is going to be a repeat offender. When we make the change we reduce recidivism and we save the state a significant amount of money as each person in prison cost taxpayers $28,000 per year. Rehab and other diversion programs are far more successful and cost significantly less.
Law reform will be a big undertaking and I would need legal staffing that is up to date on laws, procedures, and statistics. They would need to be motivated for change and that might mean a revamp of legal staff to meet both what I expect, what I require to meet my goals, and what is needed to meet the needs of the people. I would hope to get some fresh new faces from our Law schools that are from Nebraska.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
- I expect to try all important cases. There will not be cases approved based solely on political affiliation. Cases are based on what is a constitutional infraction or a possible infraction. Some examples of cases I would try are: issues of fraudulent enrichment practices and business ethics infractions in our banking industries. This would include extortion of funds from contractors and ethics violations in foreclosure practices. I would look into issues of the pharmaceutical companies in price gouging and unethical political activities. I would press charges against a government that willfully violates Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001. 1) knowingly and willfully; 2) make any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; 3) in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the United States. IRS ethics violations and enrichment violations in their billing practices. I would look further into the Mead environment disaster and the EPA policy violations. I would look into the responsibility of the corporation and the responsibility of the government. The government has the obligation to act when a company does not.
- Law enforcement reform. Continue the education on the Presidential taskforce on 21st Community policing
- Bail Reform: There is a problem in our bail system where if you are wealthy you’re able to post bail and not see any jail time while if you are poor you go to jail. We need a better program that treats the poor and wealthy as equals when there is a crime committed.
- Reform to reduce recidivism: I would support diversion programs. We do need to review our current correctional status. If we do need a new correctional facility. We may need a new correctional facility because the old one is run down. But we need to implement a diversion program. Statistically, we need to be running more diversion programs because it has proven to reduce recidivism by as much as 60%.
- Veteran Funds: There has been an issue brought up of donations to help veterans are not being used to help veterans. For every $100,000 donated, only $9,000 is actually going to veterans. I will launch an audit to find those funds and hold those accountable for not doing what they promised to do.
- Discrimination cases: There are several discrimination cases that I would like to push. In our country we have an amendment that states everyone has equal protection under the law. Many organizations and lawmakers have forgotten that. I will be the reminder that discrimination will not be tolerated.