A political spat erupted Wednesday over a six-month-old video circulating on social media that shows Taylor Gage, then Gov. Pete Ricketts’ communications director, uprooting a yard sign promoting Charles W. Herbster for governor and tossing it into a dumpster.
Tyler Henningsen, who had worked for the Herbster campaign until August, said that the short video was a “set-up†and “dirty trick†by the Herbster camp to show that Gage — who resigned from his role with the governor earlier this month to work as executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party — and the Ricketts administration oppose Herbster’s candidacy.
Henningsen, a 20-year-old active in the Omaha Young Republicans, said he shot the video, which became property of the Herbster campaign after he was dismissed in August.
“It was just a dirty trick, honestly,†Henningsen said.
People are also reading…
But a current Herbster campaign official, Rod Edwards, disputed the claim, saying the campaign had declined past suggestions by Henningsen to use the video to damage Gage. Edwards said he did not know who shared the video with the Nebraska Freedom Coalition, which posted it this week.
“He (Henningsen) had shared that video with a lot of people,†Edwards said, adding that Henningsen had been told more than once that the campaign wasn’t going to use it.
The skirmish, if anything, demonstrates the animus developing between the two leading Republican candidates, so far, for governor: Herbster, a Falls City businessman, and Jim Pillen, a Columbus veterinarian and hog producer who serves as a University of Nebraska regent.
Ricketts is prevented from running for a third term because of term limits. While he hasn’t formally endorsed a replacement, the governor has shown favor to Pillen, who shares some of his conservative political stances.
Ricketts also expressed strong disagreement with the October endorsement of Herbster by former President Donald Trump.
The news outlet that Ricketts had attempted, unsuccessfully, to dissuade Trump from making an endorsement in the primary, which most political observers believe will decide who becomes the next governor of Nebraska, a strongly Republican state.
That the video flap involves Gage illustrates that at least some conservative groups believe he won’t be fair to all gubernatorial candidates because of his loyalty to Ricketts, a claim that Gage denied Wednesday.
Henningsen, who said he was working as a deputy communications/political director for the Herbster campaign back in June, gave this account about the video:
He said he had driven to the Saunders County Fairgrounds on June 7 to deliver some yard signs to a Herbster supporter. That morning, Ricketts was holding a rally against the “30-by-30†plan being touted by President Joe Biden to increase conservation of land across the U.S.
The supporter asked if a couple of Herbster signs could be erected outside the rally, and a couple were put up, Henningsen said.
Gage, Ricketts’ communications director at the time, told Herbster’s supporters to take the yard signs down because they were on public property. State law prohibits yard signs from being erected on public property, though that law is regularly violated during election season.
Henningsen said he took the signs down, and informed his boss — whom he declined to identify — of what happened. Henningsen’s boss instructed him to put the yard signs back up.
Henningsen said he then “camped out†in his vehicle and proceeded to shoot a video, with his cellphone, of Gage uprooting one of the signs and dropping it into a nearby dumpster.
Henningsen said that the video remained the property of the Herbster campaign after he was dismissed in August, and he expected it to surface at some point to “paint the narrative†that everyone in the Ricketts administration opposes Herbster and supports Pillen.
“It was definitely a setup,†Henningsen said in an interview Wednesday.
He said he had told Gage about the video a month or two ago and apologized for his role in it, then texted him recently when the video was posted by the Nebraska Freedom Coalition, a conservative group.
Edwards, who is deputy campaign director for Herbster, disputed some aspects of Henningsen’s account.
Edwards said he had instructed Henningsen to put the yard signs back up at the June event because he had been told the campaign had permission to do it.
He said that Henningsen urged the campaign to “use†the video he had shot. He was told the campaign wasn’t going to use it, Edwards said, which upset Henningsen.
“If we wanted to do something, we would have done something back when we (first) had the video,†Edwards said, calling Henningsen’s account “ridiculous.â€
Patrick Peterson of Lincoln, a co-chairman of the Freedom Coalition, said he does not know who initially shared the video with his group, but assumed it was sent to the coalition after it , expressing doubt that Gage, as the new state GOP executive director, could be fair to all Republican gubernatorial candidates.
The release pointed to Gage’s long employment by the governor; that his brother, John Gage, is deputy campaign manager for Pillen; and that Ricketts’ top political adviser, Jessica Flanagain, was “spearheading†the Pillen campaign.
Peterson said his group decided to post the video because it raised questions about Gage’s ability to be impartial. He said he still believes that Gage cannot.
In a text message responding to questions Wednesday, Gage said that he had told Henningsen outside of the 30-by-30 rally that the Herbster contingent could attend the event, but could not campaign at it. Gage said he gave the same instructions to an animal rights group that was attempting to hand out leaflets at the governor’s town hall.
He emphasized that the Nebraska Republican Party is neutral in the GOP primary for governor, “and I have reached out to establish lines of communication with each of the announced candidates.â€