Although Nebraska is by no means considered a battleground state in the upcoming election, Creighton’s campus is preparing for some minor battles.

Scott Kleeb, democratic senatorial candidate, and Jim Esch, democratic congressional candidate, both came to campus this week to meet students and faculty and prepare for the events of next week.

Esch will meet with Congressman Lee Terry for a debate at 8 p.m. on Tuesday in the Skutt Student Center ballroom, and Kleeb will meet the Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns for a forum on healthcare at Creighton Medical School.

Election season heated up this week with the appearance of Kleeb in the Harper Center Auditorium. The topic of the evening was the economic crisis, where he expressed concern that the proposed economic bailout was not passed.

“There were problems with this bailout, namely, that there was not enough oversight for lenders and banks,” Kleeb said. “But, at least it was better than doing nothing. We cannot afford to do nothing.”

Kleeb, who opted not to use a mic, spoke softly and solemnly about the effects of the crisis on Nebraskans. After the lecture, he elaborated on what this means to college students.

“I met a girl a few weeks ago who told me that she could no longer afford to go to dental school because she couldn’t get the loans,” he said.

Students looking to pay for law school, grad school, travel abroad or buy their first home may have some problems coming up with the money unless the economic crisis is solved.

Seth Rich, Arts & Sciences sophomore, said he liked working for the Kleeb campaign and enjoyed his speech.

“It spoke really well to the current situation of the economy, and actually broke down what the real problem was, and how we can fix it piece by piece,” Rich said.

With all the talk about change, Kleeb said no real change could be made when senators and representatives are reelected 95 percent of the time.

“We can go better than this,” he said. “We’ve got to do better.”

One issue he knew Nebraska should improve on was state mental health care.

Nebraska’s new Safe Haven Law allows parents to drop children off at a hospital where they will be placed in emergency foster care. While other states with similar laws make it exclusive to infants, Nebraska has no age limit, and the first people to be dropped off were all older than infancy, one over 17 years old.

Kleeb said this was partly because state recourses have left the foster care and mental health care systems stretched and desperate.

“I’m having a hard time talking about this because I could never imagine losing my two kids,” he said. “We need to give families the tools to fix themselves so they never have to resort to the Safe Haven law.”

He said he would sign a mental health parity bill, making the treatment of mental health issues the same as treating physical issues. He said his wife, who suffered from an eating disorder years ago, now works to treat women with similar disorders, and he has seen women turned away from services because they couldn’t pay. Johanns said he had not taken time to seriously look into the law, but said, “it might need some definition.”

While he had no exact opinion of the state of affairs of the mental health or foster care systems in the state, Johanns touted his accomplishments in those areas four years ago.

“You’re visiting with the governor who championed hiring more case workers than ever in Nebraska,” he said in a phone interview. “[the current] Governor Heinemann has continued to work on this issue, and there’s more to be done.”

Esch agreed with Kleeb, saying the reason there are so many homeless people in Omaha was due to the lack of mental health care. One area where he would want to focus his efforts would be early childhood education.

“We as Nebraskans are consistently leaving kids behind,” he said. “The economic aspect is compelling. Making sure kids are off to the best start has a great impact and just keeping one person out of jail saves the state thousands of dollars.”

Investing in the next generation is important, Esch said, so they don’t have to deal with what we are taking on now.

“Politicians talk about being pro-family, but no one will bring these issues to the forefront,” he said.

Brian Martens, Arts & Sciences senior, was a major player in getting Kleeb and Esch to come to campus.

“The most important part was getting the politicians to do exactly what they’re doing now,” Martens said. “Students need a chance to meet the people they are going to vote for.”