i love the arts. that is what i like to do outside of this job. >> conga:, --congresswoman, thank you very much for being with us. >> now our interview with brad ashford, for presenting nebraska's omaha district. this is one half an hour. >> you did some thing quite unusual in a 2014. you defeated a republican member of the house. how did you do that? representative ashford: that's an interesting question. i spent many years in the nebraska legislature were presenting primarily republican districts. i was a republican for 40 years. i had a natural constituency in the center. and we were able take that to the congressional race, to reach out to moderate republicans and democrats. it helped having representatives in those areas in the legislatures. >> why did you switch parties so often? representative ashford: it wasn't really so often. [laughter] i started out -- yes. i started out as a repubclianublican for most of my life. we had term limits in nebraska. i spent 16 years in the legislature. i ran for mayor of omaha as an independent because it was a nonpartisan race. i wanted to send a message that omaha's problems are not partisan problems. i chose to become a democrat primarily because of social issues that i have been engaged in for many years -- gay-rights issues that have worked on, immigration issues. issues that i felt the democratic party had a more po sitive policy response to. i didn't change parties with an idea of running again or anything i just felt workable ending what i thought would be my career in that regard. >> finish the sentence -- the state of congress today is what? representative ashford: sad. i am very sad about it. i came from a nonpartisan place by constitution. it is surprising to see all of the dysfunction built around partisan politics. maybe i expected that. but the inability to do with the great issues of our time. in nebraska, we dealt with immigration. we did the best we could. we've dealt with some of the social issues, health care issues, and other things that can be a cost here. i am just sad about it. i work here as a young person in the late 1960's, early 1970's. i was a much more idealistic then. i was young and idealistic, so maybe i was seeing it through rose-colored glasses, but i don't think so. there was a sense of moderation and solution. it is just sad sad to see what is happened. things like immigration, these things just seem to linger. in a nebraska, we need an immigration solution. we needed it for 12 years longer than that. i thought coming here we could grapple with some of those, and maybe we were wrong. but the sort of gotcha politics, the building up a book of votes in order to either gain campaign contributions or gain favor with the party or disfavor with the other party -- it's justs sad. it makes me ill to think about. again, i come from a different place. from the 1930's onward, nebraska has had a unique governance and still has. i see so many young people here, reminding me of me in those years, doing all sorts of great things. they are idealistic, caring people. and then there are adults, employers acting silly. i think that's kind of sad. >> when you ran he said you are part of the legislature of nebraska to congress. have you been able to do any of that, and if not, how can you do that? representative ashford: i hope so. i could care less what any party thinks. i tried to create relationships with anybody i could find, no matter what party they are. the individual numbers that i work with our fabulous. they come from numerous backgrounds and are exceptional people. it is the system that directs them into these weird places. i have tried to reach out to them. i signed on to a number of bills with democrats and republicans about equally. we are a pro-business state. i have been attracted to some of the more pro-business initiatives, trade the one of the biggest ones. just trying to find relationships like i would. >> you said you wanted to make friends== representative ashford: i exceeded that, i think. i have been here half a year now. i have made some good friends. i haven't met anybody i didn't like. i try not not to not like people. [laughter] steve king from iowa, for ex ample, on the immigration issue there is probably no one further from me, but we struck up interests between the both of us. to legislate, you have to pick your battles, find your alliances, find the people you can work with. it doesn't really matter what they think or don't think about some other issue, because you take each. once you pass something hopefully, and move on to the next, you put that tpo bed. that is critical to legislating. i don't see that as much here. individuals may move on, but parties are not letting go of those things. it becomes it's almost -- dysfunction, conflict, use that to raise money. it's not going to get us to a place where we're really great. it's going to take some exceptional leadership going forward over the next several years to get us out of this mess. >> with your schedule -- you're running a congressional office you're back in your district, you are cosponsoring legislation -- how do you find time to make friends, and how do you do it? representative ashford: i've always legislated through relationships, not parties. i focused on that. i'm a member of the new dems coalition, a group of pro-business, pro-trade democrats, who are very similar to my colleagues. i am one of the very --few left blue dogs. i spent a lot of my time thinking about policy by talking to people. if i was to say something over the years what gets me in the most trouble is that i tend to think out loud. in order to do that, i need to find people to talk to. >> on fiscal issues, how would you define your ideology? representative ashford: i'm pretty conservative. nebraskans are pretty conservative. we need to balance the budget and a responsible way. if we do that effectively we are going to be able to start planning for the future. i know we have one your budget -- i support a two-year budget cycle so that you can plan. we don't have that kind of planning in our budget process that we should have. i'm conservative on business issues. i like to keep taxes at a responsible level and not overspend and try to be more efficient in how government operates. clearly that is my history. i don't think that's bad or not progressive to try to think about ways where you can -- it's actually quite challenging and fun to work with others to think about, what do you mean by social programs? we need many fewer than that that work better. i think getting to a balanced budget is really a great challenge and something we should keep working no. >> you talk about gay rights, where would you put yourself ideologically on social issues? representative ashford: i support gay marriage and always have. i support gay rights. i support roe versus wade. i support a woman's right to choose. i support immigration reform, a pathway to citizenship. i think frankly that is good business. but it can be labeled as progressive, i guess, or soc ially progressive. but the congress agrees with me. >> walk us through your schedule. what is it like when you are here in washington and when you go back to your district? representative ashford: when i was in the cameras, i would always avoid my friends in the lobby by jogging. no lobbyist would ever job with me. -- jog with me. it sounds simple, but that is newborn part of my day. i do things around that. -- that is an important part of my day. we have had a nebraska breakfast going on for 70 years -- every week we have 150 people every wednesday for breakfast. i certainly go to that. one of the things i try not to do is fund raise when i am working. the big thing of course is calling people on the phone for money all the time. it's a terrible distraction. not only does it get your mind off what you're doing into something that is not why you're here , i try to not miss a hea ring or anything to go raise money. i try to keep up with the demands of fun raising, but doing it outside my course is what i believe in. it does not make me better than anybody else, it just makes me comfortable. i'm here to go to this midi hearings. -- go to those committee hearings. so i need to be there to resent my district as much i can. >> was talk about your roots in a nebraska. where were you born and raised? representative ashford: i was born in omaha. my father's family is irish came in 1856. my mother's family is swedish coming in 1870's. family was in business unit nebraska for a few generations in the clothing business/ i had been a lawyer most of my career, practiced a lot of law. i've owned businesses. done quite a few other civic things. i've had a very following career doing varied things. to work in such an incredible, in my view, unique institution of government ishas been something. >> were your parents political types? representative ashford: not r eally. my grandfather actually was very active. he started a national conference of christians and jews organization in omaha in the 1930's. combating discrimination against jews in omaha. he had raised money to get jews out of europe into sweden right before world war ii. he spent a great deal of his life in the clothing business, but by being very active in social issues. my father was a b 26 bomber on d-day, built in my district. he flew on d-day. he was a business guy. my mother was just a wonderful woman. they were a lot of fun. very active in the community. instill a lot of values of community involvement into me. my brother is a judge, i have another brother that owns a bookstore and has for 30-40 years. >> why did you first decided to run for state legislature? representative ashford: that's a good question. i enjoyed policy and politics very much. i got involved in bob kerrey's 1982 gubernatorial and pain in a nebraska. -- gubernatorial campaign in nebraska. he was a good friend of mine. i think it was really 1986 -- my parents and grandparents involvement in the community i saw an opportunity to give back and contribute. most everybody in omaha does this, but i thought governance was what i could do to get back. in some fashion to what my family had done as long as we had been in nebraska. that is what had carried me on. i don't think i would have run again for anything. there was no one running on the democrat side. i thought about it. fear is the wrong word, but the apprehension of not being able to serve anymore. i think the mayor thing was fun but quite frankly i think i am a legislature, not an administrator. -- legistlator, not an administrator. i think it all worked up. >> would difference between nebraska legislature -- what is the difference between nebraska and washington dc legislatures? representative ashford: i had never been to a party caucus before. it is sort of like a pregame pep talk "let's go out and get the other side." that stuff is totally foreign to me. that was very different. even if though there were many more republicans and democrats in our legislature, it is nonpartisan. the committee chairs, by tradition, tend to be equally divided. the governor is elected by par ty, but the unicameral isn't. nebraska raised the gas tax. we did some things that are fairly progressive. it is like a bunch of us getting togetherm, working things out putting partisan politics literally down the line of importance. there is a pride in that. when the governor vetoes something, like he did at this time, you can just override the governor on each one of these touch issues. we have done a significant amount of prison reform. i was involved in juvenile justice issues. we made some progress there. we can take on an issue and solve it fairly adeptly and quickly. there are some things i wish we could have done and haven't done but pretty much we work together and come up with solutions. nebraskans are common sense people. conservative on fiscal issues, but still the william james populist tradition. >> at the campaign begins to unfold, do you have a sense that republicans are moving to the right? representative ashford: i don't know that they are moving to the right, particularly. think the democrats need to be careful. -- i think the democrats need to be careful. they've already lost a great swath of the middle of the country by not really appealing to people in nebraska, for example. when bob kerrey ran for the u.s. senate for governor, the number of democrats over republicans was just a handful. now it's over 200,000. my sense is that john boehner is not a far-right conservative republican. he is a pragmatist. that is my sense. i think some of the candidates -- jeb bush, for example i really admired his father, is a very appealing candidate. if the democrats bring themselves back to the center of the voting population, like bill clinton did. i think he was a master ast it. heated some pro-business things -- he did some pro-business things meaningful to the country. i do think the democrats--there is some fear. we are not going to get immigration reform done by pitting the far right against the far left. it will be done by being resolved in the center. george bush 43 shot at it -- had a shot at it. there are far right republican candidates and far left democrat candidates. but i sense that secretary clinton seems to be charting somewhat of a left of center force. the country is somewhat right of center now. the sort of -- in order to have good paying jobs in the country the private sector needs to be robust. the way to do that is for government to get out of the way. where it can make a difference is on trade. the more we can expand our market, the more we can have a robust business center, the more good jobs are going to be created. that is what we believe in nebraska. that is what john kennedy talked about when he ran in 1960, and bill clinton as well. we are a center to right of center country. i think that is where democrats have to be cautious. >> but you are a democrat in a republican state. do you know the last time nebraska voted for a democrat in the white house? representative ashford: yes. [laughter] yes, it's actually a good story. we actually have an electoral college vote per district. i think it was 1991, senator bob nelson as then-governor. we had a reverse legislature vote. i was the 25th vote as a republican. in that electoral vote, my boat went for obama. -- my vote went for obama. >> you have three children. what are their ages, and what do they think about their data encompass? >>-- their dad in congress? representative ashford: i think they are proud that i am in congress. i think they are proud of me, which is quite something. you would always love to have your children be proud of you. they know that we work hard. the fact that we picked up the campaign from scratch with nine months to go. people say, you had been there 16 years people wanted a change i odn'tdon't know if people think of things exactly that way. i hope that they thought we offered something. maybe we purchased more optimistic. -- we were just more optimistic. that by working together, we could get things done. i think they are proud of that. my children are proud of how i committed to the tough issues like gay rights which to me is extremely important. i grew up in the clothing business. and the gay community was to me a very important part, of certainly the women's business. i grew up seeing the description against gays as a young child in new york. my grandfather's commitment to those issues at the national conference of questions and -- conference of christians and jews. we have stuck with those issues. hopefully they are proud of that. >> when did you college? representative ashford: colgate. and i studied history. on the trade issue -- people ask, why are you so adamant about trade? you look back at the tariffs of 1880's and 1890's that caused the great depression and really hurt us in nebraska, it devastated nebraska's agricultural sector. and then in the 1830's again as a result of high tariffs in this country. i think history is important to know where you have been and what lessons you can learn. i think about where we are today in the congress. i don't know if there is such a parallel as there is today. how you line up your voting record in order to withstand television. there was a vote on a trade and it had to do with medicare that was part of the trade adjustment act. even though the trade adjustment act was fixed so that you would be voting against it, the argument against voting against it which would help the trade bill go forward, someone said they ran an ad aagainst me saying i wanted to take medicare away from seniors. you hear that again and again. the ad a few months ago was about that i was the chair of the judiciary committee and did prison reform. why we were doing is reform -- prison reform, one person got out of jail and killed four people. and that was the ad. but we won. [laughter] if you worry about that stuff you shouldn't be here. that is the focus of a lot of this. bernie sanders reminds me a lot of gene mccarthy. this sense to just say it as you will. everybody's different, everybody looks at policy differently. but i admire people on both sides of the aisle who can

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