Call us suspicious, but the recent campaign raised the issue of whether Nebraska's fine tradition of nonpartisanship in the Legislature is under assault.
Posted: Sunday, November 16, 2008 6:00 pm
Call us suspicious, but the recent campaign raised the issue of whether Nebraska’s fine tradition of nonpartisanship in the Legislature is under assault.
Sure, everyone tries to downplay the idea.
But still, what is one to think when Gov. Dave Heineman and Attorney General Jon Bruning put together an independent war chest to spend $40,000 on six Republican candidates?
Especially when Heinemann’s voice is on radio ads and his name is on flyers in support of the same candidates?
And when former Republican gubernatorial candidate Dave Nabity spends about $83,500 opposing candidates?
And there was similar activity on the other end of the political spectrum.
Sen. Tom White of Omaha and Ian Russell, a former White aide who now works for the Democratic Party, had their own independent committee, Campaign for Nebraska’s Future, which spent more than $100,000 in the final weeks of the campaign.
At least that group can lay claim to being bipartisan. It spent some of its money on a Republican, Carl Lorenzen, who lost in a race for an Omaha legislative seat to another Republican, Scott Lautenbaugh.
Although the forces of partisanship have constantly swooped and howled outside the legislative chamber, like the dementors in the Harry Potter novels occasionally laid siege to Hogwarts, it has retained its nonpartisan nature both in law and in fact.
Senators can and do judge each issue without regard to party bosses. Committee chairs are chosen by a vote of the entire Legislature, not handpicked by party bosses. There’s no aisle that divides the parties in the legislative chamber.
Naturally this lack of party discipline has frustrated party operatives. How can they get their minions to toe the line if they can’t hand out juicy plums?
Both White and Heineman claimed that once the Legislature convenes that partisanship will evaporate and senators will conduct business in nonpartisan fashion just as they have in the storied past.
Maybe. Sounds a bit Pollyannaish.
From this perspective it seems that new forces are coinciding to threaten the bipartisan tradition.
The newest threat is the rise of independent committees that can give free rein to the party’s worst impulses while still allowing them to keep their hands clean.
Term limits guarantee fresh faces in the Legislature. But the more frequent coming and going might undermine tradition, with fewer long-term senators present to defend tradition.
So far the nonpartisan nature of the Legislature has endured, both in law and in practice since it was set up that way by voters in the 1930s. Senators may have to work harder than in the past to keep it that way.