On the first day of its session Wednesday, the 49 members of the Nebraska Legislature will take a vote on ending the use of secret ballots to elect the committee chairs and other legislative leaders.
While seemingly a procedural issue, eliminating the secret ballot and forcing legislators to publicly vote on the leadership positions would be the first step to ending nonpartisanship in the Legislature, which has been in place since the Nebraska’s unique unicameral legislature was approved by voters in 1934.
Then, U.S. Sen. George Norris, a Republican and the strongest advocate for the unicameral, rightfully argued that nonpartisanship would allow senators to concentrate on issues and interests without being influenced by national party lines, would make candidates and senators run on their own records and allow lawmakers to base their actions on their own convictions and their district needs.
People are also reading…
In operation over 85 years, nonpartisanship has created shifting coalitions among senators, with those in agreement working for action on one issue, then joining other groups on other matters – a stark contrast to partisan legislating, like the U.S. House of Representatives, where nearly every vote on every issue follows the party line.
The Legislature’s nonpartisanship and the requirement that all bills receive a hearing also makes committee chairs function less powerful — and function differently — than in a partisan body. The Nebraska chairs are somewhat administrative. They are unable to wield their power to allow only some measures to be considered or to pressure members to adhere to the party line on committee votes.
Of late, however, Republicans have become frustrated by nonpartisanship, which makes it more difficult for them to control legislation in the chamber that they, by registration, dominate. And there have been multiple repeated efforts to end the secret balloting.
In fact, the current push to end secret ballots is a partisan issue. Nebraska First PAC, which is leading the drive to eliminate secret ballots, was founded and is funded by Charles Herbster, the defeated GOP gubernatorial candidate who is closely tied to former President Donald Trump, hence the name of the PAC that echoes Trump’s America First rhetoric.
Rod Edwards, who worked on Herbster’s campaign and who runs the PAC, says he thinks 25 senators, one more than is necessary, support eliminating secret ballots and has said he believes that some Democrats favor ending the secret ballots. But none of the Legislature’s Democrats have voiced intent to vote that way, and few, if any, are likely to support the GOP effort.
To a person, candidates interviewed by the Journal Star editorial board before the November election favored maintaining the nonpartisan Legislature.
Yet several, many who have never served in the body, said they would favor eliminating the secret ballots, a seeming contradiction in their stances – and a position they and other senators who claim to support nonpartisanship should reconsider before they cast their votes Wednesday.
Elimination of secret balloting and the likely party line voting for officials would not change the Legislature overnight. But it would begin the creeping advance of partisanship into the body that would inevitably lead to bitter, divisive, often gridlocked legislating, as seen in the Congress and other state legislatures.
Regardless of party, most would agree that sort of legislating is not good for the country. Nor would it be good for the state of Nebraska. The new Legislature shouldn’t open the door for it here.
