Not long after Omaha Sen. Theresa Thibodeau was appointed to the Nebraska Legislature last fall, Thibodeau’s daughter Eleanor, a fourth grader studying Nebraska history and government, asked her for help with a question on a homework assignment: What are the duties of a state senator?
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For a farm kid from Albion, even the promise of a lucrative law career could not deter Sen. Tom Briese from a life working the land.
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For the past 16 years, Sen. Justin Wayne has coached basketball for a youth sports program in Omaha and serves as its president. In 2008, a few of his players noticed his grousing about Omaha’s public schools, so they encouraged Wayne to follow the same advice he gave them: if you are going to complain, be a part of the solution.
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To say that newly-appointed Sen. Robert Clements has deep roots in his legislative district would be an understatement. His great-great-grandfather John came to the area in 1868 to homestead as an immigrant from England. He went on to be one of the four men who incorporated the village of Elmwood in 1886.
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Visitors to the Capitol watching Sen. Carol Blood address a full legislative chamber would never guess that public speaking used to make her uncomfortable.
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Sen. Lou Ann Linehan cannot remember a time when politics and history did not fascinate her.
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Sen. Mike Hilgers doesn’t take the sometimes contentious nature of legislative floor debate personally. As a practicing litigator for the past 13 years, the Omaha native has learned that those who oppose you one day may be on your side the next.
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Mike McDonnell was born and raised in Legislative District 5 in South Omaha. The home he shares with wife Amy and son Ryan is just four blocks from the house his parents built in 1957.
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At some point early in his term as president of the National Farmers Organization, Sen. Steve Halloran realized he was a political outlier in the group he had been elected to lead.
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If there is one thing Sen. Tony Vargas does not want to do, it’s disappoint his mother, Lidia. As a first-generation son of Peruvian immigrants, he knows that she is proud of his many achievements – but also knows that she doesn’t want him to rest on his laurels.
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It can never be said that Sen. Joni Albrecht is afraid to take a risk. In fact, she has built a career on following her instincts and exceeding people’s expectations.
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With the exception of his college years, Sen. Steve Erdman has lived in Morrill County his entire life. The new senator went so far as to move in with his grandparents at the age of 16, when his parents moved to Washington state, in order to stay in western Nebraska.
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Life has a way of interfering with the best laid plans of even the most meticulous of strategists. Lincoln Sen. Suzanne Geist learned this lesson early. The Arkansas native was two weeks away from earning her undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and eager to take on the world when she was summoned for grand jury duty — jury duty that lasted a year and a half.
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One would assume that Sen. Dan Quick, a former labor union president, would be a confident public speaker. In fact, there are far more dangerous things he would rather do than give a prepared speech.
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After spending 36 years in uniform, and being twice wounded in combat, Sen. Tom Brewer said it would have been easy for him to retire and take life easy. Instead, he chose to run for the Nebraska Legislature.
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