Schumacher puts creativity to work at Legislature

Above: Sen. Schumacher created one of the first Internet companies in Nebraska.

Sen. Paul Schumacher was interested in technology long before the commercial availability of the Internet. Before Microsoft began selling an operating system, Schumacher demonstrated a primitive instant messaging service at the 1978 Nebraska State Fair.

Using a computer built by hand with ham radio parts, Schumacher and his project partner developed a system to send text from one terminal to another by typing on a keyboard built into a briefcase.

“It wasn’t Internet; it was just digital communication across phone lines. We certainly weren’t Al Gore,” Schumacher joked. “We didn’t invent the Internet.”

Schumacher said he got the idea for his demo device a few years earlier when he and a debate colleague envisioned a system in which people could send text from computer to computer. His technological ventures were put on hold in 1978, however, when he was elected as Platte County attorney and his project partner moved out of state.

His interest in digital communications later resurfaced in 1994 when he noticed a Central Community College flyer for a seminar on the Internet. He signed up, but was later contacted by the event’s organizer, Linda Aerni, to let him know the seminar had been canceled due to a lack of interest.

They visited about the need to increase Internet access in Columbus. This gave Schumacher the idea to start one of the first Internet companies in the state.

“We formed one of the first rural Internet companies long before phone companies and cable companies were even interested in delivering that service,” he said.

Digital communications was not the first area in which this Platte County farm kid navigated uncharted waters. When he was attending law school at Georgetown University, he worked with close confidants of President Nixon’s during the transition period after the resignation.

“Because no one wanted to be anywhere near the White House, I thought it would be an interesting place to be,” Schumacher said.

Later, while serving as county attorney and building a private practice in which he represented many small towns, Schumacher recognized the need for a new mechanism for localities to raise revenue for public infrastructure.

The result was the Nebraska Cooperative Government, which Schumacher took the lead in designing. Researching state law, he said, he found a way for communities to get together and conduct a lottery to raise revenues. Schumacher is the founder and president of Lotto Nebraska, the entity that administers the charitable gaming activities of the Nebraska Cooperative Government.

Schumacher maintains a law practice in Columbus dealing in real estate and probate law. He calls work his hobby and takes pride in the careers of his twin daughters.