{"id":34033,"date":"2023-04-06T15:52:21","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T21:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=34033"},"modified":"2023-04-06T15:52:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T21:52:21","slug":"kauth-seeks-commonality-amid-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=34033","title":{"rendered":"Kauth seeks commonality amid conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Kathleen Kauth poses with Herbie Husker at Memorial Stadium in 2022.<\/em><\/p>\n

For many people, disagreements are something to be avoided at all costs. Not so for Omaha Sen. Kathleen Kauth. As a trained mediator and conflict coach, she knows that being willing and able to talk to people with different perspectives is a must in life \u2014 not just in politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cConflict doesn\u2019t ruffle my feathers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One key to Kauth\u2019s approach is finding common ground, whether that\u2019s connecting with fellow lawmakers over a shared love of Harry Potter books at new senator orientation last fall \u2014 House of Gryffindor, in case you\u2019re wondering \u2014 or bonding over Husker football with strangers while traveling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all going to disagree about a lot of things,\u201d she said, \u201cand that\u2019s why you look for the commonalities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kauth, a native of Illinois, has plenty of experience making new friends and finding connections, having relocated seven times for husband Andrew\u2019s career before settling in Omaha in 2012. While his job brought them to Nebraska, it soon became clear that it was a place to put down roots so their children could experience all of their high school years at one school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our favorite place that we\u2019ve ever lived,\u201d Kauth said. \u201cIt feels like home. We\u2019re Midwesterners at heart and the schools and neighbors are incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, she acknowledges that the years the family spent in West Palm Beach, Florida were \u201cfabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had people visiting us from November to April every year \u2014 literally, every weekend. We moved to Kansas and nobody came to see us,\u201d Kauth laughed. \u201cThey were coming to see the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kauth\u2019s interest in elected office was sparked when the sanitary and improvement district in which the family home is located was annexed by the city of Omaha \u2014 a situation she said many in the neighborhood didn\u2019t realize was happening until after the process was over. As a result, she started considering a run for Omaha City Council.<\/p>\n

With the encouragement of friends and neighbors, she decided to enter the race. Just one small oversight: she forgot to tell Andrew.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I called him and said, \u2018Just so you know, I\u2019m running for city council \u2014 see you tonight,\u2019\u201d Kauth laughed.<\/p>\n

Always a good sport, he greeted her that evening as \u201ccouncilwoman\u201d and the campaign was on. Although she didn\u2019t win that race, it was the start of political involvement that eventually led to her appointment to fill the Legislative District 31 vacancy created by the death of Sen. Rich Pahls in April 2022. She was elected to the seat in November of that year.<\/p>\n

The experience reinforces Kauth\u2019s advice to those who want to get involved in public policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process is cumulative,\u201d she said. \u201cYou might not see results today, but your involvement in the process will pay off down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many people, disagreements are something to be avoided at all costs. Not so for Omaha Sen. Kathleen Kauth. As a trained mediator and conflict coach, she knows that being willing and able to talk to people with different perspectives is a must in life \u2014 not just in politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[285],"class_list":["post-34033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senator-features","tag-sen-kathleen-kauth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Kauth_blog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34033"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34089,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34033\/revisions\/34089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}