{"id":35137,"date":"2024-01-26T14:11:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T20:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=35137"},"modified":"2024-01-26T15:35:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T21:35:11","slug":"partisan-election-for-certain-public-power-districts-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=35137","title":{"rendered":"Partisan elections for certain public power districts advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

An attempt to move public power and irrigation district elections to a partisan format was narrowed and advanced from general file Jan. 26.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. John Lowe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As originally introduced last session by Kearney Sen. John Lowe, LB541 would have required that all such elections be conducted on partisan ballots for both the primary and general elections.<\/p>\n

A Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee amendment, adopted 31-9, would narrow the bill\u2019s provisions to cover only districts receiving annual revenue in excess of $500 million. The change effectively would limit the measure to the Nebraska Public Power District and the Omaha Public Power District.<\/p>\n

Lowe said he brought the proposal after learning of \u201coutside interests\u201d who were \u201cpouring\u201d thousands of dollars into NPPD elections in 2022 \u2014 funds he characterized as \u201cEast Coast money\u201d meant to influence district members toward a specific political agenda. One NPPD candidate in his district received nearly $100,000 from one source, he said.<\/p>\n

Lowe acknowledged that none of those organizations engaged in wrongdoing or broke any laws, but he said making elections partisan would give voters a better idea of where candidates stand. Nebraskans have difficulty learning about \u201cdown-ballot\u201d races, he said, and identifying candidates as Republicans, Democrats or Independents would simplify the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, that one word choice will tell voters 99% of what they need to know about how a candidate will govern,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Barry DeKay of Niobrara supported the bill and the amendment. A former member of the Nebraska Public Power District board, DeKay said groups from outside Nebraska are trying to influence power districts to move toward wind and solar power generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese groups have never approached me [or] asked me what my views were on generation \u2014 they opposed me because of my party affiliation,\u201d DeKay said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln opposed the bill and offered a motion to recommit it to committee, saying public power is not a partisan issue.<\/p>\n

Monied interests have sought for years to influence Nebraska elections, Raybould said, usually in favor of oil, coal and gas. Supporters of LB541 only seem concerned, however, if that money comes from entities favoring wind and other renewable energy sources, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news \u2014 for all Nebraskans \u2014 is that the boards that are elected remain grounded in their mission of delivering reliable and affordable public power throughout the state,\u201d Raybould said.<\/p>\n

Bellevue Sen. Carol Blood also opposed the bill. Candidates should be encouraged to think for themselves, she said, rather than being defined solely by their party affiliation. That philosophy has worked well in the Nebraska Legislature in the past, she said, and in other nonpartisan elected bodies.<\/p>\n

In nonpartisan systems, Blood said, people are free to seek collaboration and compromise and are encouraged to work together and find common ground rather than focusing on their own political agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cPartisanship is not better for democracy,\u201d she said. \u201cNonpartisanship is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also speaking in opposition was Lincoln Sen. George Dungan, who said nonpartisan elections encourage voters to do their research rather than simply voting for one party or the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should be encouraging more civic engagement,\u201d Dungan said.<\/p>\n

Raybould\u2019s recommit motion was defeated 15-28, and LB541 advanced to select file on a 29-16 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An attempt to move public power and irrigation district elections to a partisan format was narrowed and advanced from general file Jan. 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35129,"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":[11],"tags":[176],"class_list":["post-35137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-john-lowe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/LB541Lowe1-26-24c.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35137","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=35137"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35146,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35137\/revisions\/35146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}