| 10 Defining Votes Of 2009 Session Continued...
Legislative Bill 35 came out of the Judiciary Committee as an omnibus bill containing a wide assortment of proposed changes to Nebraska's court system that were generally uncontroversial and had the support of committee members. Such bills are oftentimes referred to on the floor as "Christmas trees" - likely because you'll find a whole bunch of presents underneath for various state senators and constituencies to attract the widest possible support for the legislation.
Well, LB35 was a very well put together "Christmas tree" that had plenty of support from the body. On general file (the first round of debate), it advanced with 40 votes in favor and none opposed. Then, on select file (round #2), several amendments to the legislation and its funding all passed again without a single vote in opposition. No roll call vote was even taken.
Sounds like the bill should have been passed on a final vote pretty easily, doesn't it? Yet, somewhere along the way, Gov. Dave Heineman decided to take exception to a single provision in the bill that would create one new judgeship in the terribly overburdened Lancaster County district court. Heineman even let it be known through whatever back channels exist between his office and the Legislature that he intended to veto LB35 because of this added judge.
What was it about this proposal that drew Heineman's ire? Was it the cost? Was it the headache of going through ANOTHER judicial appointment? Was a powerful campaign contributor scared about losing his parking space at the Lancaster County courthouse? Senators weren't really sure. They just knew that there was something Heineman didn't like - enough so that he was threatening a veto.
Considering the support that had already been seen from the body for the whole LB35 package, the real question at this point should have been "who cares?" about Heineman's threat. Our state constitution lays out the legislative process and doesn't give Heineman any hand in crafting what the law says. If he doesn't like what comes across his desk, he has power to veto it. But, a 2/3rds 3/5ths majority of the Legislature (33 30 State Senators) can just as well override his veto.
Sadly, rather than protecting its constitutional prerogative and asserting itself in the face of Heineman throwing around his weight, our Legislature instead backed down and gave in to Heineman's threat.
This required a motion from none other than Judiciary Committee Chair Brad Ashford to place the bill back on select file, where it could be amended to remove the offending provision. In offering this motion, Ashford found himself working against the clear majority of his committee, justifying this action by claiming the rest of the legislation was too important to risk.
The obvious risk was that enough State Senators might back away from their previous support of LB35 if it came up for an override vote just to appease the governor. Nevermind that Ashford's motion proposed to save them from that dilemma by just pre-emptively giving in to Heineman's demands. The motion passed on a vote of 26 to 20.
Those voting in favor of Ashford's appeasement motion were Adams, Flood, Heidemann, Mello, Utter, Ashford, Friend, Howard, Nelson, Wightman, Avery, Gay, Janssen, Nordquist, Coash, Gloor, Langemeier, Pirsch, Cornett, Hadley, Lautenbaugh, Price, Fischer, Hansen, Louden, and Stuthman.
Meanwhile, those voting agaist Ashford's motion - daring to send the legislation they'd already voted on to Heineman's desk - were Campbell, Council, Giese, Lathrop, Schilz, Carlson, Dierks, Haar, McGill, Sullivan, Christensen, Dubas, Harms, Nantkes, Wallman, Cook, Fulton, Karpisek, Rogert, and White.
I can't help but notice that Lincoln State Senators Bill Avery and Colby Coash both voted against their own districts by showing deference to the Governor. Coash's vote stands out especially since he's a member of the Judiciary Committee and the provision for a new judge in Lancaster County originally came from one of his own bills. At the same time, Lincoln's arch conservative Tony Fulton and the more moderate Republican Kathy Campbell both voted against the motion. It's worth noting that Fulton was appointed to the Legislature by Heineman, but he refused in this instance to allow that to override the needs of his constituents.
The Lincoln Journal-Star quoted Sen. Mike Friend declaring, during the three hour debate over this motion, "I don't believe it is in the state's interest to play chicken." Considering that Friend went on to support deferring to the governor, you can bet he never admitted that Heineman was the one who'd started this game with his veto threat. And, the Legislature proceeded to flinch, losing without even putting up a fight.
Sen. Steve Lathrop proably said it best: "It's time this body grew up and established ourselves as an independent body." Having first failed that test on Ashford's motion, the Legislature at least regained some credibility with their eventual compromise delaying the new judgeship in Lancaster County by two years rather than striking it from the bill completely.
Thus amended - with some trouble in its crafting - the bill ended up passing on its FINAL final reading by a vote of 46 to 1. The sole vote in opposition came from Sen. Brenda Council, who'd previously and rightfully declared, "There's been no reason or rationale for this [potential] veto. We should not succumb to that kind of lack of reasoning."
Heineman's spokesperson, Jen Rae Hein, later claimed that the Governor's original objection had been "a funding issue." Evidently, pushing the $250,000 in spending two years down the road - after the 2010 election - was enough to silence that objection as Heineman signed LB 35 into law without delivering on his veto threat. |
