State Sen. Jane Raybould sings in opposition to Nebraska legislative committee assignments

LINCOLN — A lawmaker booted from a legislative committee she served on the past two years turned her disapproval Friday into a serenade of Rod Stewart’s “Reason to Believe,” saying it wouldn’t deter her commitment to Nebraskans.

“If I listened long enough to you, I’d find a way to believe that it’s not true,” State Sen. Jane Raybould sang, quoting the song on Stewart’s 80th birthday. “Knowing that you lied, straight-faced while I cried, still I look to find a reason to believe.”

Raybould was one of two Lincoln Democrats who lost seats on the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. They were swapped with Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee. Conservatives, who enacted the changes, will have a one-vote majority on both committees for the next two years.

Because the Legislature is officially nonpartisan, committee assignments, as well as other parts of how the Legislature functions, aren’t assigned or negotiated by party leaders. 

But with a 33-15 advantage between Republicans and Democrats, with one progressive independent who often joins with the Democrats, conservatives have started to assert themselves more this year.

‘Political machinations’

Raybould criticized “political machinations and party politics” for why she lost her committee seat around the lyrics that she said she rehearsed ahead of time.

State Sen. Danielle Conrad was the other lawmaker to lose her seat, now serving in her 11th year.

Conrad voted for the final committee assignments but said her colleagues didn’t acknowledge her seniority, as the longest current serving member, or her expertise. She said senators’ “petty political squabbles” — some said all legislative committees should mirror the state’s political demographics, which favor Republicans — are “simply not found in our Constitution, our statutes or our precedent.”

“Your actions and motives speak for themselves and say very little about the work that I and others have done in this body and will continue to do,” Conrad said.

Senators voted 44-2 on Friday to adopt the final report of the committee placements, which included only one change from Thursday: swapping two Republicans on the Government and Natural Resources Committees: State Sens. Bob Andersen of Omaha and Stan Clouse of Kearney.

Raybould and State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, who also voted against advancing the report Thursday, opposed the adoption.

The swap for Andersen was sought by State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, chair of the Government Committee, because he’s a 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran with government experience, including as a defense contractor.

Attempt to preserve at least one spot

Earlier in the week, there was an effort that could have kept Conrad on the committee, while making it split evenly between the left and right, 4-4, rather than leaning 5-3 left.

A motion to advance the slate of assignments with a 4-4 Government Committee failed Wednesday, with seven Republicans opposing the plan and Sanders, whose end goal was getting Andersen’s experience on her team, joining four Democrats and one progressive nonpartisan in supporting the change.

“I never wanted her [Conrad] to leave,” Sanders told the Nebraska Examiner.

The committee in charge of committee assignments returned and advanced by a 12-1 vote Thursday a different, more conservative-leaning slate of committee assignments.

State Sen. Christy Armendariz of Omaha, who chairs the 13-member Committee on Committees, said there was another attempt to put Conrad back on the Government Committee in the 24 hours between the preliminary committee report and final report adopted by lawmakers.

The move would have switched Conrad with freshman State Sen. Dunixi Guereca of Omaha, a Democrat, keeping the 5-3 GOP-lean Republicans desired.

“I just wanted to make it clear that we did try as hard as we could to switch back Conrad to the Government Committee,” Armendariz said, explaining multiple senators approached Conrad.

Conrad told the Examiner she received texts and other inquiries but responded, “I’m fine, nobody needs to worry about me.” She said she’s excited to jump into her new committee.

“I just didn’t think that we needed to prolong the process in any way, and it was unclear to me whether any of those inquiries were serious or not,” Conrad said.

Omaha State Sens. John Cavanaugh and John Fredrickson, both members of the Committee on Committees, said they could have accepted the Conrad-Guereca swap if both agreed. 

Fredrickson said he got the indication that neither Conrad nor Guereca was particularly for it.

The ‘common good’ of Nebraskans

State Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte said he appreciated Conrad and Raybould for taking a “big view” and being prepared to move forward. He said lawmakers can rest assured that Conrad will get her input on every bill anyway and remain focused on her service.

“We could all dissect and rehash all of the discussions that went on the Committee on Committees, but it wouldn’t serve any productive purpose,” Jacobson said.

“We have a lot of work to do this session, and I’m really hopeful that with the large sophomore class and now the large freshman class, we can set a tone in this Legislature that we will work together for the common good of the taxpayers and the residents of this state,” he continued. “That’s what they deserve, and that’s what we owe them.”