Don Walton: New governor, at least 15 new senators next year - Lincoln Journal Star
It's going to be a new ballgame at the State Capitol in 2023.
A new governor and at least 15 new state senators, perhaps as many 16, 17 or 18 depending on current contested bids for higher office.
That's a huge turnover, hovering at one-third of the 49-member Legislature, and it's coupled with changes in perhaps the two most powerful and influential leadership positions, namely Speaker of the Legislature and chairperson of the state budget-writing Appropriations Committee.
Eleven senators will be term-limited out of office; two decided to not seek reelection; Sen. Rich Pahls of Omaha died in April; and Speaker Mike Hilgers of Lincoln does not have a Democratic challenger in the general election contest for attorney general after winning the Republican nomination in May.
Three senators who will not be term-limited out of office at the end of the year are party nominees for higher office: Mike Flood of Norfolk, 1st District House seat; Tony Vargas of Omaha, 2nd District House seat; Carol Blood of Bellevue, governor.
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Flood is matched against a fellow senator, Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln, who will be term-limited out of office.
Bottom line: at least 15 new senators, perhaps more.
That means a gap in legislative experience along with an opening for new leadership on major issues, especially in appropriations with the departure of Sen. John Stinner of Gering and criminal justice with Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha deciding not to seek reelection.
Those are two huge losses.
Looking ahead: A new governor feeling his, or her, way in the first year and a new Legislature with a shift of leadership and an array of newcomers getting their feet on the ground.
Change at the Capitol is on its way.
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Kids are a lot more important than the 2nd Amendment.
And it's not even close.
But we can protect both of them.
Let's see what the U.S. Supreme Court says:
"Like most rights, the 2nd Amendment right is not unlimited.
"It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose."
There is established U.S. Supreme Court precedent supporting "the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons," the court's opinion says.
Note "dangerous and unusual weapons."
Who wrote those words?
That majority opinion was written by the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in June of 2008 in the judgment that struck down a DC law banning possession of handguns and it opened the door to the flood of hundreds of millions of guns that are held by Americans today.
Nearly 400 million of them in non-law enforcement hands in our country, an astonishing figure.
Justice Scalia, a conservative icon, clearly stated in his opinion that the Constitution permits responsible and reasonable gun control.
The AR-15 semi-automatic rifle reportedly used in the attack in the Texas classroom last week was the same weapon used at Sandy Hook in 2012 to kill schoolchildren who were 6 and 7 years old.
An estimated 20 million or more of those deadly guns, which were designed as weapons of war that essentially tear their victims apart, are in circulation in the country today.
Responsible members of the National Rifle Association -- and I think most members probably could fit into that description -- are the Americans who can best help us try to end this ongoing slaughter of school children by overruling the gun manufacturers and dealers who currently dominate the NRA and have their way with Congress in preventing any meaningful gun control today.
Those gunowners joined the National Rifle Association, not the National Assault Weapons Association.
NRA members have children and grandchildren, too.
Kids should not be placed in danger or traumatized by the simple act of going to school, which ought to be a joyful place.
And a safe place.
Isn't it far past time to protect them?
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Too early to know, but last week's election results may have marked the beginning of the political decline of Donald Trump.
That might even have started in Nebraska with results of the Republican gubernatorial primary race earlier this month, but the big blows were struck in Georgia with overwhelming numbers last week that rejected Trump's choices for governor and secretary of state.
If Trump is in decline, and it's still a big if at this point, there's going to be room for everybody in the 2024 GOP presidential race.
Republicans have been there, done that before -- in 2016 when 17 GOP candidates participated in the earliest presidential debates.
If the field is that big at the beginning in 2024, there would be room for Sen. Ben Sasse and/or Gov. Pete Ricketts on the debate stage if they chose to take a shot at it or at least decided to raise their national profile.
Sasse already appears on a number of speculative Republican presidential lists.
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A couple of the reactions from foreign friends who do not understand why we continue to allow the gun slaughter, especially in our schools, to go on and on and on:
* "Only in the U.S. do children who only just learned to ride a bike have to practice hiding under school desks in case a bad man with a gun comes," wrote a Danish public radio correspondent who works in the United States.
* "America is killing itself," Le Monde, the French daily newspaper, declared.
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Finishing up:
* Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy will hold a fund-raising event for Rep. Adrian Smith in Beatrice on Thursday evening in advance of Friday's fund-raiser in Lincoln for 1st District GOP congressional nominee Mike Flood. Smith will be competing for chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee if Republicans gain control of the House in November.
* Gov. Pete Ricketts, talking to students at the University of Chicago about the need to take risks while suggesting that failures can be "the springboard" to the next success: "If you can't tell me about a failure, you're not trying hard enough."
Reach the writer at 402-473-7248 or dwalton@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LJSdon
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