Follow-Up On Nebraska

As I posted yesterday, supporters of permitless carry in Nebraska failed to get enough votes to invoke cloture on the filibuster of LB 773. The bill would have made Nebraska the 26th state with unrestricted or permitless carry. Gov. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) had said he would sign the bill.

While the Nebraska Legislature is officially non-partisan, the senators have political affiliations and are supported by the political parties when they run for office. The website Ballotpedia did the research and has the political affiliation of each senator.

As I noted yesterday, two more votes in favor of cloture were needed. I thought it would be interesting to look at who voted against the bill and, more importantly, those that voted “present – not voting”. This latter wanted to eat their cake and have it too. While they can say they didn’t vote against the bill, they still condemned it to defeat by not voting.

Voting Nay

1. Sen. Eliot Bostar (Dem – Dist 29)
2. Sen. John Cavanaugh (Dem – Dist 9)
3. Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh (Dem – Dist 6)
4. Sen. Jen Day (Dem – Dist 49)
5. Sen. Wendy DeBoer (Dem – Dist 10)
6. Sen. Matt Hansen (Dem – Dist 26)
7. Sen. Megan Hunt (Dem – Dist 8)
8. Sen. Steve Lathrop (Dem – Dist 12)
9. Sen. Adam Morfield (Dem – Dist 46)

These nine Democrats all represented districts in either Douglas County (Omaha) or Lancaster County (Lincoln).

Present – Not Voting

1. Sen. Carol Blood (Dem – Dist 3)
2. Sen. Suzanne Geist (Rep – Dist 25)
3. Sen. Robert Hilkemann (Rep – Dist 4)
4. Sen. John McCollister (Rep – Dist 20)
5. Sen. Mike McDonnell (Dem – Dist 5)
6. Sen. Lynne Walz (Dem – Dist 15)

If truth be told, I have more respect for those senators that voted against invoking cloture. At least, they had the courage of their convictions however misguided.