LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska lawmakers on Wednesday began an investigation into a claim that the longest-serving state senator doesn’t live in the district he represents.
The Legislature’s executive board decided to form a seven-member committee to address the complaint from John Sciara, who challenged and lost to state Sen. Ernie Chambers in November.
Sciara alleges that Chambers lives in Bellevue, not north Omaha, the district Chambers represents. County records show that Chambers has owned a home in the district since 2006, and Chambers has insisted that he lives there, sending other senators utility bills and other documentation in November as proof.
Sciara, who lost by more than 6,000 votes, said he thinks he can still claim Chambers’ seat by proving that Chambers doesn’t live in the district. He was unfazed that voters strongly preferred Chambers to him, pointing to Wednesday’s resignation of state Sen. Bill Kintner over a tweet implying that some women’s march protesters were too unattractive to sexually assault.
“I think Sen. Kintner had a pretty good popularity, too, and today the (Legislature) already broke the ice on removing someone,” Sciara said.
The executive board’s recommendations will go to the full Legislature for a vote. Chambers, who sits on the board, recused himself from the meeting.
Sens. Kate Bolz and Sue Crawford, Democrats who will serve on the committee, said they first needed to determine whether Sciara’s complaint was valid because he may have missed a deadline to file the challenge.
Sciara said he submitted his complaint and the $5,000 deposit to cover any costs within a 40-day window after the election. He said the Legislature also failed to respond to his complaint within the 15 days it was supposed to, and that if he did miss a deadline, he thinks that both parties doing so should result in offset penalties like in a football game.
Chambers served in the Legislature from 1971 to 2009, when term limits pushed him from office. He returned in 2013, after sitting out a term, and regularly exhorts his fellow lawmakers to read and follow the Legislature’s rules.
“Sen. Chambers keeps telling everyone on the floor to read the rules, and I did,” Sciara said.
Sciara said he has been planning to file a complaint since 2012, when he began hearing rumors Chambers lived in Bellevue and only maintained his north Omaha home for address purposes. He sat out during the 2012 election, when Chambers defeated one-term incumbent Brenda Council. Nebraska’s nonpartisan primary system, in which the top two candidates advance to the general election, would have made it impossible for Sciara to be in a position to file the challenge, he said.
Nebraska’s constitution says a senator must reside within the district for a year before an election. State law defines residence as a candidate’s permanent and principal home, and if a person leaves the residence, he or she must intend to return.
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