North Omaha race weighs best approach: combative or collaborative leadership

OMAHA — Next week, Nebraska primary election voters wade into a generational divide over leadership styles and which approach best represents North Omaha in the Legislature. 

Democratic State Sen. Terrell McKinney and nonpartisan former Sen. Ernie Chambers command attention from having represented Legislative District 11, one of Nebraska’s most diverse. 

But nonpartisan neighborhood advocate Calandra Cooper says she wants voters to see her as a third option beyond the incumbents of past and present — a chance to focus on the future.

McKinney pitches relationships

For the past four years, McKinney, 33, has prodded the state Parole Board and prison system, sought sentencing reform and helped steer federal pandemic relief funds to North and South Omaha. 

He is proud that he persuaded state senators from urban and rural districts to protect people with natural hair styles like braids and twists from discrimination at school and work.

He made it harder for K-12 schools to suspend young elementary school students acting out because the data he and others cited showed students of color had been disproportionately targeted.

McKinney also voted to help families without the financial means of attending private schools to access a new state voucher or scholarship program for private K-12 schools.

He says he pushes “policies that focus on bringing dollars back to the community and focusing on decreasing poverty and improving the lives of people in North Omaha.”

“Just building relationships and talking to people, no matter the side, just having the ability to have a conversation, I think that that does numbers for collateral things that need to get done in the Legislature,” McKinney said.

Chambers pitches fire and ice

Chambers, 86, spent his 46 years in the Legislature building more of a reputation for the bills he killed with filibusters, amendments and stalling tactics than for what he passed.

In 2015, he helped lawmakers briefly abolish the death penalty, arguing it was arbitrarily applied and cruel. In 2016, then-Gov. Pete Ricketts restored it using a ballot initiative. 

Chambers also once sued God.

He knows that people question his age headed into his “last ride.” But he said they also know he would have killed the state’s stricter abortion ban and its voucher program for private K-12 schools.

Chambers says he wants to teach a new generation the importance of asserting legislative independence. Part of that, he said, is letting voters get rid of legislative term limits. He argues that Nebraska voters passed term limits to get rid of him.

Veteran senators provide a “check and balance” on the executive and judicial branches, he said — they don’t get “bullied and buffaloed” by the governor, attorney general or courts.

“The Legislature in this state has become in this state like in so many others, monkey see, monkey do,” Chambers said. “Because of term limits, you have people in who don’t know very much about government, politics or anything else.”

Cooper pitches something in-between

Unlike McKinney and Chambers, who said they will not criticize one another, Cooper, 57, said North Omaha doesn’t have to pick between old-school resistance and new-school relationships.

The self-financed candidate, a pharmacy technician, business owner and nonprofit leader says she would focus more on improving incomes, public safety, youth activities and neighborhoods.

She said people are tired of feeling like “decisions are being made for them, not with them.” She said people want to feel like someone is acting for the community, not themselves.

She shared concerns about both her competitors, questioning the accountability and transparency of $400 million earmarked for North and South Omaha and what Chambers accomplished for his district.

She called Chambers self-serving and said McKinney is too heavily influenced by “associates.” She said McKinney talks too much about criminal justice reform and not enough about safety.

She said she would focus a lot of her work in Lincoln on skills training, helping people find the education they need beyond high school to secure better jobs and earn more.

“A lot of people just want to have a nicer place to live,” she said, adding she’s heard complaints about construction nails on the ground and wanting better sidewalks and parks and places for kids to play. “I’ll have to find ways to legislate for that.” 

Property tax proposals

All three candidates said they have heard a lot from district residents about property taxes — and a lot of ideas for potential fixes, from caps on valuation increases to spending more state funding on schools.

McKinney said he keeps pushing to expand the homestead exemption to cover areas that are home to concentrated poverty, especially for people on fixed incomes who earn too much for the current exemption.

Chambers said he wouldn’t discuss his ideas for property tax relief, “because a general doesn’t reveal his plans,” but he said he would fight sales tax increases to offset property taxes.

Cooper said she would work with other lawmakers to make sure people aren’t priced out of their homes, perhaps pushing to allow installment plans to counties for paying late property taxes.

Candidates talk jobs, housing

On jobs, all three stressed the importance of investing in K-12 education and training, with McKinney and Cooper emphasizing the importance of Metro Community College programs.

On housing, all three talked about the need for builders and lenders and groups building affordable housing to work with neighbors on what they can afford and afford to maintain.

Most political observers expect McKinney and Chambers to advance to the general election this November. Many will be watching the returns for clues about Chambers’ strength. He has nearly universal name ID statewide.

McKinney said he tells people to stay the course, that it’s not one thing but many things over time that fix a community that has suffered from decades of disinvestment and underinvestment.

Chambers said he would continue to fight for “the least, the last and the lost,” and that people know what he will be able to accomplish from his more than four decades on the job.

Cooper says people in her neighborhoods don’t have to accept conventional wisdom about the race and can make a different choice. They can think for themselves and act independently, she said.

“There is another choice,” she said.