LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Mention televised legislative debates, and what may come to mind are stuffy, policy-wonk discussions broadcast by C-SPAN. This year’s Nebraska Legislature was more like a reality TV show, with culture-war rhetoric, open hostility among lawmakers, name-calling, yelling and more.
Many Nebraskans couldn’t get enough of it.
“It was addictive,” said Jamie Bonkiewicz, 41, of Omaha. “If I wasn’t there, I was streaming it every day, just to hear what would come out of those senators’ mouths.”
Watching on television, streaming on computers and phones, following along in their cars, Nebraskans seemed captivated by what was easily one of the body’s most acrimonious sessions on record.
“Watching the Nebraska Legislature is like watching the worst train wreck that won’t end and the hits just keep coming,” Megan Moslander of Omaha tweeted when lawmakers triggered a constitutional challenge by combining restrictions on abortion and trangender health care into a single bill.
Many viewers tuned in as national media attention focused on a filibuster by Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh. They stayed for the surrounding turmoil.
Cavanaugh, 44, and a handful of other progressive lawmakers vowed to block every bill — even ones they supported — in an attempt to derail a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Conservative lawmakers dug in on other hot-button bills to restrict abortions, loosen gun laws and divert public money to private school scholarships.
So much for Nebraska nice: Again and again during the 90-day session, lawmakers called each other “trash” and “garbage,” accused each other of unethical behavior and angrily swore retribution for various offenses. Cavanaugh amplified the protesters’ chants and accused fellow lawmakers of pursuing genocide against trans kids.
There were silly moments, too: To hold the floor, she offered a recipe for pesto and deliberated over her favorite Girl Scout cookies and Omaha’s best doughnuts.
Art and Carolyn Wagner, retirees in Pleasant Dale, tuned in constantly.
“When we heard about the filibuster, that’s when we started watching it on TV,” he said. “We had it on almost every day, probably for four to six hours a day. Some days, we watched it all day until the end — 10 hours or more.”
As with most state legislatures, Nebraska’s floor debate can been viewed live on public television or streamed online. But unlike most others, it doesn’t make an archive available. A group following the Legislature began posting debates to its YouTube channel, but it hasn’t been widely publicized and the footage can take more than a day to appear.
That wasn’t soon enough for many who wanted to catch what would happen next.
Bonkiewicz had little interest in the legislative process until she discovered last year that a family member had founded the far-right Nebraskans for Founders’ Values group. She vowed to become more involved in confronting what she sees as growing extremism and, when she wasn’t protesting or meeting with lawmakers, she streamed the action live.
“It was chaos. It was like reality TV,” she said.
