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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1986)
Fair and Sunny today with a high of 88. The extended forecast calls for more sun, with daytime highs reaching the 90s on Saturday. June 13, 1986 Women's coach Beck looks for dedication Sports, page 6 Student directors film psychodrama Arts and Entertainment, page 7 X n Daily ! p ) j pin HsJ ! 1 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 85 No. 156 3 UO (fid Ti "T! O j O j j O j O 11 O iuohl files complaint against petition drive By Colleen Kenney and Dan Costello Staff Reporters The Nebraska Farmers Union is fil ing a complaint against a group called the Citizens to Restore the Constitution, alleging that the group pays petition ers, including L'NL students, to collect signatures for the repeal of Initiative 300. Initiative 300 prohibits non-family corporations from operat ing on Nebraska farm and ranch land. Nebraska law states that petitioners cannot be paid a salary f r their efforts; however, petitioners are eligible for up to $50 a day plus 20.5 cents per mile for travel, meals and lodging. David Kunz, a Lincoln businessman and paid-coordinator organizer of the repeal drive, said that although no receipts were being k- ji by the peti tioners, all are being paid for only leimbursements. "There's a definite difference between reimbursed expenses and being paid per diem," Kunz said. He declined comment on the criteria used to determine reimbursements. Other petition drives in Nebraska have paid volunteers for their expenses, Kunz said. "There isn't anything unique to this drive," he said. Marty Strange, co-director of the Center for Rural Affairs, said that when the initiative was added in 1982, about 1,700 volunteers for The Friends of the Constitution, a group that backed Initiative 300, were used but no one was paid for expenses. A former UNL student who asked not to be identified said she attended an orientation session for petitioners at" the Hilton Thursday morning. She said that an official at the session told the petitioners that how they calculated their expenses was their "own busi ness." There were about 50 people attending the meeting, she said. "They were really trying to throw a Actor finds audition similar to police line-up Analysis by Craig Anton Staff Reporter Working as a waiter in hopes of someday becoming a well-known actor has its pitfalls: The endless and defeat ing auditions, the increasing costs for resumes and 8 x 10s, not to mention all the facial surgery. Is it worth all the pain? The call came on my answering machine: "Craig, this is Robert, your agent. The Jackie Beavers Agency is casting a major beer commercial Tues day and Wednesday. Get over there and make me rich. Remember to be bold and to make an impression. Take a twelve pack to the audition. Also, Hal in New York says that he's still inter ested in you. He said he has an opening for you, something like a cold day in hell." With bold in mind, I put on my "fish shirt" from the Starvation Army, ate a bowl of Fruit Loops and headed out for the big audition. Arriving at 1:30 p.m., I sat in the car for a few minutes and waited for the nausea to subside. The nervousness had begun. The Jackie Beavers Agency was filled with rugged men endowed with mus cles, tanned bodies, mustaches and tattoos. The men applying for this co nun ,'icial all met the requirements c.s sPT.'fied bv the agency. These men had i.n' look " "Tii Icon" was important to Anne Hamilton, casting director for HKM Production Co. from Los Angeles. "The blue-collar cowboy, hot off the ' farm or hot out of agricultural school, .vi.h an appearance of 25 to 27 years old, tli it's what Miller Beer is after," said lutti'iilu.n. The men waiting in the hallway all fit the description, and, if not, they aok!;! avi!vt '!"" looking Softball seam. Timi ; .. ; u s myself, a H foot 5 inches, 155-pounds of pure flesh and bones. I would make a fine bat boy for that Softball team. After two hours of nervous yawning and burping, they finally called my name, along with two other guys, and we walked in the office. WTtat followed was similar to a police line-up. "Please look into the video camera, please state your name, phone number, age, turn profile left, profile right. OK, thank you," said Hamilton. Then the intense question-answer session began. "So what do you do, Craig?" asked the director. I thought to myself, "Could you make the questions a little more vague?" "Student." A brilliant one word answer. So far so good. "Have you ever worked on a farm?" she asked. "Sure, I farm a small acre of mari juana near Crete." She did not even crack a smile. She had heard it all. Within the two-day audition period, Hamilton had interviewed over 350 men. The two other actors and myself were then given farm caps and seated together on stools. Hamilton gave us further instructions, "OK guys, it's been a long day of farming, you're sit ting near the combine, go ahead and talk about your day." We were dumbfounded. I began talk ing about how that "tornado was bigger than of Thompson's barn. . ." OK, thank you, gentlemen," said Hamilton, whose lunch hadjust arrived from Pontillo's. Disillusioned and deflated back in the crowded hallway, someone recog nized me and said. "Craig, how'd it go?" "Hc-.v'd it go? Oh fine, it went fine. I think it's in the bag," I said with sar casm, holding back tears of humiliation. Anne Hamilton will audition in Kim hall and Ogallala later this month and eventually the ad will be shot in Scottsbluff or Montana. The commer cial and the new product from Miller Beer will come out sometime this fall. For now the audition is over and my life returns to normal. I now wait impa tiently for the congratulatory message on my answering machine and a cold day in hell. pitch," she said. She later called Kunz and explained that she could only work at nights. Kunz told her she could only make up to $20, she said. "However, he was careful, too, in say ing it was only for expenses," she said. In a press conference Thursday morning, Larry Hall, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said the union is "pushing this all the way to the attorney general for prosecution." Strange said the reimbursed expenses should be documented. "You can make any expense a reim bursement, but that doesn't make it one," Strange said. "It's pretty clear that people who are going there are looking for a job." A petitioner outside the Nebraska Union told a reporter Wednesday she was recruited to collect signatures through a temporary employment agency in Lincoln. She refused to give her name or answer questions, as did all other petitioners contacted by the Daily Nebraskan. Initiative 300 was added to the Nebraska constitution by a 1983 vote. Backers of the repeal drive need 55,000 valid signatures from registered Neb raska voters by July 3 for the issue to be put on the November ballot. "Nobody is voting for anything right now," Kunz said. "We're just getting people to sign the petition." He declined to say how many signatures have been collected. About 25 petitioners are out at one time during the day working two shifts, collecting signatures in downtown Lincoln and on campus, Kunz said. Petitioners are also collecting signa tures from door-to-door, Kunz said. While all of the petitioners declined to comment, students and citizens around the canvassed area did com ment. All these who were questioned by a Daily Nebraskan reporter said they did not know petitioners were paid up to 50 dollars a day. Many said they thought the petitioners were strictly volunteers, and received no compen sation. Alvera Bade, a UNL graduate student from Beatrice, said that the reimbur sement volunteers rc-er made no dif ference to her whether she would sign the petition or not. She said the reimbursed petitioners would not pressure people to sign because they "don't have as strong of an opinion as someone who goes out without pay, but for the purpose of getting it on the ballot," Bade said. However, Marcy Hellinger, a UNL junior from Mitchell, said the petition ers should not be paid. "I very definitely think it would sway someone's opinion if the person did not know ahead of time whether the peti tioners were being reimbursed," she said. Debbie Kelly, a UNL staff employee from Lincoln, said knowing the peti tioners got reimbursements did not See INITIATIVE 300 on 3 .mm""- ! ;-A . - - - i ' r V i f f - t i , ! ! -, I - 1 Linda StoryDaily Nebraskan Jackie Beavers, Anne Hamilton, and Anton look for a "blue-collar cowboy. . . hot out of agricultural school." i'