Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 1998)
1 SUIT! j NU with a vengeance Nebraska made up for two losses to Colorado last year with a three-game sweep of the I __Buffaloes on Wednesday night. PAGE 7 HE Hie movement movement The Omaha Modem Dance Collective, a group devoted to increasing Nebraska’s artistic visibility, will hold its annual concert this weekend. PAGE 9 ^ - VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF .52 Western By Brian Carlson . Stoffwriter Strong showings in Omaha and throughout western Nebraska propelled Mike Johanns to victory in the gover nor’s race Tuesday. Johanns, the Republican, won in 70 counties, while his opponent, Democrat Bill Hoppner, captured the remaining 23. , Johanns won in Douglas County with 68,601 votes to Hoppner’s 60,066. In Sarpy County, another populous county in the Omaha metropolitan area, - Johanns earned 17,368 votes, while Hoppner received 11,813. Johanns claimed victory in every county west of a line that runs from Keya Paha County in the north to Harlan County in the south and divides the state just east of center. Hoppner was victorious in Lancaster County despite the fact that Johanns has been mayor of the county seat, Lincoln, since 1991. It wasn’t enough, however, to overcome Johanns’ strong support in the majority of the state. Overall, Johanns won 55 percent of the vote to Hoppner’s 45 percent, based on Wednesday’s unofficial final results. John Hibbing, a political science professor at the University ofNebraska Lincoln, said the election results, espe cially the strong Republican showing in the third congressional district in the west, were typical of Nebraska electoral results. Hibbing said Hoppner’s call for lower property taxes and opposition to the market-based agricultural reforms ofthe 1996 Freedom to Farm Act appar ently failed to resonate with voters in west-central and western Nebraska. “I thought Hoppner might have been able to make more inroads,” he said. “I thought maybe property tax concerns would dovetail with Hoppner’s opposition to Freedom to Farm, but it doesn’t look that way.” Western Nebraska traditionally votes Republican, and Hoppner’s cam paign was unable to break this tendency, Hibbing said. Johanns won some decisive victo ries in western Nebraska counties, whi ning by 2-to-l margins in Scottsbluff, Cherry and Keith counties. Chris Peterson, Johanns’ press sec retary, said western Nebraskans related to Johanns’ conservative message. “I think western Nebraskans really want less government,” he said. “When it comes to day-to-day life, they just want government out of their way.” Please see ROUNDUP on 2 __Source: Nebraska secretary of State 1 JonFrank/DN ScottMcClurg/DN TAMMY KEAR HOLDS a protest sign near 10th and P streets as a one-way street supporter signs a petition that will be brought to the Lincoln City Council. About 10 protesters endured cold temperatures Wednesday afternoon for a second rally to garner support to return P Street to one-way. 1:1 -j r <1 By Dane Stickney Staff writer Despite cloudy skies and tempera tures in the upper 30s, supporters of a one-way P Street stood along the street in another protest Wednesday. t Demonstrators held signs that read .- “Quit .City, Our Street” and “Which way? One-way!” Other signs encouraged dri Jo honk for the change. protesters stood on P Street between 10th and 11th streets fortm hour. marking the second time in a month peo ple have shown their discontent with the two-way street. Their goal was to collect signatures and gain public support to return the street to one-way traffic. Before Wednesday’s demonstration, about 3,500 signatures had been collected. They hope to present more than 4,000 to the City Council at Monday’s public hearing on the P Street matter. Jim Wrenholt is the informal leader of the P Street petition drive, which includes about 100 people who are dedicated to making P Street a one-way street again. Wrenholt, a Lincoln businessman, said the Monday hearing at 1:30 p.m. is important because it is the first public hearing on the P Street situation. “It is a public hearing, so anyone can speak,” he said. “People need to be aware that this provides an opportunity for them to have a say on the situation.” After the hearing, the City Council will vote on the possibility of changing P Street back to a one-way street. Please see P STREET on 2 look for ways to boost turnout By Todd Anderson • Senior staff writer Following Nebraska’s lowest voter turnout for a general * election in 20 years, state leaders are-searching for reasons as • well as solutions to a national and local trend. Nebraska Secretary of State Scott Moore said final unoffi cial reports show 536,672 - 50.8 percent of registered voters - made their way to the polls Tuesday. The 1998 election year saw a record number of registered _a_r___ VUIWIO 1UI IIVUIOOIVO, at more than 1 million. That high number, Moore said, is a result of experimenting with Motor Voter legisla tion, which is designed to make reg istration easier by allowing Nebraskans to sign up while they apply for a driver’s license. For Nebraska, which traditionally has a higher voter turnout rate tnan me nation as a whole, Moore said that percentage is historically low because the number of registered voters is so great But die percentage and, more importantly, die total number of voters, were die lowest since 1978, he said. Chuck Sigerson, Nebraska Republican Party chairman, said voters have been turned off by negative campaigning in the past. But, he said, the voters who complained of mud-slinging campaigns have not made the decision to pay attention to recent clean-election campaigns. “Thpse are voices from the past who haven’t taken notice Please see TURNOUT on 2 u In this society that 's changed so much, we need to look at different ways to get people to vote.” Scott Moore Nebraska secretary of state I ■ I. ■ — I. ii