The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, December 01, 1998, Page 3, Image 3
Hagel vies for GOP leadership Republicans to cast votes today on head of senatorial committee By Brian Carlson Staff writer In a secret ballot election today, Senate Republicans will decide whether Sen. Chuck Hagel should replace Sen. Mitch McConnell, R Ky., as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Hagel, Nebraska’s freshman sen ator, announced his candidacy for the chairmanship last week. In a letter to colleagues, Hagel said Republicans’ lackluster perfor mance in the 1998 elections showed the NRSC needs new leadership and new ideas. The GOP failed to increase its majority in the Senate, retaining 55 seats to the Democrats’ 45. Hagel said GOP Senate candi dates can be successful only if they run positive campaigns that focus on the issues. “Issueless campaigns don’t work,” Hagel said. “Our 1998 issue less campaign was a deliberate deci sion ... we had no agenda. “We can’t just run negative ads about the opposition. We must give (the American people) a reason to vote for our Republican candidates - not against Democrats.” Hagel, who has been in the Senate less than two years, acknowl edged his colleagues would naturally have questions about his experience. Hagel said, though, that fellow Senate Republicans would not be taking “a leap of faith” if they elected him. He has shown he can win elec tions, he said, citing come-from behind victories in the 1996 GOP Senate primary over Attorney General Don Stenberg and over Gov. Ben Nelson in the general election. Under his leadership, he said, the Nebraska Republican Party has cap tured each statewide office except that of Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey. Hagel also pledged to raise the level of discourse in U.S. politics. “Our most important responsibil ity may be to use our majority status to help clean up the political culture in America by ‘defining up’ the stan dards of debate, political discourse and campaigns,” he said. “I would like to help lead this challenge.” Hagel said his first priority would be to help re-elect the 19 incumbent GOP senators whose terms expire in 2000. He said he would represent those senators at leadership meetings to ensure their concerns are considered in policy making. Hagel also said the NRSC should « We can't just run negative ads about the opposition. We must give (the American people) a reason to vote for our Republican candidates — not against Democrats.” Chuck Hagel U.S. senator focus not simply on raising money, but on raising it efficiently and ensuring it is spent wisely. McConnell, a third-term senator, has led the National Republican Senatorial Committee since 1997. Mike Russell, an NRSC spokesman for McConnell, said McConnell had counted votes and was confident he would be re-elected today. “The bottom line is, he did a good job of raising money and distributing resources to make many races very competitive,” he said. The NRSC didn’t buy into pre dictions by some political analysts that the GOP could gain five seats to achieve a filibuster-proof majority of 60, Russell said. Down the stretch, he said, McConnell and the NRSC believed the election results would fall some where between no change in seat dis tribution to a GOP pickup of three seats. If not for narrow victories by Democratic candidates in states such as Nevada and Wisconsin, Russell said, the GOP could have achieved a net gain in seats. Russell also said McConnell was focused on re-election to the chair manship rather than changing elec tion strategy in the future. McConnell also has been criti cized for his opposition to efforts to ban “soft-money” contributions - donations that can be used by the party for issue advocacy ads, but not directly for candidates. Members of both parties recog nize the effectiveness of issue advo cacy ads, Russell said, and it would be a mistake to abandon them. “We’re pretty confident of our vote,” he said. “Hagel and McConnell have two different visions and two clearly different strategies, but I believe in the end the Republicans in the Senate will vote to re-elect Mitch McConnell.” LPD assigns additional officers to stop DWIs By Josh Funk Senior staff writer In response to the annual increase in drinking during the holidays, Lincoln Police have stationed extra officers in problem areas. The 10 additional officers will be patrolling areas with high concentra tions of alcohol sellers on weekends throughout the holiday season, Sgt. Dave Hamly said. Police made 23 drunken driving arrests last weekend, 16 on Friday and seven on Saturday. “This time frame is always a time of high alcohol consumption,” Hamly said! All the officers involved in the project have been trained to recog nize drivers who are impaired by drugs. That training has led to a pro jected 20 percent increase in the number of DWI arrests this year, Hamly said. A grant from the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety is covering the costs of the additional officers, who will help police address holiday drinking. The patrols will focus on different areas of the city each night. “We can saturate the city with the extra officers,” Hamly said. The holiday enforcement project will culminate with New Year’s Eve, which is second only to St. Patrick’s Day in alcohol offenses. Hamly encouraged people to use alternative drivers, designated drivers or taxi cabs when they are drinking. And it is important to designate a sober driver before starting to drink. Hamly also urged people not to drive if they have been drinking at all. “Don’t get behind the wheel if you have had anything to drink,” Hamly said. “There is always a dan ger you might be over the legal limit and may not be able to judge your own impairment.” New gun check causing hassles for shop owners GUNS from page 1 Ammo Sporting Goods, 5601 S. 56th St., said the store finally got its first background check to work at 3:30 p.m. “If the system is up and working, it will be OK,” Gagner said. “But I doubt it will affect crime. “There are plenty of places to get guns illegally.” Eighty percent of the new checks are supposed to be instantaneous, Peschong said. The other 20 percent of the time it may take a couple days to check paper records. If a gun shop does not hear back from the FBI within three days of inquiring, the sale will be cleared. “There were not many guns sold in this community today,” Peterson said. In Nebraska anyone wanting to buy a handgun must apply for a pur chase permit with their local police or sheriff’s office. Then police do a check of their background. Now police will also check with the national system. Federal law bans gun purchases by people convicted or under indict ment for felony charges, fugitives, the mentally ill, those with dishonor able military discharges, those who have renounced U.S. citizenship, illegal aliens, illegal drug users and those convicted of domestic vio lence misdemeanors or who are under domestic violence restraining orders. If buyers are approved they will get their permit in a couple of days, which they can take to a store to pur chase a handgun. That permit can now be used to purchase a long gun. Permits issued before Monday will be valid until their expiration date. An estimated 12.4 million firearms of all kinds are sold each year in the United States. All will be covered now, plus another 2.5 mil lion annual pawn shop transactions. Gun owners who pawn their guns and later retrieve them also will undergo a background check. The Associated Press con tributed to this report. Young sworn in as interim mayor From staff reports Immediately following the official resignation of Lincoln’s mayor, the City Council swore in Lincoln’s interim leader Monday evening. Seven-year city councilman and Lincoln banker Dale Young recited the oath of office to become mayor of Lincoln until citywide elections in May. Young will replace governor-elect Mike Johanns, who will move into the state office in January. Young, who had decided not to run for council re-election in May, will fin ish his city government career as mayor. He said he was selected by the City Council to avoid a political battle while choosing from several applicants. “I just thought it would be an inter esting way to finish it,” Young said. Ross Hecht, a Lincoln banker who has served on several local and state boards and committees, was sworn in to fill Young’s council post Monday evening. Both the City Council seat and mayoral seat will be open to new candi dates in May’s general election. Lincoln Sen. Don Wesely has already announced he will run for mayor, and councilwoman Cindy Johnson is expected to make an official run for mayor soon. Randall Reichert, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student and an employee for the Nebraska Education Telecommunications Commission, said he also plans to run. Commission OKs Peru State renovation PERU from page 1 ommendation. The only dissenting vote came from Commissioner John Emery of Omaha, who questioned the ability of Peru State and the surrounding com munity to make the effort necessary to help Peru State become a valuable and viable campus. Much of the talk at the meeting was on whether Peru State would commit to make the changes the col lege needs. No public testimony was given against the recommendation, but Carrol Krause, executive director of the State Colleges Board of Trustees, said his board now supported keep ing the college in Peru, saying it was best for the college and the region. “It is our intention to do every thing possible to make this work,” Krause said. Nancy Hoch, president of River Country Economic Development Corporation in Nebraska City, said the town also supported keeping the college in Peru. Nebraska City officials had origi nally supported moving Peru State within its city limits. Along with renovating existing facilities, the commission’s recom mendation requires the college to look at ways to improve student recruitment, retention and graduation rates. The college’s retention rate from freshman to sophomore year has been about 55 percent. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s « It is our intention to do everything possible to make this work Carrol Krause executive director of State Colleges Board of Trustees retention rate has been about 80 per cent. To improve Peru State’s statistics, Krause said, the state colleges board was asking the Peru State College Foundation to increase scholarship funds. Krause said the college also was looking at admissions standards, which could increase retention rates. Commissioner Eric Seacrest of North Platte said the survival of the college was dependent on the col lege’s improvements in those areas and the amount of money the Legislature would allocate to college renovations. If in the next four to six years the Legislature doesn’t allocate the need ed funds, the next option would be to shut down Peru State College, Seacrest said. Commissioner Dick Davis of Omaha was confident the college would survive. “I would like to give southeast Nebraska a chance to succeed more UNL to add film studies major to arts curriculum By Lindsay Young Senior staff writer GRAND ISLAND - University of Nebraska-Lincoln students interested in pursuing a film stud ies major will have their chance. The final step in establishing film studies as a bachelor’s in arts was taken Monday by the Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education at its meeting at Central Community College. The commission voted unani mously to accept the program pro posal for the major. In the proposal’s public hear ing, nobody spoke for or against the proposal. The degree, which was approved by the NU Board of Regents at its July 25 meeting, will start in the 1999 fall semester. The major will be an interdisci plinary undergraduate major with in the departments of English, art, art history, broadcasting, philoso phy, communication studies and theater arts and dance. It requires 30 hours of approved courses, with four courses serving as core classes. The core classes will cover introduction to film his tory, film genre, film directors and film theory and criticism. A minor in film studies has been and will remain available. One of the program’s strong points, according to a commission evaluation, was that no significant costs would be associated with beginning the program. The degree program will utilize existing cours es, faculty, library holdings, facili ties and equipment. Commissioner Barbara Marcy of Chadron said the commission’s academic committee saw no real flaws with UNL’s film studies pro gram proposal. “We think the program is wor thy of being started.” than anything else,” Davis said. “I truly believe they can do the right thing.” Commissioner Barbara Marcy of Chadron said for that to happen, all involved have to be committed. “I do not see us doing a service by -I——-----1 going into this halfheartedly,” she said. Krause agreed. “If we’re going to vote (for the recommendation), then there has to be no doubt Peru State will exist 100 years from now.”