Thursday
November 9,2000
Volume 100
Issue 57
dailyneb.com
Since 1901
petaluma: more
unanswered questions and
looking for the truth /a
In Opinion/4 i
r
Folk god Cordon UghtfooT
brings a 70s tool to the
Lied Center tonight j
In Arts/8 1
' -SiV’ I
Jeremy Scletcha and a j
cast of defenders look to 1
slow KSU’s newfound I
ground attack f
In Sports/12 H
Nelson eecks
out victory
New senator pledges to keep vows
BY BRIAN CARLSON
Sen.-elect Ben Nelson made a
victory tour around Nebraska on
Wednesday, repeating his cam
paign pledge to forego partisan
ship for partnership in
Washington.
He said that vow won him the
race.
“Nebraskans believe that if we
want Washington to be less parti
san, we have to send less partisan
people to Washington,” he said.
Nelson, a Democrat who
served as governor from 1991-99,
will succeed retiring Democratic
Sen. Bob Kerrey. Nelson claimed
victory early Wednesday morning
at a gathering with supporters in
Omaha.
His opponent, Republican
Attorney General Don Stenberg,
did not concede the race Tuesday
night, saying the results were
close enough that he wanted to
wait
On Wednesday morning at
about 10 a.m., he called Nelson to
concede. Nelson said Stenberg
was “very gracious” in his call,
congratulating Nelson and wish
ing him well
In the final tally, Nelson got
329,914 votes (51 percent) to
Stenberg’s 317,863 votes (49 per
cent). Stenberg won 68 of the
state's 93 counties, many of them
in Western Nebraska, but Nelson
prevailed with strong showings in
more populous counties.
Nelson won Lancaster County
by more than 21,000 votes and
Douglas County by more than
17,000.
At a press conference
Wednesday afternoon at the
Lincoln Airport Authority, Lincoln
Please see NELSON on 5
Stenberg loses counties in east
BY JOSH FUNK
Fourteen hours after the polls
closed, Republican Don
Stenberg called to congratulate
Democrat Ben Nelson on a nar
row victory in securing
Nebraska’s open U.S. Senate seat
After a harrowing night
watching the returns, Stenberg
acknowledged that his come
from-behind campaign fell just
short of victory.
"We ran a very strong race,”
Stenberg said. "We started 30
points behind (last spring), and
we came up just short of being
successful last night”
After Stenberg came within 1
percent of Nelson on Tuesday
night, the Republican refused to
concede anything until all the
votes could be counted.
By Wednesday morning, it
was clear that Nelson had beaten
Stenberg by only 12,000 votes -
51 percent to 49 percent - in a
race that only a week before
Nelson had led by 12 percentage
points in an opinion poll.
Stenberg said he was hon
ored to have won 68 of the state's
93 counties, but he accepted the
decision of Nebraskans.
As Stenberg gave his conces
sion speech in his Lincoln cam
paign office, the Republican’s
staff stood teary-eyed in the
background, consoling each
other with hugs after an exhaust
ing race.
Nebraska Republican Party
Chairman Chuck Sigerson com
mended the way Stenberg closed
the gap in what he called an
“uphill battle against a de facto
incumbent"
“My feeling is that we ran one
Please see STENBERG on 5
Steven Bender/DN
ABOVE: Senator
elect Ben Nelson
held a victory
conference
Wednesday at
the Lincoln
Muniapal
Airport Nelson
defeated
Republican can
didate Don
Stenberg in
Tuesday^ elec
tion. At the con
ference, Lincoln
mayor Don
Wesely present
ed Nelson witha
keytothedty.
LEFT: Nebraska
Republican
Senate candi
date Don
Stenberg, with
hb wife Sue, con
ceded the race to
Ben Nelson
Wednesday at
Stenberg's cam
paign office in
Lincoln.
Steven Bender/DN
“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine it
would be this close.”
Jeb Bush
Florida governor
Focus is on Florida recount
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida officials began
recounting nearly 6 million ballots Wednesday to deter
mine the next president, while Democrats and some vot
ers complained of irregularities in the election.
The recount in all 67 counties was triggered by state
law because Republican George W. Bush led Democrat A1
Gore by less than one-half of 1 percent State officials said
they wfll count every ballot over again, and expected to be
finished by the end of the day today.
Florida elections supervisors also waited for an unde
termined number of overseas ballots, primarily from mil
itary personnel and their families.
The state allows 10 days after the election for the bal
lots to come in.
The Florida totals, including all absentee ballots
received so far, showed Bush with 2,909,135 votes and
Gore with 2,907,351—a difference of 1,784 in a state with
8.75 million registered voters.
After 28 of Florida’s 67 counties were recounted
Wednesday, Gore had gained 351 votes.
Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, will
have to redo its count because a poll worker inadvertently
failed to run an unknown number of ballots through its
computer Wednesday, county Supervisor of Elections
Deborah Clark said. The county retracted its original
announcement that Gore had gained 404 votes and Bush
dropped by 61 votes in its recount
The scrutiny was intense because Florida, with its 25
electoral votes, will decide the winner of the presidential
cliffhanger. In an added twist, the state’s governor, Jeb
Bush, is die younger brother of the Republican nominee.
“We thought it would be close. Never in my wildest
dreams did I ever imagine it would be this close,” Jeb Bush
Please see FLORIDA on 5
Trying to get a handle on the Sunshine State
With its 25 electoral votes, Florida is the key to the next presidency. The state’s
dramatic race — the most closely watched election night, has triggered a
recount after both candidates finished with 49 percent of the vote.
c4®
8:02 p.m. 4% 5:22 a.m.
_* - *> e
^■hk
Precincts Precincts
reporting: «* reporting:
285 ■*"* 5,884
out of out of
5,884 5,884
Gore 185,435 49% Bush 2,909,199 49%
Bush 181,379 48% Gore 2,907,544 49%
Getting tighter through the night
3,000,000
804 pm. 9:59 pm. 12:12 a.m. 2:08 am 3:13 am. 5:06 am.
Leader Gore Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush
Amount 4,056 138,593 135,325 56,486 1,680 1,888
i___
AP
Judge says he's fit for
death-penalty panel
BY JOSH FUNK
One of three judges appointed to
resentence convicted murderer Randy
Reeves rejected the prosecution’s motion
that he was unfit to decide the death
penalty case.
In an order that was written before
Wednesday’s hearing, Lincoln County
District Judge Donald Rowlands said he
would disregard his personal beliefs and
apply the law fairly.
Rowlands said that as a practicing
Catholic he “held the personal belief that
the death penalty is inherently immoral.”
Reeves, 44, was convicted of two
counts of felony murder for the 1980
stabbings of Janet Mesner and Vicki
Lamm at the Quaker meeting house in
Lincoln.
In January, the state Supreme Court
ruled that Reeves’ case should have been
sent back to district court for re-sentenc
ing when errors were found in 1991.
Instead, the Nebraska Supreme Court
re-sentenced Reeves to death.
That action effectively eliminated an
appeal because every death sentence
handed down by Nebraska’s courts is
automatically reviewed by the state High
Court, and the court could not review its
own re - sentencing. Rowlands heard testi
mony from one of his Lincoln County col
leagues, County Judge and former prose
cutor Kent Turnbull, about philosophical
conversations the two had about the
death penalty over the last decade
7 know Judge Rowlands, and
I think he will do what is
right.”
Kent Turnbull
Lincoln County judge
Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey
submitted an affidavit from Turnbull to
support his motion in September, but
Lacey had to subpoena TUmbull to testify
this week’That’s the only reason I’m testi
fying,” Turnbull said of the
subpoena.During Turnbull’s tenure as
Lincoln County Attorney from 1989 to
1999, he and Rowlands had several con
versations about the death penalty
Turnbull said their conversations
were general, but also based on then-cur
rent murder cases.
Turnbull said he often argued in favor
of the death penalty while Rowlands
argued against it, but that did not affect
either man’s ability to apply the law.
“I know Judge Rowlands, and I think
he will do what is right,” TXimbull said.
Reeves’ lead attorney, Paula
Hutchinson, told Rowlands that if he had
spoken out against the death penalty, he
would be in good company with several
federal judges who have criticized the
laws they must enforce.
Please see JUDGE on 3