Three
Major Issues
1. Appropriations
2. Prohibition
3. Procedures for Unicameral Appropriations – always a
major responsibility of any governing body
Prohibition Nebraska had passed a state constitutional
amendment requiring prohibition in 1917
Nationally, prohibition did not go into effect
until January 1919 when the 18th Amendment was ratified by a majority of
states
December
1933 – the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment.
It is the only amendment to be repealed
Now Nebraska had to vote on repealing their
constitutional amendment On the
ballot in November 1934 along with the Unicameral question
Nebraskans voted to repeal prohibition at the state level
35th Legislative session
now had to establish a liquor control commission
May 4 was proposed for closing the legislative session
but the three major issues still had to be faced –
appropriations
establish a liquor control commission
establish districts for election of members to the unicameral
Unicameral Apparently working out details for operating a
Unicameral Legislature went smoothly except for that one issue Early April 1935
– Redistricting had become the biggest issue in working out details for a
unicameral.
Senate proposed 35 districts, House proposed 50.
At this point 48 appeared to be the compromise number.
Then the Senate said 48, House still said 50
Mid-May 1935– Conference committee recommended
43-member unicameral A week later when the compromise came to a
vote – There was a tumultuous scene resulting in much shouting Finally
a recess was called and voting scheduled for the next day.
Next day – Compromise of a
43-member legislature was accepted in a calm vote (with Buffalo and Sherman
in district 34.) [What happened over night?]
Now all that is left is for the governor to sign the bill.
(1963 – Legislative districts were increased from 43 to 49) May 27, 1935 – Longest legislative session
to date adjourned at 1:24 a.m. Sunday, May 26. But that longest session ever held was not
long enough They
convened in a special session in late October to enact social security
legislation which would permit the state to participate in the federal
social security program.
It was the last session of the bicameral lawmaking
body.
Elections
would be held in 1936 to select the 43 Senators who would open the first
Unicameral session in January 1937
Selecting the first Unicameral Senator
from Buffalo County (reminder - In the House Ralph Soderstrom of
Shelton represented one half of Buffalo County and Gus Meline of Riverdale
represented the other half. Our state senator, who actually represented both
Buffalo & Sherman Counties, was Ivan Mattson of Kearney) Who
filed?
For the primary in late April 1936, any voter could file to run. The top two
vote getters would run in the general election in November Late September 1935 - State Senator Ivan
Mattson filed
Late December 1935 – House Representative Gus Meline filed Mid-February 1936 – A. C. Lund of Kearney and
Roy C. Johnson of Miller filed for legislature By April 1936 - John R. Long of Loup City was
the 5th candidate to file Primary results – one vote does count Apr 21, 1936 – Official Primary results
John Long of Loup City had the most votes Ivan
Mattson of Kearney was second Roy
Johnson of Miller was third by 4 votes Apr 24, 1936 – three more sealed votes from
Sherman county were all for Johnson leaving him one vote behind Mattson.
Johnson said he supposed he would have to ask for a recount
A recount ended with a tie
between Mattson and Roy Johnson of Miller
Settlement of the tie issue went to the state
canvassing board where a drawing declared Johnson the winner
General election
result
Roy Johnson of Miller was the winner Long had clearly had more votes than either
Mattson or Johnson in the primary But he
lost the election in November.
[Why? My guess is that Mattson and Johnson had
split the Buffalo County vote in the primary. With a larger population
in Buffalo County over Sherman County, the Buffalo County candidate won One more vote in the primary and that could have
been Mattson]