could be Buffalo's crossing the platte

 Research Papers


Today is:

                                 1935 Legislature & Election

1935 Legislative Session

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December 1933 – the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment.
        It is the only amendment to be repealed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]

 

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