Ousted senators consider comeback

LINCOLN -- Another state senator, removed from office due to term limits in 2006, said Wednesday she might being a candidate for her old seat in 2010.

Former State Sen. Pam Redfield, a Republican who represented the Ralston and Millard areas for eight years, said that she's "always open" to serve and has been encouraged to seek her old seat.

"I can't say I've made the decision," added Redfield, who would be matched against a prominent Democrat in the Legislature, State Sen. Steve Lathrop.

Redfield's comments came a day after former State Sen. Tom Baker of Trenton said he's giving serious consideration to seeking his old seat.

If they run, the two would be the first term-limited senators to attempt to reclaim their seats since voters approved term limits for state senators in 2000.

Senators are ineligible to serve in the Legislature for four years if they have served two, consecutive four-year terms. Since voter-imposed term limits went into effect in 2006, 36 of the 49 state senators have been removed from office.

Redfield, 60, recently took a job as executive director of Education Opportunity Nebraska, which she described as a think tank that studies educational issues. Its director and president is Pete Ricketts, a businessman who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2006.

Next year will be the first time that senators who were term-limited in 2006 can run again.

Baker, a 60-year-old Republican, in a telephone interview Tuesday said “many, many” of his former constituents have urged him to run.

“It's not an ego thing for me,” he said.

Baker added that he has been disappointed in the irrigation-related legislation pushed by his successor, Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial, a fellow Republican.

Christensen was the main sponsor of a bill that allowed a local property tax and occupation tax to be imposed to finance purchases of water rights to comply with a multistate compact on the Republican River.

Portions of the measure, Legislative Bill 701, were recently declared unconstitutional, and local natural resources districts are trying to figure out how to legally refund the property taxes paid by landowners.

Christensen on Tuesday defended LB 701. He also said he has been organizing a re-election campaign under the assumption that Baker will run.

“He evidently thinks I'm very beatable, but I'm ready for a challenge,” Christensen said.

Whether voters would elect a once-term-limited senator is “the million-dollar question,” said Jim Rogers, executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

“The voters spoke,” Rogers said. “It certainly creates an intriguing situation: What did the voters really want? Did they want new blood?”