Voided check scandal is rare for Nebraska politics
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Lorelee Byrd, right, smiles in this 2001 file photo, the day she was appointed to the office of State Treasurer to replace Dave Heineman, left.
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LINCOLN, Nebraska (AP) -- It's not as heady as Watergate, Whitewater or a White House intern scandal, but squeaky clean Nebraska has a case of official skullduggery on its hands for the first time in nearly a generation.
No missing money. No sexual trysts, influence peddling or bribery.
Just a pile of checks that were written and kept in the state treasurer's vault for several months before being voided.
But in Nebraska, where folks pride themselves on being honest, hardworking, salt-of-the-earth types, it's a big deal.
"We are so conventional in this state -- imbued with the old-time rules," said Dick Herman, a retired editorial writer and longtime observer of Nebraska politics. "It isn't a question of virtue -- it's just the way we've been doing things for so long."
That is until Republican Treasurer Lorelee Byrd came along.
Byrd was accused of writing 12 checks totaling some $300,000 and stashing them in her safe before voiding them after the Legislative session ended.
She has denied allegations she wrote the checks to make it appear as if the money had been spent -- thus protecting her office from legislative budget cuts.
Byrd maintains she held the checks as a contingency plan in case the state's new accounting system failed and she needed money to process the state's child-support checks.
In a deal with the attorney general's office, Byrd agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor charge of official misconduct in office for writing one check: a $480 voucher to a cleaning service.
She will be sentenced December 23 and faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Byrd will then resign January 6 to avoid impeachment proceedings by the Legislature.
In recent years, what has qualified as a statewide political scandal in Nebraska likely would not have made ripples beyond the local level in most places.
Omaha City Councilman Chuck Sigerson and former Douglas County Election Commissioner Pat McPherson were accused earlier this year of groping a teenage girl who was wearing a mascot costume at a local restaurant. McPherson was acquitted. Sigerson's trial ended in a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a verdict.
In 2000, Lancaster County District Court Clerk Kelly Guenzel-Handlos was charged with misuse of public funds and official misconduct for using $118.76 in petty cash funds to buy pizza for employees who were working on a Saturday. She was acquitted.
In 1991, Frank Marsh was convicted of misdemeanor charges for making personal, long-distance telephone calls while serving as State Treasurer.
You have to go back to 1987 to find the last full-fledged political scandal, when Omaha Mayor Mike Boyle was recalled in a special election after being accused of misconduct in office.
Before that, Attorney General Paul Douglas was impeached by the Legislature in 1984 for his dealings with the head of a failed savings and loan.
Political analyst Dick Shugrue of Creighton University opined that Nebraska has been relatively free of public scandal simply because there are so few people here -- making it hard to get away with wrongdoing.
"People are sitting around ... watching every element of government, from the school boards all the way down the garbage inspectors," he said.
"Any temptation a person might have to engage in government corruption just isn't going to work here because you can't get away with it," he said. "They'll be talking about it at the local tavern by noon, and it will be all over town and at the PTA meeting at seven o'clock."
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